All 7 Uses of
spectacle
in
The Scarlet Letter
- The scene was not without a mixture of awe, such as must always invest the spectacle of guilt and shame in a fellow-creature, before society shall have grown corrupt enough to smile, instead of shuddering at it.
Chpt 2 (definition 1)spectacle = event that attracts attention
- When such personages could constitute a part of the spectacle, without risking the majesty, or reverence of rank and office, it was safely to be inferred that the infliction of a legal sentence would have an earnest and effectual meaning.
Chpt 2 (definition 1)
- Peradventure the guilty one stands looking on at this sad spectacle, unknown of man, and forgetting that God sees him.
Chpt 3 (definition 1)
- Perhaps there was a more real torture in her first unattended footsteps from the threshold of the prison than even in the procession and spectacle that have been described, where she was made the common infamy, at which all mankind was summoned to point its finger.
Chpt 5 (definition 1) *
- Alas! if he discern such sinfulness in his own white soul, what horrid spectacle would he behold in thine or mine!
Chpt 11 (definition 1)spectacle = thing that attracts attention
- We doubt whether any marked event, for good or evil, ever befell New England, from its settlement down to revolutionary times, of which the inhabitants had not been previously warned by some spectacle of its nature.
Chpt 12 (definition 1)spectacle = event that attracts attention
Uses with a very rare meaning:
- Sagaciously under their spectacles, did they peep into the holds of vessels.†
Chpt Intr. (definition 2) *
Definitions:
-
(1) (spectacle) a notable or unusual event that attracts attention
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(2) (meaning too rare to warrant focus) The term spectacles is also used to refer to eyeglasses.