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Critical study of the scarlet letter
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Scarlet letter character analysis paper
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A friendship is the emotions or conduct of being acquaintances, and within the book The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne and the criticism “Dimmesdale’s Fall” by Edward Davidson two characters in The Scarlet Letter, Dimmesdale and Chillingworth, create a friendship bound by hostility. Chillingworth and Dimmesdale begin their relationship as simple roommates of a doctor and a reverend. Chillingworth at first takes the job of caring for Dimmesdale because he wants to help him. Their lives are normal until the secret about Dimmesdale’s lover starts seep into Chillingworth’s hands. Dimmesdale begins to fall away from society as his sins eat him from the inside out. Through an odd and distorted relationship, Chillingworth and Dimmesdale grow …show more content…
to depend upon each other to the extent that their lives are inseparable because of their connection through life, sin and Hester.
Chillingworth’s torture starts a process of leeching off Dimmesdale life, and eventually the man of science cannot live without the sustaining connection to Dimmesdale. As Chillingworth's desire to torture Dimmesdale greatens, Chillingworth’s sins start to eat away at him. To compensate for the pain Chillingworth needs to leech power away from Dimmesdale to keep himself going. Chillingworth begins to “[dig] into the poor clergyman’s heart, like a miner searching for gold; or, rather, like a sexton delving into a grave” which starts the process of stealing the life from Dimmesdale (Hawthorne, 88). Dimmesdale as reverend to the town church lives close to god, which keeps him alive, while his sins and Chillingworth are trying to rip him apart. Chillingworth needs Dimmesdale as a source of life just as much as Dimmesdale needs Chillingworth to keep him healthy and alive. Chillingworth and Dimmesdale connection is inseparable because each one uses the other …show more content…
person for strength. Dimmesdale in particular when “[walking] to the village [he] undergoes a sudden transformation which would delight the gloating eyes of Satan and Chillingworth” (Davidson, 368). His transformation is an example of how weak they become without each other, and a success for Chillingworth, but not for long. The time away from Chillingworth allows Dimmesdale to clear his mind, but edge closer to death. Chillingworth also suffers from the disconnection, almost immediately after Dimmesdale’s death Chillingworth. It seemed like, “all his strength and energy--all his vital and intellectual force-- seemed at once to desert him” (Hawthorne, 250). Chillingworth simply can not survive without Dimmesdale’s sustenance. The connection binds both of them to the other’s life but Chillingworth’s commitment to his sins furthers the extent of the pain radiating from the two. Despite Chillingworth’s dark intentions, he embodies the constant, needed reminder of sin and guilt--which becomes an integral part of the minister. Chillingworth’s profession is a doctor, who is supposed to help people, but he exploits his title as a way to infiltrate Dimmesdale’s life. This exploitation allows his sin to begin. Each day Chillingworth participates in the torture of his subject “the portion of him which the [has] devil claimed” slowly grows larger (Hawthorne, 133). The devil slowly edges into Chillingworth’s mind and changes his mind and actions to concentrate only on destroying Dimmesdale. Chillingworth needs and wants to never leave Dimmesdale’s side so he can make sure Dimmesdale never forgets the past, which makes Chillingworth’s first sin slowly diverges into many others. To accompany the torture Chillingworth uses deceit to “mislead the minister into a deadly illusion” about the connection between his body and soul (Davidson, 360). He makes Dimmesdale think that there is nothing wrong with his decrepit state of health. As Dimmesdale grows every weaker there is speculation within the townsfolk that he is simply ascending toward heaven, and Chillingworth, even though he knows the truth, convinces Dimmesdale that it is true. Dimmesdale believing it true leads him self down a path of distrust and suffering as he thinks he is moving closer to god when really he edging ever closer to the pits of hell. Chillingworth’s success supplements his need for sin and pushes him toward more painful methods including the use of deadly plants like, “nightshade, dogwood, henbane and whatever else of vegetable wickedness the climate could produce” (Hawthorne, 120). The sins Chillingworth commits to slowly digs his grave and allows the Devil free reign over his mind and actions allowing him to survive off Dimmesdale. Hester though not directly connected to Chillingworth’s sins is circuitously associated with the pain all three have been suffering. Through Hester, the lives of Dimmesdale and Chillingworth are forged together in an entwined bond of sin.
Hester starts the pain with an affair and ends it with death. Hester is bound to Chillingworth through marriage before she moves to the new world, and meets Dimmesdale where her marriage ends. Chillingworth’s relationship after the affair evolves into a connection to Hester through her new lover, but the pain starts when he sees her on the scaffold. He lets the pain be absorbed as “the convulsion grew almost imperceptible, and finally subsided into the nature of his depths” permanently changing who he is (Hawthorne, 42). Dimmesdale is connected with Hester through sin, that is only relinquished at his death. Hester, as the public sinner, has to deal with the pain of Dimmesdale’s sin as well as the torture he is receiving, connecting Hester to Dimmesdale and forging the whole relationship into one. From Hester to Dimmesdale to Chillingworth the awfulness of their sins slowly increases from adultery to brutal torture. They each create a life where running from their sins would only create more pain and suffering. If Hester ran she would feel the guilt of leaving her helpless lover, Dimmesdale, to the fate of Chillingworth. If Dimmesdale ran he would slowly die without Chillingworth to keep him alive. Chillingworth holds Dimmesdale back from producing the courage to show the world his A, but when he meets with Hester he is immediately thrown into reality. He starts to
understand what has been happening in his life, and the process toward his confession on the third scaffold scene starts to materialize in his mind, slowing his fall to a stop before he can rise to heaven and not just “convince himself that [his] body and soul are separate,” but know he has finally left (Davidson, 360). Chillingworth can not leave without dying himself for his life depends on being a leech. The relationship is bound through life and love, death and sin, forming an unbreakable bond that create an inseparable pair. Sin and love is everything that a life consists of whether it be love for another a person, or arts, many sins or few, life consists of no more or less. Chillingworth and Dimmesdale live a life of interconnected love and Sin binding them together until the end. Each of them have made large mistakes that altered the fate of their lives, but were not strong reconcile their sins. A government organized based on religion establishes a precedent the inhibits a life to ever reconcile for its sins unless they given to death. A life of sin in those times is not an easy or enjoyable life, and produces everlasting pain. Life is always full of experiences, and connections. A connected life creates a full life, but if those connections originate from pain it shapes a life that can only experience the world through the eyes of pain.
Chapter 15- After Chillingworth left the meeting with Hester, Hester for the first time realized that she hated him. This change occurred very rapidly as she went from pity to hatred after realizing all the pain that he has caused not only her but everyone that he has been in contact with. We also get another example of a juxtaposition that Hawthorne has created between the relationship Hester has with Chillingworth and Dimmesdale respectively. Hester’s relationship with Chillingworth is a hate filled one with no love, while her relationship with Dimmesdale is a forbidden one that is filled with love. Hawthorne has an obvious motive in writing this chapter, and that is to demonstrate to reader the effects of being consumed into something. Chillingworth
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.
In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, Mr. Dimmesdale’s greatest fear is that the townspeople will find out about his sin of adultery with Hester Prynne. Mr. Dimmesdale fears that his soul could not take the shame of such a disclosure, as he is an important moral figure in society. However, in not confessing his sin to the public, he suffers through the guilt of his sin, a pain which is exacerbated by the tortures of Roger Chillingworth. Though he consistently chooses guilt over shame, Mr. Dimmesdale goes through a much more painful experience than Hester, who endured the public shame of the scarlet letter. Mr. Dimmesdale’s guilt is much more damaging to his soul than any shame that he might have endured.
Obsession and hatred are such corrupt concepts that if one lets it consume them, it can make them inhuman. In the novel, The Scarlet Letter, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, the character Roger Chillingworth is a walking symbol for how allowing revenge to become an obsession can change you into something horrible. As the story progresses, Chillingworth changes into a monster as his need for revenge and hatred grows stronger, causing him to sin by endlessly torturing Dimmesdale. Chillingworth grows into a more menacing person as he becomes a puppet to his own hatred, sin, and obsession.
In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel, The Scarlet Letter many aspects of evil and sin are reflected through the characters Arthur Dimmesdale and Roger Chillingworth. Dimmesdale and Chillingworth made their own choice of being a sinner and being evil. Therefore, that is what Hawthorne believed to be the definition of evil and sin; an individual chooses to do an action that is considered sinful. Although Dimmesdale and Chillingworth both portray evil and sin they portray it in two completely different forms. Dimmesdale is shown as being a secret sinner throughout the novel, but with the evil torturing that he receives from Chillingworth and himself it drives him to the point where he then becomes a public sinner. It is better for an individual to confess their sin than to bury it deep down.
Both committed adultery but have suffered in different ways. Hester’s punishment composed of public shaming on the scaffold for all to behold, but afterwards she did not suffer from guilt because she confessed her sin, unlike Dimmesdale, who did not confess, but rather let his sin become the “black secret of his soul” (170), as he hid his vile secret and became described as the “worst of sinners” (170). He leads everyone to believe of his holiness as a minister and conceals the, “Remorseful hypocrite that he was [is]” (171). Hester, a sinner too, however, does not lie about how she lives and therefore, does not suffer a great torment in her soul. While she stays healthy, people begin to see Hester’s Scarlet Letter turn into a different meaning, of able or angel, and they view her in a new light, of how she really lives. Dimmesdale however, becomes sickly and weak after “suffering under bodily disease, and gnawed and tortured by some black trouble of the soul” (167). He hides behind a false mask as he is described as possessing, “Brilliant particles of a halo in the air about his head” (300), and perceived as the most honorable man in New England. People do not see him as truly himself, but rather who he hides
The townspeople first saw Chillingworth as a miracle sent from God to heal Dimmesdale, but they soon saw evil in his face and came to believe that he was “Satan’s emissary” (Hawthorne 101). When Dimmesdale first met Chillingworth, they had an instant connection and became good friends, but after living in the same house, Dimmesdale came to loathe his personal doctor. When talking to Hester and Pearl on the scaffold, the minister says of Chillingworth: “I have a nameless horror of the man” (Hawthorne 123). Hester sees that Chillingworth has changed since she first met him in England. She notices that, “The former aspect of an intellectual and studious man, calm and quiet, which was what she best remembered in him, had altogether vanished, and been succeeded by an eager, searching, almost fierce, yet carefully guarded look” (Hawthorne 132). She knows that she is the cause of this major change, and she tries to convince him to forget his revenge and become a human again. However, he does not listen to Hester, and she sees that he is set in his ways and she moves
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.
Eventually coming to terms with his societal offense and accepting the love he shares for Hester and the product of his sin, Pearl, Dimmesdale decides to end his torment by revealing himself to society. However, as he relieves himself from the curse cast upon him, his body succumbs to his mental distress and physically weakness, leaving him a freed man as he takes his last breath. Dimmesdale inflicts himself with agony and distress as he chose to have an affair with Hester, but his ultimate downfall resulted because of his fear of social judgement and the consequences for committing such a crime. His choice to hide his dishonorable actions from society worsened his physical and mental health as he lived in constant angst of someone uncovering his scandalous secret and consequently leading to his passing away. As demonstrated by Oedipus and Dimmesdale, it is not one’s crime that leads them into misery; it is the emotional distress and guilt that tortures them and brings upon their greatest
(Elbert, 258). One may refer back to the scene at the beginning when Reverend Wilson is trying to get the name of the other sinner. As Hester refuses, one may see this as a foreshadowing of other events. Hester is a strong woman who would not tell a soul the secrets that interconnect Dimmesdale and Chillingworth. The secrets however begin to take a toll on Hester especially as Chillingworth comes to town and is dying to know who the father of Pearl is.
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
Chillingworth and Dimmesdale stood in the crowd watching her. Chillingworth is incensed over her sinfulness and vows to find out the identity of her partner so that he can have his revenge. is tormented by Chillingworth. As a result, Dimmesdale suffers from failing health as well as from guilt. He tries to confess and cannot find the courage to do it.
Dimmesdale‘s guilt, negativity, and unrighteousness lead to his downfall. Dimmesdale‘s journey towards his own redemption takes a toil on his mental and physical body. This toil can be seen throughout The Scarlet Letter. He was also able to understand his mistakes, and he redeemed himself at the end of the novel. However, as soon as his journey of redeeming himself came to an end, he died. Thus, Dimmesdale’s guilt had ruined his life. Dimmesdale was filled with negativity and guilt from the sins that he had committed that led him to his
However, there is a larger consequence which she is reminded of everyday. Hester’s daughter Pearl is the ultimate consequence of her sin. Pearl is the walking image of Hester’s sin and guilt that she has to live with forever. Chillingworth was not satisfied until he completely destroyed his wife’s lover. He wanted revenge so bad and he could not think about anything else until he got what he was looking for. "A quiet depth of malice, hitherto latent, but active now...which led him to imagine a more intimate revenge than any mortal had ever wreaked upon an enemy." (Hawthorne 128) Dimmesdale feels extremely guilty so he punishes himself by going long periods of time without eating or sleeping. He also whips himself on the back causing cuts and bleeding. Dimmesdale is so overcome by his guilt and sin that he tries to hurt himself for everything he has done. "To the untrue man, the whole universe is false, it is impalpable, it shrinks to nothing within his grasp....The only truth that continued to give Mr. Dimmesdale a real existence on this earth was the anguish in his inmost soul." (Hawthorne 134)
After seven years progressed Chillingworth and Hester meet in the woods to discuss the scarlet letter. Hester realizes how evil and nasty Chillingworth has become. “What choice had you?" asked Roger Chillingworth. "My finger, pointed at this man, would have hurled him from his pulpit into a dungeon, —thence, peradventure, to the gallows!’” (188). Once Chillingworth found out Dimmesdale was the person Hester commits adultery with, he could have easily told on him and had him locked up or hung. Instead Chillingworth chose to keep it a secret and psychologically torture