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Chillingworth sin in the scarlet letter
Themes in the novel scarlet letter by Hawthorne
Nathaniel hawthorne critical analysis the scarlet letter
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The novel The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne was written during the Puritan Era about a woman named Hester Prynne who had performed adultery, which was considered a sizeable sin during this time period. In his novel, Hawthorne wrote, “No man, for any considerable period, can wear one face to himself and another to the multitude, without finally getting bewildered as to which may be the true.” The quote represents the need for genuinity within people. Within his novel, Hawthorne develops the idea of being “multi-faced” through two major characters, Arthur Dimmesdale and Roger Chillingworth. The inevitable downfall of Dimmesdale and Chillingworth demonstrates the necessity of truth, how one will inevitably drown in their own lies. The …show more content…
At the start of the novel, Chillingworth’s initial goal is to seek revenge against his wife for cheating on him. Consistently throughout the plot, Chillingworth is referenced as a “Black Man,” which signifies the Devil, representing the darker side to his personality. His “evil” persona is so noticeable that even Pearl, Hester’s daughter, calls him the Devil. In the novel, Pearl says to her mother, “‘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!” (148). When a child notices the evil persona of a man, it is highly evident that the corrupt tendencies of that person are severe. Another part of Chillingworth’s depravity is the idea of him being a “leech” in his relationship with Dimmesdale. To the public eye, the relationship between Chillingworth and Dimmesdale seems to be a friendly one, a symbiotic relationship. However, the true atmosphere of their relationship is one in which Dimmesdale’s friendship with Chillingworth is deteriorating his well-being, sucking the life out of him, just like a leech would do. The other side of Chillingworth’s personality, on the other hand, is one that is caring and sensitive. While Hester is in prison, she has the burden of having to take care of her daughter herself. When Chillingworth sees that Hester is struggling, he offers potions from his alchemic knowledge to quiet down the baby for Hester. In the text it states, “‘The medicine is potent for good”... He took the infant in his arms, and himself administered the draught… The moans of the little patient subsided; its convulsive tossings gradually ceased” (81). Chillingworth’s delicate touch with Pearl exemplifies the true nature of his inner self, the true feelings that he feels for Hester. Another example is when he uses his knowledge of alchemy once
Reflecting on these events, he turned his back on them when they stood on the scaffolding in the beginning, when he went to give Pearl a kiss on her forehead, and during the middle of the night after Hester and him talked. Unlike Dimmesdale, Chillingworth expresses no remorse whatsoever. Both men are well-educated as pastors and the other as doctors. These men seem to resemble both sides of the human society. The lack of faith is that Dimmesdale is a pastor and therefore must believe that God is in control and that his heavenly riches are better than anything else that can be offered to him.
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.
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
Chillingworth is trying to convince Dimmesdale not to confess he’s Hester’s lover because he’s afraid of losing his source of power. Once Dimmesdale refuses Chillingworth and confesses to everyone, “Old Roger Chillingworth knelt down beside him, with a blank, dull countenance, out of which the life seemed to have deported.” (Hawthorne p. 251) Chillingworth feels worthless and becomes lifeless once Dimmesdale confesses. It’s as if Chillingworth’s soul (or whatever was left of it) left his body and he became nothing. Chillingworth allowed his obsession to consume him so much that once he lost that source, he lost his life. After Dimmesdale’s death, Chillingworth shrivelled away because he no longer felt a need to stay. He’s described as, “This unhappy man [who] had made the very principle of his life to consist in the pursuit and systematic exercise of revenge, and when… there was no more devil’s work on earth for him to do, it only remained for the unhumanized mortal to betake himself whither his Master would find him tasks enough…” (Hawthorne p. 254) Chillingworth was wrapped in a cloak of corruption, and once his revenge was finished, he felt unfulfilled and empty. He allowed his obsession to become his only aspect in
This can portray Hester’s initial inspection on Chillingworth, which she saw a sudden change which was for the worst on Roger Chillingworth, making her pity him. In addition, Hester also noticed an evil toll on Chillingworth where the narrator states, “In a word, old Roger Chillingworth was a striking evidence of a man’s faculty of transforming himself into a Devil, if he will only, for a reasonable space of time, undertake a Devil’s office. 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, and adding fuel to those fiery tortures which he analyzed and gloated over” (163). This shows Chillingworth’s change, even radiating evil vibes gave Hester a sense of sadness for this man, since he is now a representative of evil and just a mere shell of what his old soul used to inhabit. On top of this, there is also context of how Hester had felt so sad for the physician, that she felt like crying
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.
Nathaniel Hawthorne crammed The Scarlet Letter with religious symbolism. One of the most interesting symbols is that of Chillingworth as the devil. All through the novel there are numerous indications and relations that verify the fact that Chillingworth is a delegate for the king of darkness.
Similar to his calm, studious nature in England, Chillingworth still possesses these positive attributes upon his arrival to Boston. He is startled to see his wife, Hester, displayed in ignominy on a scaffold before a large crowd. Hester saw Chillingworth in the crowd, a small man with a slightly wrinkled appearance. He wasn't old, but he had a look of intelligence. He also possessed a deformity that could only be seen to Hester, one of his shoulders was higher than the other. He was clothed in a disarray of savage and civilized clothing and appeared travel worn. He questioned members of the crowd on Hester's crime and when he found it to be adultery was outraged. He then vowed to find the father of her child. "...he will be known!--he will be known!--he will be known!" (61) This is Chillingworth's first turn from good to the evils lying latent in his soul. Following Hester's time on the scaffold, Chillingworth aided both Hester and her baby while they were at the jail. He admits that Hester did not stand by herself in this wrongdoing. "It was my folly, and they weakness. I--a man of thought, the bookworm of great libraries...men call me wise...I might have foreseen all this...I might have beheld the bale-fire of that scarlet letter blazing at the end of our path!" (71-72) He believed they were evenly balanced in their wrong doing and sought no vengeance against her. Chil...
Chillingworth’s story begins when he arrives at Boston and witnesses his wife for the first time in two years in public display upon the scaffold. He questions a man about his wife and finds out that he has been wronged by Hester. He is told that she now wears the letter due to carrying out an act of sin. From that moment Chillingworth character becomes darker and intent upon revenge. However, an interesting fact is his revenge was never pointed at Hester: “We have wronged each other; mine was the first wrong, when I betrayed thy budding youth into a false and unnatural relation with my decay. Therefore as a man who has not thought and philosophized in vain, I seek no ...
Chillingworth's relationship with Dimmesdale can be described as toxic, filled with doubt and ulterior motives. This view is supported even with mere chapter titles: “The Leech” and “The Leech and His Patient”. Chillingworth, suspecting that Dimmesdale is Pearl’s father, suggests living with Dimmesdale under the false pretenses that he is a doctor and he can help cure Dimmesdale’s illness. Chillingworth, the leech, is noticeably an evil character, described as both “Satan himself” by the community (120) and as the “Black Man” by Pearl (126). Chillington plans to get close with Dimmesdale, in hopes of finding out if his suspicions are correct. Once he gains Dimmesdale’s trust, he slowly weakens him and subjects him to physical pain. Doctors
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).
In the final chapters of the story, Hester Prynne begins to clearly acknowledge and express her hatred of Roger Chillingworth. Hester comes to realize that she is not nearly as sinful as Chillingworth, despite her unfaithfulness and her public ignominy, and that she abhors him for his crimes against her. In the imagery in this scene, Hester demonstrates Chillingworth’s connections to death, opposition to virtuousness, and the Devil; which, in turn, serve to clarify Chillingworth’s position as Hester’s antagonist and moral opposite.
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
“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 [Boston] and in England, to little Pearl, the daughter of Hester Prynne”(Hawthorne 247). As a fairy tale with the heroes purpose to complete his goal and finish the story. Once dead, he leaves a good amount of money and land to little Pearl. Assuring a good future to her. By doing so he redeems himself in a sort of way with his final act. Expressing that he might act as the “devil” himself but still has some goodness within him. If he was not, he would not have done what he did before dying. He could have died and not given it to anyone, but instead he did not. As he had discovered punishment for his presumption when he decided to pursue his own revenge against Dimmesdale. When Dimmesdale escapes his grasps going to the scaffold to confess his sin. Chillingworth is inflicted as this happens. He already knows that evil has consumed him, and torturing Dimmesdale is his only reason for living. “At this instant, old Roger Chillingworth thrust himself through the crowd-or,perhaps so dark, disturbed and evil, was his look, he rose up out of some nether region-to snatch back his victim from what he sought to
Right from the start, Chillingworth’s intentions reveal he has the darkest and most evil spirit. While treating Hester as a physician in prison, he gloats, “Even if I imagine a scheme of vengeance, what could I do better for my object than to let thee live.” When he finds out what Hester has done, he takes advantage of his situation and instantly attempts to get revenge. He shows no mercy. Chillingworth wants Hester to feel shame and suffer because, though he claims it was partly