Chillingworth's Revenge In The Scarlet Letter Quotes

The Scarlet Letter takes place in the mid 17th century, in a puritan community of present day Boston, but back then known as the Massachusetts Bay Colony. The story is centered around protagonist, Hester Prynne, and her ventures through her penance for committing adultery and the revenge that her husband Roger Chillingworth takes against the other member of Hester’s affair: Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale. Dimmesdale, for committing such a sin he feels an overwhelming amount of guilt. He deals with his guilt by tormenting himself physically and psychologically, developing a heart condition as a result. Roger Chillingworth, once discovering that Dimmesdale is the father of Hester’s illegitimate child, adds to the poor man's suffering by psychologically tormenting the reverend for many years, until Dimmesdale dies as a result of the crushing guilt. Roger Chillingworth, on his deathbed, leaves his large fortune to Pearl, Hester and Arthur's daughter. This action may

make it seem like after his life of revenge, Chillingworth is redeemed to be good again, but no matter how kind the dyeing gesture was, Roger Chillingworth was an evil man for doing the heinous acts of psychological damage he does Dimmesdale.

Roger Chillingworth spends the majority of the book as an evil villainess character, funneling all his energy into torturing Arthur Dimmesdale, but his one source of redemption is when he leaves the entirety of his fortune to Pearl:

Leaving this discussion apart, we have a matter of business to communicate to the reader. At old Roger Chillingworth's decease, (which took place within the year), and by his last will and testament, of which Governor Bellingham and the Reverend Mr. Wilson were executors, he bequeathed a very considerable amount of property, both here and in England to little Pearl, the daughter of Hester Prynne.

So Pearl--the elf child--the demon offspring, as some people up to that epoch persisted in considering her--became the richest heiress of her day in the New World. Not improbably this circumstance wrought a very material change in the public estimation; and had the mother and child remained here, little Pearl at a marriageable period of life might have mingled her wild blood with the lineage of the devoutest Puritan among them all. (Hawthorne 178)

This quote shows how the money did put Roger Chillingworth in a better light. This unbelievable act of kindness is put into action because after all his evil doings, giving his estate to Pearl was Chillingworth's only salvation from sin. This was a very kind act to Pearl on Chillingworth’s part, but the damage that he had done to her parents had, unfortunately, already happened, and Chillingworth couldn't undo that. So, while giving his fortune to Pearl was a pure act of kindness, for he did not have to do that, he was still a cold hearted bastard for doing the wicked, villainous things to Dimmesdale.

The leaving of his money to Pearl was Chillingworth’s one shining moment, for the rest of the book, he is a dedicated villain, who is set on torturing the Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale.

And he really was a terrible guy, once Chillingworth decides to pursue Hester's lover and enact revenge, he pursues this purpose the techniques of the intellectual man he is. Moving in with Dimmesdale he pokes and prods. His theory is that corruption of the body leads to corruption of the soul. "Wherever there is a heart and an intellect, the diseases of the physical frame are tinged with the peculiarities of these"(Hawthorne 86). Chillingworth makes it his life goal to torment Dimmesdale to death. As a representation of The Devil, Chillingworth is in no way a good person that is simply misunderstood. The fact that he is a man of science, and practices the healing ways that the Indians taught him, mad him, in Puritan society, a pawn of the devil and an nonconformist to society, linking him even further with satan

himself:

Hester Prynne, likewise, had involuntarily looked up, and all these four persons, old and young, regarded one another in silence, till the child laughed aloud, and shouted--"Come away, mother! Come away, or yonder old black man will catch you! He hath got hold of the minister already. Come away, mother or he will catch you! But he cannot catch little Pearl!"(Hawthorne 92)

This quote show Pearl warning her mother to stay away from “the black man” which was another saying for “the Devil”. Pearl is shown to be highly intelligent in the story saying this gives it even more credibility.

Mr. Roger Chillingworth proves himself to be even more evil with his unswayable intention of cold hearted revenge:

The intellect of Roger Chillingworth had now a sufficiently plain path before it. It was not, indeed, precisely that which he had laid out for himself to tread. Calm, gentle, passionless, as he appeared, there was yet, we fear, a quiet depth of malice, hitherto latent, but active now, in this unfortunate old man, which led him to imagine a more intimate revenge than any mortal had ever wreaked upon an enemy. (Hawthorne 95)

His undeniably brilliant mind and loveless heart made it so easy for him to be so cold to another person, even though that person had wronged him, he was guilty enough for his sin, for he was a reverend for God’s sake. Dimmesdale did not need the extra pushes over the edge that Chillingworth happily gave him to the brink of physical and psychological well being. Another layer of how cold this guy was to Dimmesdale was that he used his medical background to keep him from dying so that Dimmesdale could continue to live, so that Chillingworth could continue to make his life a living hell:

"What evil have I done the man?" asked Roger Chillingworth again. "I tell thee, Hester Prynne, the richest fee that ever physician earned from monarch could not have bought such care as I have wasted on this miserable priest! But for my aid, his life would have burned away in torments, within the first two years after the perpetration of his crime and thine. For, Hester, his spirit lacked the strength that could have borne up, as thine has, beneath a burden like thy scarlet letter. O, I could reveal a goodly secret! But enough! What art can do, I have exhausted on him. That he now breathes, and creeps about on earth, is owing all to me!" (Hawthorne 117)

To let him die with the ability to save his life would be an act of pure evil, but to save his life just so that he could not escape his miserable life with the sweet release of death is a whole other level of pure evil that is only achievable by a psychopath.

Roger Chillingworth, in the end tries to redeem himself for his newly realized sins, but being the representation of the Devil for the entire story makes that pretty much impossible. His attempt to be absolved is gratefully accepted, but cannot be forgiven. His acts of evil go too far for his soul’s karma to be payed off by means of money. To absolve himself, he would've needed to do some serious soul searching before he died, and turn his wrongs to rights through personal actions, not just paying off his problems. He didn't half to choose this path for his life to go down , at the point in his life when he arrived to find his wife in a public shaming for adultery he could have reacted less overdramatic and evil, however ,out of all the choices he could of made for the remainder of his life; he chooses revenge. He leads himself down a dark path of Devil’s bidding and cold hearted revenge. His attempt of redemption

after his life of revenge, Chillingworth wants to be redeemed good again, but no matter how grand his dying gesture was, Roger Chillingworth was an evil man for doing the heinous acts of psychological damage he did Dimmesdale, and deserves to be the Devil of this story, for he is the literal, physical representation of Satan himself, and plays the part of the vengeful, heartless monster meticulously well.