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Literary notes about feckless (AI summary)

The term “feckless” is deployed across literary works as a pointed descriptor for characters or groups who lack competence, initiative, or moral fiber. Writers use it not only to criticize ineptitude but also to inject humor or social commentary, whether remarking on a person’s cowardice and uselessness [1] or characterizing a figure’s whimsical or irresponsible behavior in regional dialect [2, 3]. In some texts the word underscores the shortcomings of management or personal conduct, as when an agriculturist disdains his own feckless administration [4], while in other passages it paints a portrait of lighthearted, absurd incompetence that serves to both entertain and provoke reflection [5, 6]. Thus, “feckless” functions as a multifaceted term that enriches character sketches and deepens the thematic layers of literary narratives.
  1. "Why, what a coward you are; what a feckless, useless creature!
    — from Sir Harry Hotspur of Humblethwaite by Anthony Trollope
  2. A poor feckless thing et darn't lait a sweetheart withoot its minny
    — from Tales and Legends of the English Lakes by Wilson Armistead
  3. Like her offspring she was meek and rather feckless, frequently arousing the wrath of Mr. Woolykneeze by her untidy and careless habits.
    — from Mr. Wycherly's Wards by L. Allen (Lizzie Allen) Harker
  4. “An agriculturist of that kind does not like to have to look upon the results of such feckless management as mine.
    — from Dead Souls by Nikolai Vasilevich Gogol
  5. "Was there ever anyone so feather-headed, so feckless? Can you forget that when your wife dies her fortune dies with her?" "No.
    — from Beyond These Voices by M. E. (Mary Elizabeth) Braddon
  6. “You take a pleasure to torment me,” said I, “and I 184 make a very feckless plaything; but let me ask you to be more merciful.
    — from The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition, Vol. 11 by Robert Louis Stevenson

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