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Chillingworth as Hero of The Scarlet Letter? The Scarlet Letter is a story about human reaction to circumstances and the justification behind these actions. Each of the central characters in the novel represents a side of an extremely serious situation, adultery. Each of the characters has a certain amount of justification behind their actions and each searches for a way to rise out of his/her condition. Roger Chillingworth himself represents revenge. Some even believe him to be representative of evil or Satan. What is ignored in the cases of interpreting him as Satan or as evil is the fact that he has been cruelly wronged by both Hester and Dimmesdale. Because Hester and Dimmesdale are portrayed as protagonists in the novel, Chillingworth is automatically classified, because of his opposition towards the two, as antagonist. He is not actually this at all when regarded without the negative connotations under which he is crushed within the book. Hester and Chillingworth were married before the beginning of the novel. Chillingworth, previous to his marriage, was a completely introvert man. "I - a man of thought - the bookworm of great libraries - a man already in decay, having given my best years to feed the hungry dream of knowledge... I came out of the vast and dismal forest and entered this settlement of Christian men, the very first object to meet my eyes would be thyself, Hester Prynne...." (52-53) Chillingworth saw Hester, after emerging from a great period of solitude, as a symbol of life. He regarded her as almost a savior. ... ... middle of paper ... ...om doing what is right. Chillingworth is actually attempting to keep his essence. He is ruined without his revenge. Defeated, purposeless, Chillingworth soon dies after Dimmesdale's confession. Chillingworth's source of happiness, Hester, has been taken away along with his chance at reprisal. It is far too easy for a reader of The Scarlet Letter to simply brand Chillingworth as evil. The reader must pay attention to the complexities of the position which Chillingworth is forced into to understand that he is not evil or bad, at least not completely. Chillingworth is only a human put into a terrible position which he reacts to. In fact, it is not beyond reach to say that under his circumstances, Chillingworth was actually the hero, the protagonist; and Hester and Dimmesdale are the true villains.
Years ago, Hester promised Chillingworth to keep his identity a secret, thus allowing him to do evil to Dimmesdale. Chillingworth believes that it was his fate to change from a kind man to a vengeful fiend. He believes that it’s his destiny to take revenge and thus would not stop until he does so.
Roger Chillingworth's features begin to display his inward deformities externally as the novel progresses due to his attempts at finding the man who violated his marriage. When he is first seen in the novel, "there was a remarkable intelligence in his features, as of a person who had so cultivated his mental part that it could not fail to mould the physical to itself and become manifest by unmistakable tokens." He also has a left shoulder which is slightly higher than the right originally, which only gets more ugly and misshapen with the rest of his body. Chillingworth then takes up residence with Dimmesdale and begins his quest to punish the minister and find out the true identity of this man. After he begins his quest the townspeople observe "something ugly and evil in his face which they had not previously noticed, and which grew still the more obvious to sight, the oftener they looked upon him.” Soon his wife, Hester, finds "the former aspect of an intellectual and studious man, calm and quiet, which was what she best remembered in him, had altogether vanished and been succeeded by an eager searching, almost fierce, yet carefully guarded look."
One of the various ways Chillingworth serves as the devil’s advocate is by being the antithesis of Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale, the palpable Jesus figure of the narrative. Chillingworth keenly sets out to devastate Dimmesdale, as Hawthorne informs us when referring to Chillingworth's unearthing of Dimmesdale's secret, “All that guilty sorrow, hidden from the world, whose great heart would have pitied and forgiven, to be revealed to him, the Pitiless, to him, the Unforgiving!” The capitalization of the words "Pitiless" and "Unforgiving" confirm that Chillingworth is Satan in human form. Symbolically, on an additional, more perceptible note, Chillingworth steals one of Dimmesdale's gloves and drops it on the scaffold in the middle of the town. The sexton returns it to Dimmesdale saying, "Satan...
Hester is indeed a sinner, adultery is no light matter, even today. On the other hand, her sin has brought her not evil, but good. Her charity to the poor, her comfort to the broken-hearted, her unquestionable presence in times of trouble are all direct results of her quest for repe...
Even though many saw the difference in Hester there was still Chillingworth who still wanted his revenge. He becomes obsessed with the punishment of the "A" and does a devilish dance when he realizes the powerful effect it has had on Dimmesdale. (Blake, "Hester's Bewitched Triangle: Within the Spell of the "A") Chillingworth pretends to be a friend to Dimmesdale and becomes his physician. Dimmesdale becomes miserable because he hidden his true identity. Hester, hast thou found peace? Whatever of good capacity there originally was in me, all of God's gifts that were the choicest have become the ministers of spiritual torment. Hester, I am most miserable! ( Hawthorne 208–209) Dimmesdale begins to torment himself with all of his thoughts and tells Hester he wants to be apart of the family they’ve made together.
... Chillingworth is the representation of the punishment that falls on all sinners. Hester, whose daughter and Scarlet Letter are always reminding everyone of her adultery, is always in the open, and has no chance to hide her shame. Dimmesdale, who calls himself a pollution and is so tormented on the inside that he feels the need to physically harm himself by scourging, is eaten from the inside out, and Roger Chillingworth, whom one just saw is a vengeful monster, who swears revenge on the father, and who lives for that single purpose, truly is retribution. These people are tormented by the type of sin they portray, and their punishments last so long, and are so painful (especially in Hester and Dimmesdale’s cases) that anyone could easily make the argument that the literal flames, and the stake that accompanies them, would be preferable punishments for these sinners.
is dead and after realising that she took a drug to put her in a "Semi
Chillingworth’s story begins when he arrives at Boston and witnesses his wife for the first time in two years in public display upon the scaffold. He questions a man about his wife and finds out that he has been wronged by Hester. He is told that she now wears the letter due to carrying out an act of sin. From that moment Chillingworth character becomes darker and intent upon revenge. However, an interesting fact is his revenge was never pointed at Hester: “We have wronged each other; mine was the first wrong, when I betrayed thy budding youth into a false and unnatural relation with my decay. Therefore as a man who has not thought and philosophized in vain, I seek no ...
Chillingworth, Hester’s husband, vows revenge on the man who has allowed her to live in shame, while he escapes with no visible punishment. While visiting Hester in jail, Chillingworth agrees not to kill Dimmesdale if she will not reveal his identity, which lets him secretly torture Dimmesdale for the rest of her life.
The Scarlet Letter is a romance written by Nathaniel Hawthorne that takes place in the Puritan Community in Boston, Massachusetts during the 17th century. It tells the story of Hester Prynne, who commits the sin of adultery with the minister of the church, Reverend Dimmesdale, and conceives a baby girl, Pearl. Hester's husband, Roger Chillingworth, returns and seeks revenge. As Pearl grows up, her mother learns how to deal with the scarlet letter of shame and Dimmesdale feels guilt. When they decide to run away, Dimmesdale confesses his sin in public and he dies. The story end with the death of Chillingworth and all his belongings and property go to little Pearl. Pearl grows up and probably gets married and Hester becomes a mother for all women in need.
Roger Chillingworth utilizes his deceptiveness in a number of occasions throughout the novel. For example, in chapter three, Roger Chillingworth innocently approaches Hester Prynne, acting as if he has never once seen her. Roger Chillingworth even interrogates a local townsman about Hester Prynne and her committed sins. This shows that Roger Chillingworth purposely intends to concept a deceptive knowledge of his character in order to disconcert one who may read The Scarlet Letter. Although Roger Chllingworth is the foremost antagonist of the novel, his deceptiveness empowers him to withhold an excessive amount of moral ambiguity. With this moral ambiguity, Roger Chillingworth is able to surreptitiously accomplish a various amount of things, including the death of Arthur Dimmesdale himself.
Meanwhile, Dimmesdale passes away after he confessed to the affair with Hester and Chillingworth died because he was eaten alive by his own revenge and hatred, Hester lives on. She was able to deal with a town that hated her, and then a town that accepted her for her good works. "The society was able to look past their hatred for her and saw that in fact they needed her. And finally she was able to stay, where she wanted to be. Over the time the fact that Hester didn 't crumble and in fact stood taller despite her exclusion from the Puritan society opened their eyes to see that good can survive even in the heart of a sinner. Thus her adulteries turn into her ability to survive" (Yasmin 145). She becomes somewhat of a legend in that Boston town. Without the scarlet letter she would have never become the strong minded, self reliant, courageous woman Hester Prynne became. In the end, Hester was no longer viewed as a symbol of sin, but as a symbol of hope and strength in which her story would live on
...rth's crimes against the Lord are more malevolent than those committed by Hester and Reverend Dimmesdale. Chillingworth's quest for revenge and truth leads him down a path of sin, and in the Puritan perspective, down the path to Hell.
In The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne analyzes Hester, Dimmesdale, and Chillingworth. In the story, Hester is the main character of the story and was called Mistress Prynne (Hawthorne 70). Dimmesdale, in the story was referred to as Reverend Dimmesdale (Hawthorne 90). Chillingworth was originally named, Roger Prynne but later in the story he changed his name to Roger Chillingworth. In the story, Hester committed adultery with Dimmesdale against Chillingworth and in the beginning she got punished and sent to prison and later she got to get out of prison but with the exception of having to wear the letter A on her breast every time she went out in to town.
One of the stories, which is the one on the war in Iraq, has many more