Both Uses of
abyss
in
The Scarlet Letter
- At last, her shot being all expended, the child stood still and gazed at Hester, with that little laughing image of a fiend peeping out—or, whether it peeped or no, her mother so imagined it—from the unsearchable abyss of her black eyes.
Chpt 6 *abyss = bottomless pit (figurative usage)
- "I do forgive you, Hester," replied the minister at length, with a deep utterance, out of an abyss of sadness, but no anger.
Chpt 17
Definition:
-
(abyss) a hole or dropoff so deep the bottom cannot be seen -- often used figuratively to imply a frightening bottomless pit