- portalnounChapter 1 →
A doorway or gate, especially a large and imposing one. Here it refers to the heavy entrance of the prison building.
“On one side of the portal, and rooted almost at the threshold, was a wild rose-bush, covered, in this month of June, with its delicate gems.”
- UtopianounChapter 1 →
An imagined perfect society where everything is ideal. Hawthorne uses it to describe the impossible dream of a flawless community that early settlers believed they could build.
“whatever Utopia of human virtue and happiness they might originally project, have invariably recognized it among their earliest practical necessities”
- invariablyadverbChapter 1 →
Always, without exception, every single time. It signals that something happens consistently, no matter the circumstances.
“have invariably recognized it among their earliest practical necessities to allot a portion”
- allotverbChapter 1 →
To set aside or assign a specific portion of something for a particular purpose, as an official act of distribution.
“have invariably recognized it among their earliest practical necessities to allot a portion”
- fantasticadjectiveChapter 2 →
Elaborately decorative and imaginative in design, with intricate, fanciful patterns. It does not mean wonderful or great here.
“surrounded with an elaborate embroidery and fantastic flourishes of gold-thread, appeared the letter A.”
- flourishesnounChapter 2 →
Ornamental curves or decorative strokes added to needlework or writing, purely for visual effect and elegance.
“surrounded with an elaborate embroidery and fantastic flourishes of gold-thread, appeared the letter A.”
- spherenounChapter 2 →
A separate, enclosed world or zone of existence. Here it means Hester is cut off from normal human society as if surrounded by an invisible barrier.
“It had the effect of a spell, taking her out of the ordinary relations with humanity, and enclosing her in a sphere by herself.”
- pedestal of shamephraseChapter 3 →
The raised scaffold platform where a condemned person stands to be publicly humiliated before the community. Hawthorne uses it to mean the place of public disgrace.
“though he were to step down from a high place, and stand there beside thee, on thy pedestal of shame, yet better w…”
- enjoinverbChapter 4 →
To formally command or urge someone to do something, with a sense of serious obligation. It is stronger than simply asking.
“One thing, thou that wast my wife, I would enjoin upon thee… Thou wilt not reveal his name?”
- feignedverbChapter 4 →
Pretended or faked a feeling one does not actually have. Chillingworth says he never pretended to feel love for Hester.
“I felt no love, nor feigned any.”
- passportnounChapter 5 →
Something that gives a person access to places or experiences otherwise closed to them. Here it is used figuratively: the letter grants Hester entry into realms of suffering others cannot enter.
“The scarlet letter was her passport into regions where other women dared not tread.”
- individualitynounChapter 5 →
The qualities that make a person distinctly themselves, separate from others. Hester fears losing her unique identity by becoming only a public symbol of sin.
“In giving up all her individuality, she would become the general symbol at which the preacher and moralist might point a finger of scorn”
- amenableadjectiveChapter 6 →
Willing to comply with rules or authority; open to being guided or controlled. Pearl is described as the opposite — impossible to discipline.
“The child could not be made amenable to rules. In giving life to Pearl, Hester Prynne had cast off all her restraints.”
- ignominynounChapter 6 →
Public shame and disgrace, especially when imposed as a punishment. The scarlet letter is the physical mark of that humiliation.
“as if the red ignominy were so deeply scorched into her brain, that all her conceptions assumed its form”
- tissuesnounChapter 6 →
Rich, finely woven fabrics, often with gold or silver thread. The word refers to luxurious cloth, not the modern paper product.
“who had bought the richest tissues that could be procured, and allowe…”
- breastplatenounChapter 7 →
A large piece of polished armor covering the chest, which acts like a mirror. Hester sees her own distorted reflection in the Governor's decorative armor.
“In the mirror of the breastplate, Hester Prynne—could we so describe her—was reflected in exaggerated and gigantic proportions”
- retributionnounChapter 8 →
Punishment given in return for wrongdoing; a deserved penalty. Pearl is described as both a gift and a form of divine payback for Hester's sin.
“it was meant for a retribution too; a torture to be felt at many an unthought-of moment; a pang, a sting, an ever-r…”
- intimacynounChapter 9 →
A close, deep personal knowledge of another person, involving trust and private access. Here it is used to warn that a doctor gets dangerously close to a patient's hidden secrets.
“A man burdened with a secret should especially avoid the intimacy of his physician.”
- leechnounChapter 9 →
An old word for a physician or doctor, used in the seventeenth century. Hawthorne uses it as the chapter title and throughout to refer to Chillingworth in his role as medical practitioner.
- sextonnounChapter 10 →
A church official whose duties include digging graves and maintaining the churchyard. Hawthorne compares Chillingworth's probing of Dimmesdale's soul to a gravedigger searching a corpse.
“like a sexton digging up a grave, possibly in quest of a jewel that had been buried on the dead man's bosom”
- ecstasynounChapter 10 →
An overwhelming rush of intense feeling, here one of dark triumph rather than joy. Chillingworth's ecstasy is the sinister delight of a man who has discovered his enemy's secret.
“Had a man seen old Roger Chillingworth, at that moment of his ecstasy, he would have had no need to ask how Satan comports himself”
- comportsverbChapter 10 →
Behaves or conducts oneself in a particular manner. The sentence asks how the devil acts when he wins a human soul.
“no need to ask how Satan comports himself when a precious human soul is lost to heaven, and won into his kingdom.”
- remorsenounChapter 11 →
Deep, painful guilt over a past wrong one has committed. Dimmesdale is driven by remorse that pursues him constantly like a shadow.
“He had been driven hither by the impulse of that Remorse which dogged him everywhere, and whose own sister and closely linked companion was that Cowardice”
- hieroglyphicsnounChapter 12 →
Symbolic signs or pictures used as a form of writing. Here the word describes mysterious shapes seen in the sky, read as divine messages or omens.
“the destiny of nations should be revealed, in these awful hieroglyphics, on the cope of heaven.”
- copenounChapter 12 →
The vast arching vault of the sky, imagined as a great canopy spread overhead. It is an archaic poetic word for the dome of the heavens.
“the destiny of nations should be revealed, in these awful hieroglyphics, on the cope of heaven.”
- germnounChapter 13 →
The earliest seed or beginning of something, the tiny living source from which a feeling or idea can grow. Dimmesdale fears that the capacity for joy has been killed at its very root inside him.
“Do I feel joy again? I deemed the germ of it dead in me! O Hester, thou art my better angel!”
- fiendnounChapter 4 →
A devil or demon; a person of extreme wickedness. Both Hester and Chillingworth use the word to describe what he has become through his obsessive revenge.
“I have already told thee what I am! A fiend! Who made me so?”
The Scarlet LetterNovel by Nathaniel Hawthorne