Cited: Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The Scarlet Letter. New York: Barnes & Noble Classics, 2003.
Cited: Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The Scarlet Letter. New York: Barnes & Noble Classics, 2003.
In “The Scarlet Letter” two of the characters we see are Reverend Dimmsdale and Roger Chillingworth, both have apast and both are hiding secrets. They are also the unlikeliest of friends due to the fact that Dimmsdale is a man of God and Chillingworth is a doctor. Even though the two men are different from one another they still cohabitate very well.…
Furthermore, while being held captive inside the prison Hester’s husband visits her and tells her things such as “how could I delude myself with the idea that intellectual gifts might veil physical deformity in a young girl’s fantasy”. Meaning that he knew a beautiful girl like Hester would cheat on him and be miserable. As she defends herself by saying “you knew I didn’t love you and I will not give up my secret lover”. Roger Chillingworth dedicates himself to finding out who the guy who wronged them both.…
Chillingworth does take some of the blame.He did leave for a couple of months, and he admitted that he only married Hester for her looks, but chapter 4 says, “ And so, Hester, I drew thee into my heart, into its innermost chamber, and sought to warm thee by the warmth which thy presence made there!” Chillingworth still tried to make an effort to love Hester, when Hester did not try at all and was not loyal.…
A shocking story about a young women committing adultery in a such strict community. This event occurred in the seventeenth-century Boston.The young women who committed the sin is Hester Prynne. Hester Prynne had committed this sin with a Puritan minister named Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale. Hester’s real husband in disguise is Roger Chillingworth. Roger Chillingworth had sent Hester to America while he stayed behind in Europe but was supposed to follow Hester. The result of Chillingworth not following Hester was a baby girl named Pearl.…
Have you ever hated someone? Do you wish something terrible would happen to that person? That is exactly the feeling you have when reading the Scarlet Letter. Roger Chillingworth is Hester Prynne's husband. He is a physician, but he is not your ordinary friendly doctor. Chillingworth works for "the Black Man" and tortures what we learn later to be Hester's "baby daddy", who is also a minister for the local church, Reverend Dimmesdale. Your hatred doesn't develop after reading the first chapter. Your opinion is formed steadily, and your anger grows more intensely. Chillingworth is the most hated character in the Scarlet Letter because he's blind, has control issues, and is revengeful.…
The reason Roger Chillingworth was able to leech the life from Dimmsdale was due to his illness. The doctor was continually by the Minister’s side. Chillingworth even convinced the townspeople he should take up residence with the Minister in order to help him overcome disease. “ While thus suffering under bodily disease and gnawed and tortured by some black trouble of the soul…” The illness Dimmsdale suffered from not only damaged him physically but also mentally, as referred to earlier with the color red- he tortured himself.…
Chillingworth. He is Hester’s former husband, a wonderful physician. He chooses to keep his identity a secret upon arriving back to town after being in Indian captivity for two years. After finding out about Hester’s child, he vows to get revenge from whomever it belongs to. Chillingworth goes from being a kind, smart, and gentle old man to an evil, plotting, vengeful ball of fury. He sets his eyes upon the Reverend Mr. Dimmesdale, and immediately recognizes him as Pearls father. He arranges to be Dimmesdale’s roommate, and from that moment on makes his life a living hell. The reverend slowly diminishes under Chillingworth’s evil power, as Chillingworth grows stronger by the day. When Dimmesdale finally confessed his sin and died, Chillingworth lost all his power. He crumbled, and died soon…
Only when alone does his remorse attack him. He not once accuses Chillingsworth to be the direct source of evil until he is with another person, Hester. His sorrow and regret only hurt him, but if he would have showed his true feelings alongside Hester, yes he would have lost his reputation, but he would also protect the values that he preaches about. He could have taken some of the pressure off of Hester and Pearl. Or even allowed Robert Chillingworth to move on. But, the Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale received what he wished most of all: living life without his own scarlet letter for the public to see. The clergyman destroyed himself and those around him, all for the superficiality of a reputation. It makes one wonder at what lengths and sacrifices are people willing to go to before accepting and confronting their own scarlet…
However, as disappointed as he was that Hester committed adultery, he felt more anger against the person who lay down with Hester. This is possibly due to jealousy because the person who did this with Hester was able to get her to love him, while Chillingworth in all his attempts was not able to get her to love him. Chillingworth stated that he plans to find the man, and when he does, he does not want to report him to the authorities. The reason he gives for this is that if he tells on the man who committed adultery with Hester he says it would be, “to mine own loss, betray him to the gripe of human law.” In other words, the betrayer’s consequences would be at the hand of proper authorities, and not in the control of Chillingworth. This shows a very depressing, vengeful future for Chillingworth instead of the positive one that he had been hoping for. It is very plain to see that Chillingworth changes greatly after the finds Hester on the…
"What evil have I done the man?" asked Roger Chillingworth again.”(Hawthorne, 141) Chillingworth has an urge to ruin Hester if it’s the last thing he does. "Hadst thou sought the whole earth over," said he, looking darkly at the clergyman, "there was no one place so secret, —no high place nor lowly place, where thou couldst have escaped me,--save on this very scaffold!"(Hawthorne, 175) Chillingworth does not show the appearance that he is there to take revenge on Hester.…
They even suspect that Chillingworth may not be who he is based on the testimony of an aged handicraftsman. However when Chillingworth first arrived they “were inclined to see a providential hand in Robert Chillingworth’s so opportune arrival” (Hawthorne, 74). They had seen Chillingworth as a Godly character that had been sent to help take care of their reverend while Chillingworth was just plotting his revenge. As Chillingworth and Dimmesdale’s relationship developed, opening a window, Dimmesdale felt he was “admitting a freer atmosphere into the close and stifled study” (Hawthorne, 75). When in the presence of Chillingworth, Dimmesdale felt a lot of tension and opening the window was i na sense, his escape. Though Dimmesdale “had his suspicions” he went along with Chillingworth practices as “rejecting the aid which Providence so manifestly held out” was considered a sin (Hawthorne,…
“Thou hast escaped me!”-Chillingworth says. Throughout the course of the Scarlet Letter many of the characters suffer personal struggle and make choices that affect the lives of others. All characters experience this but one such character is Roger Chillingworth or Mr. Prynne, as he is also known. The choices and character changes of Roger Chillingworth will be explained throughout this essay.…
In Nathaniel Hawthorne's, The Scarlet Letter, he describes the story as a "tale of human frailty and sorrow. This is most likely due to the fact that all the main characters go through some sort of sorrow and hardship throughout the novel. Each is unique in it's own way and has a different effect on the character. Furthermore, each character has his/her own major flaw or sin. Roger Chillingworth, for example, had the flaw of seeking revenge. This completely consumed his life, and as you will soon see, he was unable to live without it. As his name suggests he is devoid of human sentiment. He is referred to as a leech because he feeds on the lives of others in order to accomplish his goals. Ultimately Roger Chillingworth comes to represent true evil. Roger Chillingworth's outlook throughout the story and his actions were very dependant upon his need for revenge. His vow to seek revenge had a negative affect on his life and the lives of others around him. Lastly, his fatal flaw led him to suffer dire consequences at the end of the novel.…
During the conversation between Hester and the physician, Chillingworth is aware of his continuing torture of Dimmesdale when he says “[Dimmesdale] has been conscious of me. He has felt an influence dwelling always upon him like a curse” (Hawthorne 155). This proves that he enjoys his obsession with the minister. He continues to cold-heartedly torment the frailing Dimmesdale. On the night that Chillingworth sees Dimmesdale’s chest, Chillingworth has a moment of “ecstasy” during which he understands “how Satan comports himself when a precious human soul is lost to heaven” (Hawthorne 126). Chillingworth begins to develop an understanding of the way the devil feels when he successfully tortures his victims in hell. His ability to empathize with Satan explains why Hester and the rest of the town views him as a psychopath. Throughout this section of the book, the ex-husband who was wronged now embodies…
The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne emphasizes the sin present in early Puritan society by following the lives a three people who commit major sins. Of those three, each one experiences different amounts of remorse, penance, and guilt; but the person that felt none of these was Roger Chillingworth. Roger Chillingworth is the greatest sinner in the Scarlet Letter because of his drive for revenge, lack of guilt, and infliction of pain onto others.…