Similarities Between Chillingworth And Ahib

The Scarlet Letter is a classic American gothic novel that was published in1850, and was written by Nathaniel Hawthorne. It’s a novel that covers the story of Hester Prynne and her affair that leads to Roger Chillingworth’s, Hester Prynne’s husband, quest for revenge against his wife’s lover. This novel is a part of the collection of classic American Gothic novels that also include Moby Dick by Herman Melville published in 1851, and is a novel about a whaling boat and a captain named Ahab that is obsessed with his revenge against the white whale Moby Dick who had taken his leg on a previous voyage. Roger Chillingworth and Captain Ahab are two men trapped in their obsession of getting their revenge, however, even though they share similarities they have differences that set them apart from each other.
Roger Chillingworth is a man who married Hester Prynne, and after two years comes to Boston to be with his wife only to see her standing on the scaffold holding a baby later named Pearl. Even though she has betrayed him he still comes to help her and the child while she’s incarcerated showing the first major difference between Chillingworth and Ahab, Chillingworth still feels emotions towards other people. Throughout the story he shows emotion, he shows kindness, anger, shock, and more showing that his obsession hasn’t completely ripped away all parts of his humanity. His revenge is against Arthur Dimmesdale the true father of Pearl, and instead of letting Dimmesdale die Chillingworth uses his work as a physician to keep Dimmesdale alive so