All 50 Uses of
however
in
The Scarlet Letter
- The truth seems to be, however, that when he casts his leaves forth upon the wind, the author addresses, not the many who will fling aside his volume, or never take it up, but the few who will understand him better than most of his schoolmates or lifemates.
Chpt Intr. (definition 1)however = though (used to connect contrasting ideas)
- It is scarcely decorous, however, to speak all, even where we speak impersonally.
Chpt Intr. (definition 1) *
- In some months of the year, however, there often chances a forenoon when affairs move onward with a livelier tread.
Chpt Intr. (definition 1)
- More frequently, however, on ascending the steps, you would discern— in the entry if it were summer time, or in their appropriate rooms if wintry or inclement weathers—a row of venerable figures, sitting in old-fashioned chairs, which were tipped on their hind legs back against the wall.
Chpt Intr. (definition 1)
- Doubtless, however, either of these stern and black-browed Puritans would have thought it quite a sufficient retribution for his sins that, after so long a lapse of years, the old trunk of the family tree, with so much venerable moss upon it, should have borne, as its topmost bough, an idler like myself.
Chpt Intr. (definition 1)
- They spent a good deal of time, also, asleep in their accustomed corners, with their chairs tilted back against the walls; awaking, however, once or twice in the forenoon, to bore one another with the several thousandth repetition of old sea-stories and mouldy jokes, that had grown to be passwords and countersigns among them.
Chpt Intr. (definition 1)
- In one case, however, it is real sunshine; in the other, it more resembles the phosphorescent glow of decaying wood.
Chpt Intr. (definition 1)
- The original and more potent causes, however, lay in the rare perfection of his animal nature, the moderate proportion of intellect, and the very trifling admixture of moral and spiritual ingredients; these latter qualities, indeed, being in barely enough measure to keep the old gentleman from walking on all-fours.
Chpt Intr. (definition 1)
- His reminiscences of good cheer, however ancient the date of the actual banquet, seemed to bring the savour of pig or turkey under one's very nostrils.†
Chpt Intr. (definition 1)
- But it is time to quit this sketch; on which, however, I should be glad to dwell at considerably more length, because of all men whom I have ever known, this individual was fittest to be a Custom-House officer.
Chpt Intr. (definition 1)however = though (used to connect contrasting ideas)
- To observe and define his character, however, under such disadvantages, was as difficult a task as to trace out and build up anew, in imagination, an old fortress, like Ticonderoga, from a view of its grey and broken ruins.
Chpt Intr. (definition 1)
- Such an exhibition, however, was but to be pictured in fancy; not to be anticipated, nor desired.
Chpt Intr. (definition 1)
- Here, no doubt, statistics of the former commerce of Salem might be discovered, and memorials of her princely merchants—old King Derby—old Billy Gray—old Simon Forrester—and many another magnate in his day, whose powdered head, however, was scarcely in the tomb before his mountain pile of wealth began to dwindle.
Chpt Intr. (definition 1)
- There were traces about it of gold embroidery, which, however, was greatly frayed and defaced, so that none, or very little, of the glitter was left.
Chpt Intr. (definition 1)
- It is my belief, however, that had I attempted a different order of composition, my faculties would not have been found so pointless and inefficacious.
Chpt Intr. (definition 1)
- It is no indication, however, of a lack of cheerfulness in the writer's mind: for he was happier while straying through the gloom of these sunless fantasies than at any time since he had quitted the Old Manse.
Chpt Intr. (definition 1)
- It may be, however—oh, transporting and triumphant thought—that the great-grandchildren of the present race may sometimes think kindly of the scribbler of bygone days, when the antiquary of days to come, among the sites memorable in the town's history, shall point out the locality of THE TOWN PUMP.
Chpt Intr. (definition 1)
- When the young woman--the mother of this child--stood fully revealed before the crowd, it seemed to be her first impulse to clasp the infant closely to her bosom; not so much by an impulse of motherly affection, as that she might thereby conceal a certain token, which was wrought or fastened into her dress. In a moment, however, wisely judging that one token of her shame would but poorly serve to hide another, she took the baby on her arm, and with a burning blush, and yet a haughty smile, and a glance that would not be abashed, looked around at her townspeople and neighbours.
Chpt 2 (definition 1)
- It was no great distance, in those days, from the prison door to the market-place. Measured by the prisoner's experience, however, it might be reckoned a journey of some length; for haughty as her demeanour was, she perchance underwent an agony from every footstep of those that thronged to see her, as if her heart had been flung into the street for them all to spurn and trample upon.
Chpt 2 (definition 1)
- ...for haughty as her demeanour was, she perchance underwent an agony from every footstep of those that thronged to see her, as if her heart had been flung into the street for them all to spurn and trample upon. In our nature, however, there is a provision, alike marvellous and merciful, that the sufferer should never know the intensity of what he endures by its present torture, but chiefly by the pang that rankles after it.
Chpt 2 (definition 1)
- There can be no outrage, methinks, against our common nature--whatever be the delinquencies of the individual--no outrage more flagrant than to forbid the culprit to hide his face for shame; as it was the essence of this punishment to do. In Hester Prynne's instance, however, as not unfrequently in other cases, her sentence bore that she should stand a certain time upon the platform, but without undergoing that gripe about the neck and confinement of the head, the proneness to which was the most devilish characteristic of this ugly engine.
Chpt 2 (definition 1)
- ...the stranger had bent his eyes on Hester Prynne. It was carelessly at first.... Very soon, however, his look became keen and penetrative.
Chpt 3 (definition 1)
- ...a man of kind and genial spirit. This last attribute, however, had been less carefully developed than his intellectual gifts, and was, in truth, rather a matter of shame than self-congratulation with him.
Chpt 3 (definition 1)
- Lonely as was Hester's situation, and without a friend on earth who dared to show himself, she, however, incurred no risk of want.
Chpt 5 (definition 1)however = nevertheless (used to connect contrasting ideas)
- In this manner, Hester Prynne came to have a part to perform in the world. ... In all her intercourse with society, however, there was nothing that made her feel as if she belonged to it.
Chpt 5 (definition 1)however = though (used to connect contrasting ideas)
- The child had a native grace which does not invariably co-exist with faultless beauty; its attire, however simple, always impressed the beholder as if it were the very garb that precisely became it best.
Chpt 6 (definition 2)however = regardless of how
- ...in this one child there were many children.... Throughout all, however, there was a trait of passion, a certain depth of hue, which she never lost; and if in any of her changes, she had grown fainter or paler, she would have ceased to be herself—it would have been no longer Pearl!
Chpt 6 (definition 1)however = though (used to connect contrasting ideas)
- The mother's impassioned state had been the medium through which were transmitted to the unborn infant the rays of its moral life; and, however white and clear originally, they had taken the deep stains of crimson and gold, the fiery lustre, the black shadow, and the untempered light of the intervening substance.
Chpt 6 (definition 2)however = regardless of how
- ...the loving mother of this one child, ran little risk of erring on the side of
undue severity. Mindful, however, of her own errors and misfortunes, she early sought to impose a tender but strict control over the infant immortality that was committed to her charge.
Chpt 6 (definition 1)however = though (used to connect contrasting ideas)
- The spell of life went forth from her ever-creative spirit, and communicated itself to a thousand objects, as a torch kindles a flame wherever it may be applied. ... In the mere exercise of the fancy, however, and the sportiveness of a growing mind, there might be a little more than was observable in other children of bright faculties; except as Pearl, in the dearth of human playmates, was thrown more upon the visionary throng which she created.
Chpt 6 (definition 1)
- It may appear singular, and, indeed, not a little ludicrous, that an affair of this kind, which in later days would have been referred to no higher jurisdiction than that of the select men of the town, should then have been a question publicly discussed, and on which statesmen of eminence took sides. At that epoch of pristine simplicity, however, matters of even slighter public interest, and of far less intrinsic weight than the welfare of Hester and her child, were strangely mixed up with the deliberations of legislators and acts of state.
Chpt 7 (definition 1)
- This was a large wooden house, built in a fashion of which there are specimens still extant in the streets of our older towns now moss-grown, crumbling to decay, and melancholy at heart with the many sorrowful or joyful occurrences, remembered or forgotten, that have happened and passed away
within their dusky chambers. Then, however, there was the freshness of the passing year on its exterior, and the cheerfulness, gleaming forth from the sunny windows, of a human habitation, into which death had never entered.
Chpt 7 (definition 1)
- But the proprietor appeared already to have relinquished as hopeless, the effort to perpetuate on this side of the Atlantic, in a hard soil, and amid the close struggle for subsistence, the native English taste for ornamental gardening. ... There were a few rose-bushes, however, and...
Chpt 7 (definition 1)
- 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 (definition 2)however = regardless of how
- Mr. Wilson, not a little astonished at this outbreak ... essayed, however, to proceed with the examination.
Chpt 8 (definition 1)however = in spite of that
- The young divine ... was considered by his more fervent admirers ... destined, should he live and labour for the ordinary term of life, to do as great deeds, for the now feeble New England Church, as the early Fathers had achieved for the infancy of the Christian faith. About this period, however, the health of Mr. Dimmesdale had evidently begun to fail.
Chpt 9 (definition 1)however = though (used to connect contrasting ideas)
- In answer to this query, a rumour gained ground—and however absurd, was entertained by some very sensible people—that Heaven had wrought an absolute miracle, by transporting an eminent Doctor of Physic from a German university bodily through the air and setting him down at the door of Mr. Dimmesdale's study!
Chpt 9 (definition 2)however = regardless of how
- ...it would always be essential to his peace to feel the pressure of a faith about him, supporting, while it confined him within its iron framework. Not the less, however, though with a tremulous enjoyment, did he feel the occasional relief of looking at the universe through the medium of another kind of intellect than those with which he habitually held converse.
Chpt 9 (definition 1)however = though (used to connect contrasting ideas)
- ...unless, indeed, as often urged by such as felt authorised to do so, he had selected some one of the many blooming damsels, spiritually devoted to him, to become his devoted wife. This latter step, however, there was no present prospect that Arthur Dimmesdale would be prevailed upon to take; he rejected all suggestions of the kind, as if priestly celibacy were one of his articles of Church discipline.
Chpt 9 (definition 1)
- When an uninstructed multitude attempts to see with its eyes, it is exceedingly apt to be deceived. When, however, it forms its judgment, as it usually does, on the intuitions of its great and warm heart, the conclusions thus attained are often so profound and so unerring as to possess the character of truth supernaturally revealed.
Chpt 9 (definition 1)
- The profound depth of the minister's repose was the more remarkable, inasmuch as he was one of those persons whose sleep ordinarily is as light as fitful, and as easily scared away, as a small bird hopping on a twig. To such an unwonted remoteness, however, had his spirit now withdrawn into itself that he stirred not in his chair when old Roger Chillingworth, without any extraordinary precaution, came into the room.
Chpt 10 (definition 1)
- The clergyman's shy and sensitive reserve had balked this scheme. Roger Chillingworth, however, was inclined to be hardly, if at all, less satisfied with the aspect of affairs, which...
Chpt 11 (definition 1)
- 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 rigorously, and until his knees trembled beneath him, as an act of penance.
Chpt 11 (definition 1)
- The magistrate, after a wary observation of the darkness--into which, nevertheless, he could see but little further than he might into a mill-stone--retired from the window. The minister grew comparatively calm. His eyes, however, were soon greeted by a little glimmering light, which...
Chpt 12 (definition 1)
- Not seldom, it had been seen by multitudes. Oftener, however, its credibility rested on the faith of some lonely eye-witness, who...
Chpt 12 (definition 1)
- With a chill despondency, like one awakening, all nerveless, from an ugly dream, he yielded himself to the physician, and was led away. The next day, however, being the Sabbath, he preached a discourse which was held to be the richest and most powerful, and the most replete with heavenly influences, that had ever proceeded from his lips.
Chpt 12 (definition 1)
- It was none the less a fact, however, that in the eyes of the very men who spoke thus, the scarlet letter had the effect of the cross on a nun's bosom.
Chpt 13 (definition 1)
- Now, however, her interview with the Reverend Mr. Dimmesdale, on the night of his vigil, had given her a new theme of reflection, and held up to her an object that appeared worthy of any exertion and sacrifice for its attainment.
Chpt 13 (definition 1)
- At first, as already told, she had flirted fancifully with her own image in a pool of water, beckoning the phantom forth.... Soon finding, however, that either she or the image was unreal, she turned elsewhere for better pastime.
Chpt 15 (definition 1)
- Hester Prynne remained constant in her resolve to make known to Mr. Dimmesdale, at whatever risk of present pain or ulterior consequences, the true character of the man who had crept into his intimacy. For several days, however, she vainly sought an opportunity of addressing him...
Chpt 16 (definition 1)
Definitions:
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(1) (however as in: However, complications may...) though (or another expression that connects contrasting ideas)
(Based on idea 1 we might not expect idea 2, but this is a way of saying that even though idea 1 exists, we still have idea 2. Synonyms include in spite of that, despite that, nevertheless, nonetheless, on the other hand, in contrastand but.)
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(2) (however as in: However much she tried...) to whatever degree (regardless of how much; or whatever unspecified amount)