Literary notes about Especially (AI summary)
"Especially" functions as an intensifying adverb in literature, signaling to the reader that a particular element deserves extra attention or emphasis. Authors employ it to narrow general statements, highlighting a subset or detail that sharply defines the overall idea. For instance, it is used to accentuate qualities—such as the exceptional beauty of an attire ([1]) or the specific timing of a mood or circumstance ([2])—and to demarcate contrasts between individual and collective behaviors ([3]). Additionally, “especially” can serve to underline periods of historical or narrative significance, directing focus toward the most salient aspects of a description ([4], [5]), while also conveying nuance in personal reflections or ironic observations ([6], [7]).
- The Christening Dress The christening dress is always especially elaborate and beautiful.
— from Etiquette by Emily Post - It would be the saving of you, especially of your boy—and you ought to go quickly, before the winter, before the cold.
— from The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky - Schoolboys are a merciless race, individually they are angels, but together, especially in schools, they are often merciless.
— from The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky - They are so because, without the care of husband and children, they have time for all kinds of excellences, especially when they are inclined thereto.
— from Criminal Psychology: A Manual for Judges, Practitioners, and Students by Hans Gross - The queen and her minister, more especially the latter, had reason to feel anxious.
— from Twenty years after by Alexandre Dumas and Auguste Maquet - It is necessary also, especially to a true conception of the whole, to compare, to analyse, to dissect.
— from Shakespearean Tragedy: Lectures on Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, Macbeth by A. C. Bradley - But if his countenance was more sorrowful, his voice was more cheerful than that of his sister, especially when he addressed the old man.
— from Frankenstein; Or, The Modern Prometheus by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
