Literary notes about unnecessary (AI summary)
Literary authors use the term “unnecessary” to dismiss actions, dialogue, or even entire lines of reasoning that seem superfluous, thereby sharpening their narrative focus and evoking irony or critique. It appears in works where excessive chatter or redundant risk is marked as something to be avoided or trimmed away, underscoring cultural and stylistic preferences for concision and purpose [1, 2, 3]. At other times, it emphasizes that a specific action or detail adds no genuine value—whether it be a trivial error in news reporting or an excessive ceremonial flourish in a detailed description [4, 5, 6]. In this way, “unnecessary” serves as a rhetorical device that both streamlines storytelling and invites readers to question the value of excess.
- How many unnecessary conversations there had been!
— from Project Gutenberg Compilation of Short Stories by Chekhov by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov - Take no unnecessary risks once the papers are in your hands.
— from The Secret Adversary by Agatha Christie - In order, however, to prevent unnecessary alarm, he still preserved an air of calmness and friendship.
— from The Last of the Mohicans; A narrative of 1757 by James Fenimore Cooper - It may be a trivial error, yet there is no false or mistaken news so trifling as to make a correction unnecessary.
— from The Ladies' Book of Etiquette, and Manual of Politeness by Florence Hartley - This cursed cracking of whips is not only unnecessary, but even useless.
— from The Essays of Arthur Schopenhauer; Studies in Pessimism by Arthur Schopenhauer - A most unnecessary piece of ceremonial preparation, one would say.
— from A Diplomat in Japan by Ernest Mason Satow
