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Literary notes about Always (AI summary)

The word “always” in literature often functions to underscore habits, enduring truths, or consistent character traits. In many works, authors use it to emphasize the invariable nature of behavior or circumstances—as when a character's actions become a defining and recurrent part of their identity (e.g., the unchanging nature of interactions in [1] and the inevitable routines of life in [2]). Sometimes “always” carries an ironic tone, drawing attention to a contradiction between expectation and reality, as in the subtle twist of meaning in [3] and the reflective resignation expressed in [4]. In philosophical or didactic texts, it reinforces axioms and constant principles, from moral imperatives in [5] to logical assertions in [6]. Thus, whether highlighting character, reinforcing natural law, or satirizing routine, “always” is employed as a powerful device to mark the persistence and reliability of ideas or actions in literature.
  1. A certain man had several Sons who were always quarrelling with one another, and, try as he might, he could not get them to live together in harmony.
    — from Aesop's Fables; a new translation by Aesop
  2. The meetings were always held from that time till midnight.
    — from The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas and Auguste Maquet
  3. We live on the Pendleton Hill road, and she used to go by often—only she didn't always GO BY.
    — from Pollyanna by Eleanor H. Porter
  4. He had always been more sensitive than the people about him to the appeal of natural beauty.
    — from Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton
  5. We give thanks to God always for you all: making a remembrance of you in our prayers without ceasing, 1:3.
    — from The Bible, Douay-Rheims, Complete
  6. = a 2 - b 2 is always true whatever values may be assigned to a and b .
    — from The New Gresham Encyclopedia. A to Amide by Various

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