The assertion is understood for every and for a topology in which sequentially closed sets are closed, in particular the norm topology of a Banach space. Suppose first that is sequentially lower semicontinuous and converges to . Thenso and the sublevel set is closed. Conversely, if all sublevel sets are closed but lower semicontinuity fails, there are and a real with a subsequence satisfying . Closedness of would put in that set, a contradiction. This proves the closed-sublevel-set characterization of lower semicontinuity.