All 5 Uses of
stigma
in
The Scarlet Letter
- The stigma gone, Hester heaved a long, deep sigh, in which the burden of shame and anguish departed from her spirit.
p. 189.3stigma = mark of societal disapproval
- What imagination would have been irreverent enough to surmise that the same scorching stigma was on them both!
p. 230.9 *
- He tells you, that, with all its mysterious horror, it is but the shadow of what he bears on his own breast, and that even this, his own red stigma, is no more than the type of what has seared his inmost heart!
p. 238.0
- Others contended that the stigma had not been produced until a long time subsequent, when old Roger Chillingworth, being a potent necromancer, had caused it to appear, through the agency of magic and poisonous drugs.
p. 240.5
- But, in the lapse of the toilsome, thoughtful, and self-devoted years that made up Hester's life, the scarlet letter ceased to be a stigma which attracted the world's scorn and bitterness, and became a type of something to be sorrowed over, and looked upon with awe, yet with reverence too.
p. 244.9
Definitions:
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(1)
(stigma as in: suffered the stigma of...) societal disapproval or shaming associated with a behavior or a condition -- (often used to describe unreasonable disapproval or shaming)
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(2)
(meaning too rare to warrant focus) meaning too rare to warrant focus:
In botany, a stigma is part of a plant.
At one time, stigma referred to a brand made upon the skin of a criminal or slave. It can more broadly refer to any mark or symbol of societal disapproval. For example, in the novel, The Scarlet Letter, the scarlet "A" that Hester wore was called a stigma.