Chillingworth and Dimmesdale in The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne

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Chillingworth and Dimmesdale in The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne In The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Roger Chillingworth leeches on Arthur Dimmesdale in order to get retribution on him. He wants revenge on Dimmesdale because Dimmesdale and Hester, Roger's wife, had a child together. As he sucked the life out of Dimmesdale, Roger's physical characteristics are transformed to resemble a devil. Roger can also be compared to a weed because a weed is something annoying that lives off of other plants. Once Dimmesdale dies, Roger begins to wilt and die too because there is nothing left for him to nourish him. 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. "He now dug into the poor clergyman's heart, like a miner searching for gold; or, rather, like a sexton delving into a grave, possibly in quest of a jewel that had been buried on the dead man's bosom, but likely to find nothing save mortality and corruption"(118-119). Roger began to investigate every facet of Dimmesdale's life. He is searching for evidence that Dimmesdale has c... ... middle of paper ... ... Reverend. " Nothing was more remarkable than the change which took place, almost immediately after Mr.Dimmesdale's death, in the appearance and demeanor 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, shriveled away, and almost vanished from mortal sight, like an uprooted weed that lies wilting in the sun.(236)" A parasite is seen as something disgusting and ugly, so when Roger leeches on Dimmesdale his figure changes into a fiend. Once Dimmesdale dies, Roger is no longer provided with the food he needs to survive. He is like an uprooted weed because an uprooted weed has no food source to maintain life and dies in a short period of time.

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