Literary notes about explanation (AI summary)
The term "explanation" in literature serves a variety of roles, ranging from a clarifying tool in philosophical or scientific discourse to a narrative device that underscores mystery or character introspection. In some works, it is deployed to bridge abstract theories with tangible conclusions, as seen when discussions about pleasure or geometry are fortified by clear rational accounts [1, 2]. At other times, authors purposely withhold explanation to heighten suspense or reveal deeper ambiguities in character behavior, thereby enriching the narrative's complexity [3, 4]. Furthermore, the word is often used to demand accountability or to justify actions, as demonstrated in passages where characters insist on receiving an explanation for unexpected occurrences or emotions [5, 6]. Thus, "explanation" functions both as an instrument for intellectual rigor and as a means of deepening the reader’s engagement with the unfolding drama.
- Some quite different explanation must therefore be sought for the varying degrees in which pleasure accompanies normal activities.
— from The Methods of Ethics by Henry Sidgwick - Thus it is only by means of our explanation that the possibility of geometry, as a synthetical science a priori, becomes comprehensible.
— from The Critique of Pure Reason by Immanuel Kant - I avoided explanation, and maintained a continual silence concerning the wretch I had created.
— from Frankenstein; Or, The Modern Prometheus by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley - Making no explanation, as though I, as a sort of higher being, must understand everything without explanations, she held out a piece of paper to me.
— from Notes from the Underground by Fyodor Dostoyevsky - I swear by all that is sacred, I fully believe in the explanation of the murder I have just put forward.
— from The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky - ‘No, I want you,’ said Rosalie; and calling her sister to the window, she whispered an explanation in her ear; upon which the latter consented to go.
— from Agnes Grey by Anne Brontë
