Every individual would like to believe that they are the protagonist of their own story. They would be the principal character who struggles with conflicts and obstacles that possible antagonists could throw their way. What makes those protagonists compelling is how they would handle the situation. Stories are intriguing as there are different plots and settings with a protagonist who faces the conflict differently. Nonetheless, the true antagonists are those who are or have, turned evil without even noticing. Their actions are not portrayed as heroic or moral, their intents are malevolent. In the book The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne depicts Chillingworth as the main antagonist who hinders the protagonist Hester Prynne.
Chillingworth
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is the main antagonist. He was previously Hester’s husband, who wasn’t present while Hester committed adultery with Dimmesdale. One characteristic that defines an antagonist is a villain who individuals are able to relate with. When Hester stood on the scaffold for the first time there, “...stood a man, elderly, travel-worn, who, just emerging from the perilous wilderness, beheld the woman, in whom he hoped to find embodied the warmth and cheerfulness of home…” (Hawthorne 80). What Chillingworth initially wanted was to be enveloped in his wife’s warm love but found the opposite. He felt bewildered, shocked by the turn of events. The reader is able to relate to the antagonist of this story as this flawed character becomes more torn and broken as the story progresses. It is understandable that a human being would be unpredictable with their actions after their trust is betrayed. Once he found out that she was unfaithful, he searches for the identity of Pearl’s father saying, “I shall seek this man...There is a sympathy that will make me conscious of him. I shall see him tremble. I shall feel myself shudder, suddenly and unawares. Sooner or later, he must needs be mine,” (Hawthorne 39). It is already alarming from this passage that Chillingworth has become more aggressive with his words and intentions. He intends to see Dimmesdale “tremble”, that means that he wants to see pain in the man’s eyes. This is a characteristic that is seen in villains. Antagonists have the quality of taking pleasure in other’s miseries. In Chillingworth’s perspective, satisfaction will be reached by torturing Dimmesdale. These are personal desires and he is acting upon it without realizing the wrong that his actions have. Antagonists take pleasure in other’s pain, yet they also don’t realize that their actions are wrong.
For example, on page 132 it says, “What evil have I done the man?...I tell thee...for my aid his life would have burned away in torments within the first two years after the perpetration of his crime and thine...his spirit lacked the strength that could have borne up, as thine has, beneath a burden like thy scarlet letter. Oh, I could reveal a goodly secret!...he now breathes and creeps about on earth is owing all to me!” Chillingworth believes that he’s didn’t do anything wrong and Dimmesdale would have been hopeless without him. He doesn’t realize that his actions were poisonous. What Chillingworth did was worsen Dimmesdale’s condition and was only able to get an exclusive view of Dimmesdale’s suffering. Chillingworth is a true antagonist as he wanted to witness Dimmesdale breaking down instead of “healing” him as he had …show more content…
claimed. Chillingworth also tortures Hester by demanding, “Thou hast kept the secret of thy paramor.
Keep likewise, mine! There are none in this land that know me. Breathe not to any human soul that thou didst ever call me husband!...” (Hawthorne 40). From this point on, Hester struggles psychologically with the fact that she can’t expose his identity. Initially, his revenge was explained stating, “Enough, it is my purpose to live and die unknown...Recognise me not, by word, by sign, by look! Breathe not the secret, above all, to the man thou wottest of. Shouldst thou fail me in this, beware! His fame, his position, his life will be in my hands. Beware!” (Hawthorne 40). An antagonist would have secrets. Throughout the whole entire book, Chillingworth has a main secret that has a chance of getting exposed after each chapter unfolds. It is revealed later on page 154 with Hester claiming, “Dost thou not see what I would say? That old man!-the physician!- he whom they call Roger Chillingworth!-he was my husband!” Before this exposure, Hester cooperated even though she hated it. That means that Hester has held on to this secret for a while now and finally had the courage to say it. It would have been revealed earlier if Chillingworth had not threatened
Hester. Chillingworth has brought trouble onto our main protagonist, Hester. A true antagonist is an individual who gets in the path of the protagonist’s goal. He held on to the past for eight years and devoted the rest of life to his revenge. It is difficult to imagine what Chillingworth had felt, he was a scholar who worked hard in gaining knowledge. He felt that all of that work was useless after finding out what happened while he was gone. Chillingworth’s idea of justifying the situation was to make the ones who hurt him suffer from what they’ve done. From an outsider’s perspective, we’d find his actions unmoral, unforgivable
After Hester is caught for adultery she is trialled for her punished. “ This woman has brought shame upon us all, and ought to die, Is there not law for it?” ( Hawthorne 47). The quote says she has committed a serious crime and people want her to die. This means that people are going to ashamed for knowing Hester. The fact that she makes people feel ashamed demonstrates that Chillingworth would not want people to know he is Hester’s husband and even that he knows her. Therefore he wants to get his justice back by finding out who her lover is.
In The Scarlet Letter, the main characters Hester Prynne, Roger Chillingworth, and Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale are tangled in a web of deceit, which is the result of a sin as deadly as the Grimm Reaper himself: adultery. Nathaniel Hawthorne, the author of The Scarlet Letter, describes the feeling of deceit using the main characters; for each of the cast the reaction to the deceit is different, thus the reader realizes the way a person reacts to a feeling differs between each character.
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.
18th century’s perception of the Puritan Society was that Puritans were a zealous community of people that lived with strict moral standards which allowed them to live in perfect harmony. However, the truth is Puritans were overly zealous whose values created paranoia and intolerance for other views. Through the characters Dimmesdale and Chillingworth who are also falsely perceived, Hawthorne suggest they are representative of the dour living of Puritan society that is hidden by the puritan’s tranquil and utopian outlook.
[having] a wild look of wonder, joy, and horror? (135) at the same time. Hawthorne goes further beyond this description by comparing this sudden outburst of emotion to Satan?s ecstasy by saying that the only factor which ?distinguished [Chillingworth?s] ecstasy from Satan?s was the trait of wonder in it? (135). As the reader delves deeper into the book, we come to the conclusion that Dimmesdale is indeed the father of Pearl, the product of the horrendous sin consummated through Dimmesdale?s and Hester?s illicit affair. This point brings us back to Chillingworth?s reaction to realizing this earlier at the end of chapter ten. Although this shocking news explains why Chillingworth might have been angry or horrified, it does not clarify why Chillingworth did not attempt to murder or poison Dimmesdale whilst he had the chance, especially since the reader knows from a point made by Chillingworth earlier in the book, that after Chillingworth had sought out the man who had an affair with his Hester, he would have his long sought-after revenge (73).
Chillingworth states, “What should ail me to harm this misbegotten and miserable babe? The medicine is potent for good.” (4:42) Although Hester believes that Chillingworth may be trying to poison Pearl, she allows him to administer the medicine to her. Shortly thereafter, the novel states that “it soon proved its efficacy, and redeemed the leech’s pledge.” (4:42) This is a direct affirmation from the book that Chillingworth was helping Pearl and Hester. His resentment is directed towards Dimmesdale, as he is the one who caused Hester to have an affair. However, even in his insanity, he was still able to help Pearl. This further shows that he has a good character, and that the only thing causing his bad temper is his distress over Hester’s
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.
As a respected physician, Chillingworth was “a man of skill in all Christian modes of physical science, and li... ... middle of paper ... ... powerful grip over him, dies peacefully, and Chillingworth dies soon after. To plot revenge in any situation is harmful. Chillingworth’s plot of revenge brings the downfall of Dimmesdale, as well as his own.
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).
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...
From the very moment Chillingworth is introduced, he is deceitful towards the Puritan society. Chillingworth appears in the novel, seeming to know nothing of the scene at the scaffold. He asks of a townsperson: "...who is this woman? - and wherefore is she here to set up to public shame?" (Hawhtorne 67). Yet, we find in the next chapter that he indeed knows who Hester is, because Chillingworth is the lawful husband of her. He decieves the people of Boston to avoid the humiliation his wife brought upon him. In this respect, Chillingworth sins against the eight commandment, "You shall not bear false witness against your neighbour" (Gerber 26).
The Scarlet Letter illustrates that the illumination of self-deception gapes open after one like the very jaws of hell. This is apparent through all the main characters of the novel. Although Hawthorne's work has several imperfect people as the main characters, including Hester Prynne, Arthur Dimmesdale, and Roger Chillingworth, the worst sinner is Roger Chillingworth. Chillingworth commits the greater sin because of his failure to forgive; he has an insatiable appetite for revenge; he receives extreme pleasure in torturing Dimmesdale. Hester Prynne, however, has committed sins of almost the same magnitude.
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).
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'.
Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter is a study of the effects of sin on the hearts and minds of the main characters, Hester Prynne, Arthur Dimmesdale, Roger Chillingworth. Hester, Dimmesdale, and Chillingworth. Sin strengthens Hester, humanizes Dimmesdale, and turns Chillingworth into a demon.