The Scarlet Letter Vocabulary

Part 1

Congenial• Adjective• Pleasant or agreeable

“Before this ugly edifice…was a grass-plot, much overgrown with burdock…and such unsightly vegetation, which evidently found something congenial in the soil that had so early borne the black flower of civilized society, a prison” (46).

Inauspicious

• Adjective• Not prosperous;

unfavorable

The Prison is referred to as the “inauspicious portal” at the start of the novel (46).

Ignominy

• Noun• Public shame or

disgrace

“…her beauty shone out, and made a halo of misfortune and ignominy in which she was enveloped” (51).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bXkV7390EWo

Caprice• Noun• A sudden, impulsive

change; a whim

“As to any other kind of discipline, whether addressed to her mind or heart, little Pearl might or might not be within its reach, in accordance with the caprice that ruled her at the moment” (84).

Gilded

• Adjective• Covered thinly with a

layer of gold (gold leaf or gold paint)

“…we scatter gilded volumes on the center-table, to be turned over by the casual guest” (95).

Part 2

Odious

• Adjective• Causing hatred or

strong dislike“His gestures, his gait, his grizzled beard, his slightest and most indifferent acts, the very fashion of his garments, were odious in the clergyman’s sight…” (128).

Abstruse

• Adjective• Difficult to understand;

Obscure“There were scholars among them, who had spent more years in acquiring abstruse lore…” (128).

Celestial• Adjective• Of or relating to the sky or

heavens“It was his custom, too, as it has been that of many other pious Puritans, to fast,--not, however, like them, in order to purify the body and render it the fitter medium of celestial illumination…but as an act of penance” (132).

Impalpable

• Adjective• Unable to be felt by

touch“To the untrue man, the whole universe is false,--it is impalpable,--it shrinks to nothing within his grasp” (133).

Erudite

• Adjective• Learned or scholarly“…it was in a tongue unknown to the erudite clergyman, and did but increase the bewilderment of his mind” (142).

Part 3

Infamy

• Noun• Negative reputation

brought about by a bad action or deed

Chillingworth to Hester: “He bears no letter of infamy wrought into his garment, as thou dost…” (70).

Preternatural• Adjective• Beyond what is normal or

natural“His intellectual gifts, his moral perceptions, his powerful experiencing and communicating emotion, were kept in a state of preternatural activity by the prick and anguish of his daily life” (128).

Penance

• Noun• An act of repentance for

sinOn page 132 in chapter 11, Dimmesdale’s fasting is described as an act of penance rather than a means of coming to some sort of divine inspiration.

Scruple

• Noun• Ethical or moral

consideration that inhibits action or causes doubt

Of the outsiders attending the Election Day festivities: “They transgressed without fear or scruple…” (208).

Penitence

• Noun• Regret for sin“Here had been her sin; here, her sorrow; and here was yet to be her penitence” (234).