Scarlet Letter Essay In The Scarlet Letter, Roger Chillingworth is an important character, who is the worst sinner in the entire book. He never atones for his sin, and never gets forgiven by others. He gets close to ruining Arthur Dimmesdale’s lives out of jealousy and vengeance. In the three scaffold scenes in the book, Chillingworth is always observing and never on the scaffold himself, admitting to torturing Dimmesdale. In chapters 2 and 3, Chillingworth is heartbroken by seeing Hester on the scaffold, but tells her to keep quiet to prevent her from getting killed. This is only the start of his revenge, as later on, he talks to Hester and is already bent on getting vengeance on the father of Pearl. He only keeps Hester alive for her to …show more content…
While Chillingworth and Dimmesdale are both at fault (Dimmesdale and his pride and fear of admitting), Dimmesdale also doesn’t know Chillingworth and Hester’s secret. Chillingworth uses it to his advantage in chapter 12, with Dimmesdale putting Hester on the spot by asking, “I tell thee, my soul shivers at him, (...) Who is he? Who is he? Canst thou do nothing for me? I have a nameless horror of the man,” (Hawthorne 107). Chillingworth is a secretive character, and creepily shows up at the scaffold, as if to mock Dimmesdale. Dimmesdale in the quote wants to know more about why Chillingworth is by chance a great physician who shows up to Boston, seemingly just to torture Dimmesdale. Chillingworth’s constant torture is worse sin than at the previous scaffold …show more content…
This doesn’t say much about Chillingworth, but later on in the conclusion the narrator says that, ¨Nothing was more remarkable than the change which took place, almost immediately after Mr. Dimmesdale’s death, in the appearance and demeanour of the old man known as Roger Chillingworth. All his strength and energy -all his vital and intellectual force -seemed at once to desert him, insomuch that he positively withered up, shrivelled away, and almost vanished from mortal sight, like an uprooted weed that lies wilting in the sun,”(Hawthorne 177). In saying that, it confirms that Chillingworth doesn’t get what he wants, so his sin is never atoned before he withers away in uselessness. Without Dimmesdale, he has no patients to tend to, and no one to torture. Dimmesdale also doesn’t mention forgiving Chillingworth before he dies, so that Chillingworth is doomed to hell anyways. Chillingworth is also described as the devil in many scenes, and is almost too crazy to reach heaven’s
...espite of what they thought. Dimmesdale confession would prove him to be a man of humbleness and honesty, a man who ratifies his errors of the past and completes his duty as a minister, father, husband, and son of God. Moreover, Dimmesdale has the ability to set himself free from Chillingworth’s bondage instead of bearing more of Chillingworth’s psychological torture. The temptations the minister faced would give him the strength to overcome his fears and to become a devoted man.
Through the characters Dimmesdale and Chillingworth, Hawthorne reveals the true nature of Puritan society through parallels among the three. All three’s hidden evil is masked by each of their perfect appearances. Chillingworth exhibited the Puritan’s benefit of the doubt they received because of their relation to religion, while Dimmesdale presented the fact that corruption fuels the association with religion and as corruption within someone or something increases, so does a person or people’s betterment.
This strategy exemplifies Hawthorne’s theme that sin must be taken responsibility for because being dishonest will only lead to more temptation. Chillingworth does admit to one of his blames of leaving Hester behind, but choosing his temptation over redemption has formed his obsession to making Hester lover’s suffer miserably with guilt, which fuels Roger’s vengeance. Secondly, Chillingworth’s internal conflict was illustrated through the changing of his appearance. Roger was once a kind, well respected, man of science; However, his vengeance has transformed his physical character into a devilish creature. When Hester and Pearl were visiting Governor’s Bellingham’s house, Hester notices the change over Roger’s features, “how much uglier they were, how his dark complexion seemed to have grown duskier, and his figure misshapen” (93).
Reflecting on these events, he turned his back on them when they stood on the scaffolding in the beginning, when he went to give Pearl a kiss on her forehead, and during the middle of the night after Hester and him talked. Unlike Dimmesdale, Chillingworth expresses no remorse whatsoever. Both men are well-educated as pastors and the other as doctors. These men seem to resemble both sides of the human society. The lack of faith is that Dimmesdale is a pastor and therefore must believe that God is in control and that his heavenly riches are better than anything else that can be offered to him.
2. Chillingworth leaves his property to Pearl. I think he realized how much of his life he spent in vain for revenge and punishment. He was betrayed by Hester but Pearl was innocent throughout all of the punishments of her mother’s sin. By giving his property to her, he was getting his peace just like every other character in the book. He tries to make up for at least some of the sins he has committed by helping an innocent person. Dimmesdale confesses while Hester passed away with her lover’s acceptance and her daughter happy. Chillingworth dies knowing he helped an innocent soul, even if it doesn’t make up for all the wrongs he
Chillingworth is also a sinner because he pretends to be a physician when he really isn?t and takes that role to torture Reverend Dimmesdale. Chillingworth tortures Dimmesdale slowly by hurting him both physically and mentally. During this time he pretends to take care of him in which he really isn?t. Hawthorne writes, ?Calm, gentle, passionless, as he appeared, there was ? a quiet depth of malice ? but active now, in this unfortunate old man ? imagine a more intimate revenge ? upon an enemy.
Chillingworth saw Hester, after emerging from a great period of solitude, as a symbol of life. He regarded her as almost a savior. ...
Roger chose Reverend Dimmesdale for his spiritual guide. Around this same time, Dimmesdale began to look pale. The townspeople thought it was because he was so devoted to his work. The reason why he began to look so sickly was because Roger had started to prey on Dimmesdale. After a short time Chillingworth and Dimmesdale began to live together. The townspeople observed about Roger, " Now, there was something ugly and evil in his face, which they had not previously noticed...."(117). The more time Roger spends with Dimmesdale the more pernicious he looks. Roger is preying on the evils that are inside Dimmesdale for committing a sin. In turn, Dimmesdale is getting sicker and sicker as he suffers from what he did.
The audience experiences Roger Chillingworth in a dramatic yet critical way to justify change and retribution in one character as the consequence of cloaking deep sin and secrets. When first introduced in the story, the narrator refers to Chillingworth as “known as a man of skill” (97) through the point of view of the people in the Puritan town of Salem. He is brought into the story when the town was in a time of need of a physician to help the sickly Reverend Dimmesdale; his arrival is described as an “opportune arrival” because God sent a “providential hand” to save the Reverend. Society views Chillingworth as though as “heaven had wrought an absolute miracle” (97). The narrator feels when Chillingworth arrives in Salem he is good and has no intention of harm of others. Perhaps if the crime of the story had not been committed he would have less sin and fewer devils like features. Although this view of Chillingworth changes quickly, it presents the thought of how Chillingworth is before sin destroys him. Quickly after Chillingworth discovers Dimmesdale’s secret, his features and his character begin to change. The narrator’s attitude changes drastically towards the character from altering his ideas of the kind and intelligent persona to an evil being by using phrases such as “haunted by Satan himself” (101). The narrator portrays the people of the town believing Chillingworth is taking over the ministers soul in the statement “the gloom and terror in the depths of the poor minister’s eyes” (102). Throughout the book, Chillingworth ages exceedingly and rapidly. At the very end of the story, the narrator reveals another change in Chillingworth’s character; he searches for redemption by leaving Pearl a fortune a “very considerable amount of property” (203). By doing this, it shows
The novel mentions he was leeched onto Dimmesdale, and he felt that he could hold this over Dimmesdale's head. Chillingworth would not let it go, forgive, or anything but try to make the lives of Dimmesdale and Hester more miserable. Eventually, Dimmesdale dies after confessing on the scaffold with Hester and Pearl, in front of everyone. Chillingworth soon dies shortly after, within the year of Dimmesdale’s
Their actions are shaped by their secrets because Chillingworth is keeping a couple secrets that are very important that he needs to keep. If someone finds out about his secret, he has to find a way to get rid of them.
Dimmesdale. At first his expression had been calm, meditative, and scholar-like. "Now, there was something ugly and evil in his face, which they [people of the town] had not previously noticed, and which grew still the more obvious to sight the oftener they looked upon him.'; (Chpt. 9, p. 155) While pretending to be Dimmesdale's trusted confidant and physician, Chillingworth is actually slaying him by means of medicine and mental torture.
This powerful line from Chillingworth holds three meanings. First, Dimmesdale can save himself only through confession in public. Secondly, it shows the true sin and suffering in Chillingworth himself. In this regard, the line is just as important in reiterating the sickness in Chillingworth as it is in showing the torment in Dimmesdale. Finally, this statement creates a parallel between Chillingworth's idea of justice and the Puritans'.
When the reader first meets Roger Chillingworth standing watching Hester on the scaffold, he says that he wishes the father could be on the scaffold with her. “‘It irks me, nevertheless, that the partner of her iniquity should not, at least, stand on the scaffold by her side” (46). At this point, Chillingworth wishes that Mr. Dimmesdale was also receiving the sort of shame Hester is being put through. Throughout the first few chapters of the novel, however, Chillingworth’s motives become more and more malicious. By the time Chillingworth meets Hester in her prison cell, he has decided to go after Mr. Dimmesdale’s soul. Chillingworth turns to this goal because Mr. Dimmesdale did not endure Hester’s shame on the scaffold. Had Mr. Dimmesdale chosen to reveal himself at the time of Hester’s shame, he would not have had to endure the pain of Roger Chillingworth’s tortures of his soul.
As the novel progressed, Chillingworth fits the profile of ‘vengeance destroys the avenger’. When Roger Chillingworth is first introduced to the reader, we see a kind old man, who just has planted the seeds for revenge. Although he did speak of getting his revenge, when Hester first met her husband in her jail cell, she did not see any evil in him. Because Hester would not tell him who she had slept with, Chillingworth vowed that he would spend the rest of his life having his revenge and that he would eventually suck the soul out of the man, whom she had the affair with. “There is a sympathy that will make me conscious of him. I shall see him tremble. I shall feel myself shudder, suddenly and unawares” (Hawthorne, 101) As the novel develops, Roger Chillingworth has centered himself on Arthur Dimmesdale, but he cannot prove that he is the “one.” Chillingworth has become friends with Dimmesdale, because he has a “strange disease,” that needed to be cured; Chillingworth suspects something and begins to drill Dimmesdale. “… The disorder is a strange one…hath all the operation of this disorder been fairly laid open to me and recounted to me” (Hawthorne, 156).