In The Scarlet Letter, the three main characters; Hester Prynne, Arthur Dimmesdale, and Roger Chillingworth all commit sins. The protagonist Hester Prynne commits adultery by having a child with Dimmesdale while she was married to Chillingworth. Arthur Dimmesdale commits fornication through the same act as he is not married, and also bears false witness by not admitting to his sins. Roger Chillingworth seeks vengeance on the man who slept with his wife. All of these sins have an affect on the characters, however some characters are affected more than the others. Hester Prynne committed the sin of adultery by having a child with Reverend Dimmesdale. Her sin would have been kept a secret if she had not become pregnant. Because she had not seen …show more content…
He suspects Dimmesdale so he moves in with him and becomes his doctor. Seeing that Dimmesdale is sick, he decides to use this to his advantage. Throughout the years Chillingworth gained his trust and kept him alive, however, never curing him completely causing him to live in constant pain. Dimmesdale is trapped with Chillingworth for years until the prospect of running away with Hester rejuvenates him. As a result, he doesn't take his pills and the next day he reveals the secret on his chest to the townspeople before immediately dying. Right before he died, Chillingworth approached him and spoke “Thou hast escaped me” (161), causing the end of Chillingworth's malevolent actions. After Dimmesdale died, Chillingworth had nothing left to live for and he soon passed away just one year later. Chillingworth changed from a harmless man, into a man who would stop at nothing for revenge. However he became so obsessed with revenge that it became a part of him, changing him into a malicious person by nature. When he had no one to get revenge on after Dimmesdale passed on, he had no purpose in
Hester Prynne, the protagonist in the book The Scarlet Letter, has committed the sin of adultery, but learned to use that mistake as a form of strength. Hester’s husband, Roger Chillingworth, sent her to America and was supposed to follow her, but never arrived in Boston. While Hester was waiting on Chillingworth, she had an affair with the town minister, Dimmesdale. As a result, Hester gave birth to a beautiful daughter and was forced to wear the scarlet
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.
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.
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.
Guilt and shame haunt all three of the main characters in The Scarlet Letter, but how they each handle their sin will change their lives forever. Hester Prynne’s guilt is publicly exploited. She has to live with her shame for the rest of her life by wearing a scarlet letter on the breast of her gown. Arthur Dimmesdale, on the other hand, is just as guilty of adultery as Hester, but he allows his guilt to remain a secret. Instead of telling the people of his vile sin, the Reverend allows it to eat away at his rotting soul. The shame of what he has done slowly kills him. The last sinner in this guilty trio is Rodger Chillingworth. This evil man not only hides his true identity as Hester’s husband, but also mentally torments Arthur Dimmesdale. The vile physician offers his ‘help’ to the sickly Reverend, but he gives the exact opposite. Chillingworth inflicts daily, mental tortures upon Arthur Dimmesdale for seven long years, and he enjoys it. Hester, Dimmesdale, and Chillingworth are all connected by their sins and shame, but what they do in regards to those sins is what sets them apart from each other.
The Scarlet Letter involves many characters that go through several changes during the course of the story. In particular, the young minister Dimmesdale, who commits adultery with Hester, greatly changes. He is the moral blossom of the book, the character that makes the most progress for the better. It is true that Dimmesdale, being a minister, should be the role model of the townspeople. He is the last person who should commit such an awful crime and lie about it, but in the end, he confesses to the town. Besides, everybody, including ministers, sin, and the fact that he confesses illustrates his courage and morality.
In the story Scarlet Letter we learn of Hester’s adultery. At the end of the book Hawthorne leaves us wondering was Hester,Dimmesdale,and Chillingworth forgiven or not? Hester Prynne was a mother who had a child with the priest Dimmesdale while still married to Chillingworth. Over time in the story Hester was forgiven but Chillingworth and Dimmesdale we’re not they still sinned. Hester had a child Pearl, while still married so she sinned adultery.
Upon first meeting Hester in jail, Chillingworth poses as a doctor and cares for Hester and Pearl. Chillingworth admits he knew that Hester never loved him, and that he believes he is, in part, responsible for Hester’s sins. Chillingworth believed that Hester was a beautiful young girl, and acknowledges that he had been “misshapen since birth”, and knows she was forced into a loveless marriage with him. He blames himself for being unable to satisfy Hester’s needs, and says that they are even. Chillingworth’s acceptance and forgiveness of Hester’s sins establishes him as a sympathetic character prior to his evil doings. If Chillingworth was not born as an inherently evil man, his sins must have come from extenuating circumstances. While Chillingworth forgives Hester, he states he will discover the man who has wronged them both, and that “there is a sympathy that will make [Dimmesdale] conscious of [Chillingworth]. It is Chillingworth’s inability to forgive the man who impregnated Hester that truly began his psychological unravelling. Chillingworth was not born with nor did he enter the Massachusetts Bay Colony with evil
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.
Even though Hester and Dimmesdale have sinned gravely as well, there is a key difference between them and Chillingworth. Along with Hester, Dimmesdale feels guilty for his sin. The only reason he does not admit it is because he is naïve and fears judgment of her peers more than that of God. On the other hand, Chillingworth knows he has done wrong, but he doesn’t care and shows no remorse for his actions. Close to the end of the novel, Chillingworth says to Hester, “I have left thee to the scarlet letter….If that have not avenged me, I can do no more” (Hawthorne 161). Chillingworth is so ruthless and evil that he even desired revenge against his wife. Not only does he leave her to the scarlet letter, he makes sure it had fulfilled his desire. Lastly, at the very end of the novel, as Dimmesdale dies on the scaffold, he yells to Chillingworth, "May God forgive thee….Thou, too, hast deeply sinned!” (Hawthorne 240). Small things, such as this quote, emphasize to the reader how serious Chillingworth’s sins
When Chillingworth learns that Dimmesdale was the man who commits the adulteress act with his wife he becomes fixated on getting revenge. His thirst for revenge was the only objective on his mind “This unhappy person had effected such a transformation by devoting himself, for seven years, to the constant analysis of a heart full of torture, and deriving his enjoyment thence,” (Hawthorn 157). Due to his fixation on revenge Chillingworth’s physical features have declined as he is now appearing as a mere replica of the devil as he begins embracing the evil that lurks within him. Dimmesdale has no other objectives each day besides causing chaos and this takes a toll on his body. After Dimmesdale delivers his sermon Chillingworth attempts to stop Hester and Dimmesdale from sharing the truth about their relationship in fear that they become happier than him. As Chillingworth rushes to the marketplace and his appearance is noted as he “thrust himself through the crowd, --or perhaps, so dark, disturbed, and evil was his look, he rose out of another region, --to snatch back his victim from what he sought to do!,” (235). Now, there is no point of return for Chillingworth not a glimpse of his previous self can be found in the fiend standing in the marketplace. The devil has crawled into his heart clutching it, causing his physical
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.
In Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, the reader is able to observe how one sin devastates three lives. Hester, Dimmesdale, and Chillingworth are all guilty of succumbing to temptation, anger, and desire, causing all to fit the definition of a sinner. Yet, Chillingworth's iniquities raise him up above Hester and Dimmesdale on the level of diabolic acts.
[INTRO] Chillingworth is the worst sinner because he committed blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, an unforgivable sin.
In The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, a great sin is committed by Arthur Dimmesdale and Hester Prynne, this great sin being adultery. Due to this sin, both of them are plagued with sadness and guilt throughout the rest of the story. The guilt from their sins affects both of them in extremely different ways. Hester is caught in their sin, but Arthur is not. Guilt without confession can lead to dire consequences, and this is extremely prevalent in Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale’s life. The fact that Arthur Dimmesdale gets off free of charge in his sin brings a large amount of guilt into his life. This guilt follows Arthur throughout the whole