The Scarlet Letter (27-31)

Pichu Little: "A scarlet letter? That sounds pretty! Can we get one, brother?"
Pichu Big: "It's not something you should want, silly brother!"
Pichu Little: "Why is that?"
Pichu Big: "Well let's read the book and see."


27) magistrate

• Source 1: "'... On my life, Hester, I made my entreaty to the worshipful magistrates that it might be done forthwith!'" (Hawthorne 139).

• Definition: n. "an official entrusted with administration of the laws" (Merriam-Webster).

• Source 2: "As you go with your accuser before the magistrate, make an effort to settle with him on the way, lest he drag you to the judge ... and the officer put you to prison" (486).
• Kohlenberger, John R. The Evangelical Parallel New Testament: New King James Version, New International Version, Today's New International Version, New Living Translation, English Standard Version, Holman Christian Standard Bible, New Century Version, the Message. New York: Oxford UP, 2003. Google Books digital file.

• Commentary: The magistrate in the Puritan society in which the book is set lived had control of the Hester Prynne's punishment. The speaker in this quote speaks of pleading the official to permit Hester to remove her scarlet letter and thus forgiving her of her sins.

28) peradventure

• Source 1: "'... Peradventure, hadst thou met earlier with a better love than mine, this evil had not been ...'" (Hawthorne 143).

• Definition: adv. "archaic : perhaps, possibly"(Merriam-Webster).

• Source 2: "We have not tied ourselves to an uniformity of phrasing, or to an identity of words, as some peradventure would wish that we had done" (xiii).
• Kohlenberger, John R. The Evangelical Parallel New Testament: New King James Version, New International Version, Today's New International Version, New Living Translation, English Standard Version, Holman Christian Standard Bible, New Century Version, the Message. New York: Oxford UP, 2003. Google Books digital file.

• Commentary: Peradventure can function as an adverb in archaic texts where it is employed similarly to the word perhaps. Now it is more commonly deployed as a noun that refers to doubt.

29) dryad

• Source 1: "With these she decorated her hair, and her young maiden waist, and became a nymph-child, or an infant dryad, or whatever else was in closest sympathy with the antique wood" (Hawthorne 169).

• Definition: n. "wood nymph" (Merriam-Webster).

• Source 2: " One famous dryad was Eurydice, the beautiful but ill-fated wife of Orpheus. According to the tale, Eurydice was killed by a snake when she tried to escape from the unwelcome amorous advances of Aristaeus. The fact that a dryad such as Eurydice could die demonstrates the idea that these nymphs were not immortal."
• Erin. "Dryads and Hamadryads in Greek Mythology." Mythography RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Jan. 2013.

• Commentary: Dryads are typically beautiful mythical creatures of the woods that originated from Greek mythology and has since been a part of fantasy stories. By describing Pearl as a dryad, she is depicted as one whose actions and appearance are inhuman and mystical.

30) buckramed

• Source 1: "It was not so much a better principle, as partly his natural good taste, and still more his buckramed habit of clerical decorum, that carried him safely through the latter crisis" (Hawthorne 181).

• Definition: adj. "archaic : stiffness, rigidity" (Merriam-Webster).

• Source 2: " Of Epistle, when it was remarked, in the hearing of Thomas Warton, that it had more energy than could have been expected from Walpole, to whom others ascribed it, Warton remarked that it might have been written by Walpole, and buckramed by Mason" (115).
• Cary, Henry Francis. Lives of the English Poets. N.p.: General, 2010. Print.

• Commentary: Buckramed can function as a an adjective, as shown in source one, and a verb, as displayed in source two. As an adjective it describes stiffness, while as a verb it describes the action of giving strength or stiffness to something. 

31) etherealized

• Source 1: "So etherealized by spirit as he was, and so apotheosized by worshipping admirers, did his footsteps in the procession really tread upon the dust of earth?" (Hawthorne 205).

• Definition: v. t. "to make ethereal", which is "extremely delicate or refined: ethereal beauty ... heavenly or celestial" (Dictionary.com).

• Source 2: " The eastward mountains, which had been grey, blushed pale pink, the pink deepened into rose, and the rose into crimson, and then all solidity etherealized away and became clear and pure are an amethyst, while all the waving ranges and the broken pine-clothed ridges below etherealized too, but into a dark rich blue, and a strange effect of stmosphere blended the whole into one perfect picture" (378).
• Grunwald, Lisa, and Stephen J. Adler. Women's Letters: America from the Revolutionary War to the Present. New York: Dial, 2005. Print.

• Commentary: The word ethereal is often connected to dreams, wishes, and the intangible. An object or person who is described as ethereal appears to be so perfect or exemplary that they seem to cross the line between the real and imaginary.

Works Cited

"Definitions and More from the Free Merriam-Webster Dictionary." Merriam-Webster. Merriam-Webster, n.d. Web. 06 Jan. 2013.

Hawthorne, Nathaniel, and Nancy Stade. The Scarlet Letter. New York: Barnes & Noble Classics, 2003. Print.