Literary notes about unreasonable (AI summary)
Throughout literature, "unreasonable" is deployed to underscore behavior or circumstances that defy pragmatic or moral expectations, often serving as a critique of actions or ideals that seem to exceed the bounds of common sense. In some works, it suggests a deviation from rationality that challenges readers to question societal, emotional, or philosophical norms, as seen when authors juxtapose sensible conduct with that which is wildly irrational or excessively sentimental [1, 2, 3]. At times it characterizes the stubbornness of individuals or the inherent folly in desperate hope, providing a lens through which both character flaws and systemic injustices are examined [4, 5, 6]. Whether conveying the caprice of human passion or marking the difference between justice and absurdity, the term is a versatile tool for writers seeking to highlight the tension between reason and its absence [7, 8, 9].
- Wipe off all opinion stay the force and violence of unreasonable XXII.
— from Meditations by Emperor of Rome Marcus Aurelius - I'll lay my life that he meant nothing farther; indeed, it would be very strange and unreasonable if he did.
— from Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen - Indeed, I felt the whole state of my mind in reference to her to be weak and unreasonable, and I remonstrated with myself about it as much as I could.
— from Bleak House by Charles Dickens - “And he is so unreasonable, the count himself I mean.
— from War and Peace by graf Leo Tolstoy - And he began explaining why he could not put up with his daughter’s unreasonable character.
— from War and Peace by graf Leo Tolstoy - Heaven knows I don’t mean to be unreasonable, aunt!’
— from David Copperfield by Charles Dickens - Moreover, the plea of selecting different metres in the hope of producing a similar effect is unreasonable, where the identical metres are possible.
— from Faust [part 1]. Translated Into English in the Original Metres by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe - He might be unreasonable, and so he had to make haste to get there and back.
— from The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky - It is not unreasonable to suppose that this addiction to the use of tobacco is in many cases inherited.
— from Pushing to the Front by Orison Swett Marden
