Chillingworth's Revenge
The Consequences of Revenge
Revenge: to avenge (as oneself) usually by retaliating in kind or degree ("Revenge."), an action Robert Chillingworth of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel The Scarlet Letter exacted out on Arthur Dimmesdale.. A man back from the dead only to find his wife had not only cheated on him but beared a child that was not his own. Devastated by the news, Chillingworth decides to find the man who contributed to who was supposed to be his daughter. Spurned by hate he finds the perpetrator and decides to slowly torture him, but at what cost? Roger Chillingworth, a man scorned, is so feverish for his revenge he does not consider the consequences of his actions. When he lets his rage and needs consume him, he does not take into …show more content…
Until suddenly he appeared at the first appearance of the scaffold during Hester Prynne’s public shaming. Later, he appears at the Hester’s holding and asks “the man who has wronged us both! Who is he?” (Hawthorne 72) only to have Hester refuse to answer and anger him further. He goes on to say that he “shall see him tremble.” (73) and he “shall feel himself shudder, suddenly and unawares. Sooner or later, he must needs be mine!”, threatening to find this man one way or another and scaring Hester Prynne with the ferocity in his eyes. This is the beginning of Roger Chillingworth’s obsession. Where the hunt begins.
In the chapter, “The Leech and His Patient” (125) Roger Chillingworth has finally sunk his claws into the man who is the father of his rightful child, Arthur Dimmesdale. ‘Worried’ about the pastor’s deteriorating health, Chillingworth suggests that he take him under as his patient and decides to ‘treat’ him. He pries, he invokes reactions out of Dimmsdale but he never truly gets the answer that he is looking for. So he pushes harder, driving the young clergyman insane with the unriddled guilt of his unpaid for sin. Leeching off of Dimmesdale's very soul in vengeance until the very moment of his
Revenge: to avenge (as oneself) usually by retaliating in kind or degree ("Revenge."), an action Robert Chillingworth of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel The Scarlet Letter exacted out on Arthur Dimmesdale.. A man back from the dead only to find his wife had not only cheated on him but beared a child that was not his own. Devastated by the news, Chillingworth decides to find the man who contributed to who was supposed to be his daughter. Spurned by hate he finds the perpetrator and decides to slowly torture him, but at what cost? Roger Chillingworth, a man scorned, is so feverish for his revenge he does not consider the consequences of his actions. When he lets his rage and needs consume him, he does not take into …show more content…
Until suddenly he appeared at the first appearance of the scaffold during Hester Prynne’s public shaming. Later, he appears at the Hester’s holding and asks “the man who has wronged us both! Who is he?” (Hawthorne 72) only to have Hester refuse to answer and anger him further. He goes on to say that he “shall see him tremble.” (73) and he “shall feel himself shudder, suddenly and unawares. Sooner or later, he must needs be mine!”, threatening to find this man one way or another and scaring Hester Prynne with the ferocity in his eyes. This is the beginning of Roger Chillingworth’s obsession. Where the hunt begins.
In the chapter, “The Leech and His Patient” (125) Roger Chillingworth has finally sunk his claws into the man who is the father of his rightful child, Arthur Dimmesdale. ‘Worried’ about the pastor’s deteriorating health, Chillingworth suggests that he take him under as his patient and decides to ‘treat’ him. He pries, he invokes reactions out of Dimmsdale but he never truly gets the answer that he is looking for. So he pushes harder, driving the young clergyman insane with the unriddled guilt of his unpaid for sin. Leeching off of Dimmesdale's very soul in vengeance until the very moment of his