All 3 Uses of
nurture
in
The Scarlet Letter
- She saw the children of the settlement on the grassy margin of the street, or at the domestic thresholds, disporting themselves in such grim fashions as the Puritanic nurture would permit; playing at going to church, perchance, or at scourging Quakers; or taking scalps in a sham fight with the Indians, or scaring one another with freaks of imitative witchcraft.†
Chpt 6
- The old clergyman, nurtured at the rich bosom of the English Church, had a long established and legitimate taste for all good and comfortable things, and however stern he might show himself in the pulpit, or in his public reproof of such transgressions as that of Hester Prynne, still, the genial benevolence of his private life had won him warmer affection than was accorded to any of his professional contemporaries.†
Chpt 8
- Good Master Wilson, I pray you, examine this Pearl—since that is her name—and see whether she hath had such Christian nurture as befits a child of her age.†
Chpt 8 *
Definition:
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(nurture) help develop or groweditor's notes: A particular sense of nurture is often contrasted with a particular sense of nature.
In the comparison, nurture refers to external influences on a person's development such as being loved, cared for, and taught. Nature in contrast refers to the inherent genetic influences on a person's development.
Studies of identical twins who grew up in different homes are used to better understand the influences of each.