May I say:
"Why does this happen?" despaired Ralph.
Or if not, do you have any suggestions as to a suitable replacement for the placid "asked". What I'm looking for is a mixture of despaired and entreated.
May I say:
"Why does this happen?" despaired Ralph.
Or if not, do you have any suggestions as to a suitable replacement for the placid "asked". What I'm looking for is a mixture of despaired and entreated.
I haven't seen despair used in such context anywhere.
As a verb, to despair means
to lose hope or to be without hope.
Words which usually fill in the following blank:
"Why does this happen?"____ Ralph.
are verbs which depict a verbal action by the subject. For instance, laughed, bawled, exclaimed, mumbled. All these verbs depict a verbal action and hence fit. Despair doesn't fit the bill, I don't think it can be used here without sounding very odd, if not incorrect.
Perhaps you can say:
"Why does this happen?" moaned Ralph. (or groaned, sighed, cried - these all depict despair).