Literary notes about already (AI summary)
In literature, the adverb “already” is frequently employed to mark that an event or state has been completed or is in progress even before the current moment of narration. It provides a temporal marker that allows authors to hint at a prior occurrence or condition, setting the stage for subsequent action or commentary. For example, Barrie uses it to suggest that Hooker’s brigade had “already given ground,” thereby implying a shift in momentum [1], while Dumas’s characters casually note events that “had already been” arranged or decided [2, 3]. In historical narratives, “already” situates actions within a timeline, as seen when Cooper’s foresters are described as “already returning” [4] or when Dewey portrays nature with buds “already swelling” [5]. This versatile usage reinforces the immediacy of past actions, subtly weaving a rich temporal texture into the narrative that deepens both the historical context and the reader’s understanding of the unfolding events.
- Hooker’s leading brigade, abandoning the edge of the wood, had already given ground.
— from Peter Pan by J. M. Barrie - “I have already told you that we do not sell at retail.”
— from The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas and Auguste Maquet - Milady had already rung her bell, and roused the whole hotel.
— from The three musketeers by Alexandre Dumas and Auguste Maquet - Before he had, however, proceeded a hundred yards, he met the three foresters already returning from their unsuccessful pursuit.
— from The Last of the Mohicans; A narrative of 1757 by James Fenimore Cooper - Here we are, one week after landing, on a hill in a beautiful garden of trees on which the buds are already swelling.
— from Letters from China and Japan by Harriet Alice Chipman Dewey and John Dewey
