Literary notes about Need (AI summary)
Across literary works, the word "need" serves as a flexible vehicle for expressing both tangible requirements and abstract longings. In some narratives it embodies an almost mystical quality, as when an artist describes a vision achievable only through dreams [1], while in other texts it highlights a more pragmatic or emotional necessity, such as the need for guidance or companionship [2, 3]. At times, its use underscores sufficiency or redundancy—a state where nothing more is required, as noted in dismissive statements of completion or minimal explanation [4, 5]. In philosophical or political texts, the term is deployed to discuss conditions essential for reason or societal order [6, 7]. Even in poetic or dramatic expressions, "need" can denote an inherent human vulnerability, illustrating how characters confront their inner or social deficits [8, 9]. This multifaceted deployment of "need" not only enriches the narrative texture but also mirrors the wide range of human experience captured in literature [10, 11].
- I could only paint her with closed eyes, for in dreams alone can such colours as I need be found.
— from The King in Yellow by Robert W. Chambers - " He was touched, as he had been the evening before when she spoke of her need of guidance.
— from The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton - In need of some brightening from without, was Mr Alfred Lammle, for he had the air of being dull enough within, and looked grievously discontented.
— from Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens - "It is my friend Professor Challenger," and amid laughter he renewed his lecture as if this was a final explanation and no more need be said.
— from The Lost World by Arthur Conan Doyle - “There is no need to excite yourself. . . .
— from Project Gutenberg Compilation of Short Stories by Chekhov by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov - It is only the changes which seem to him to need a reason.
— from Know the Truth: A Critique on the Hamiltonian Theory of Limitation by Jesse Henry Jones - H2 anchor All Lawes Need Interpretation All Laws, written, and unwritten, have need of Interpretation.
— from Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes - Shake, quoth the dovehouse: ’twas no need, I trow, To bid me trudge.
— from Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare - But he swiftly dismissed the kaleidoscope of memory, oppressed by the urgent need of the present.
— from Martin Eden by Jack London - (Showing the buffet): See, all you need.
— from Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmond Rostand - God is an hypothesis, and, as such, stands in need of proof: the onus probandi rests on the theist.
— from The Complete Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley — Volume 3 by Percy Bysshe Shelley