Chillingworth as Satan in The Scarlet Letter The Scarlet Letter is a novel packed with religious symbolism, and Hawthorne subtly assigns the role of the devil to Roger Chillingworth. Throughout the novel, there are many references and associations that confirm the fact that Chillingworth is representative of the ultimate evil. First, Hawthorne sets Chillingworth up as the antithesis of Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale, the obvious Christ-like symbol of the novel. Chillingworth avidly sets out to ruin Dimmesdale. As the narrative voice says when referring to Chillingworth's discovery of the Dimmesdale's secret, "All that guilty sorrow, hidden from the world, whose great heart would have pitied and forgiven, to be revealed to him, the Pitiless, to him, the Unforgiving!" (96). The capitalization of the words "Pitiless" and "Unforgiving" show that Chillingworth is the devil. Symbolically, on another more obvious note, Chillingworth steals one of Dimmesdale's gloves and drops it on the scaffold where sinners are shamed in front of the town. The sexton picks it up after recognizing it as Dimmesdale's and returns it to its owner saying, "Satan dropped it there" (108). This is a very obvious pointer to the fact that Chillingworth is the devil. Second, Hawthorne's use of imagery in describing Chillingworth points him out as the devil. Chillingworth is described as misshapen and hunched. He is compared to weeds and such. His profession is described as being much like witchcraft. For example, he grasps a "dark, flabby leaf found near a grave." All of this darkness denotes the presence of evil. Third, Pearl's reaction to Chillingworth shows his true face. When she sees him looking at her, she says, "Come away, or yonder old Black Man will catch you! He hath got hold of the Minister already" (93). This is another obvious statement. All in all, Chillingworth is Satan.
When their journey began in 1846, the members of the Donner and Reed families had high hopes of reaching California, and they would settle at nothing less. Their dream of making a new life for themselves represented great determination. When their packed wagons rolled out of Springfield, Missouri, they thought of their future lives in California. The Reed family’s two-story wagon was actually called the “pioneer palace car”, because it was full of everything imaginable including an iron stove and cushioned seats and bunks for sleeping. They didn’t want to leave their materialistic way of life at home.
In the second part of Hawthornes four part structure of the Scarlet Letter, in Chapters 9-12, we see Chillingworth
Roger Chillingworth is alone in his pursuit of revenge. He is generally seen stooping and collecting herbs in the forest, or at the fires in his laboratory cooking up potions and such. Isolation seems to be the curse that keeps troubling the main characters in The Scarlet Letter. This is not the first time that Hawthorne has used isolation as means for a main theme in character or a story, “...The characters in The Scarlet Letter are reminiscent of a number of Hawthorne’s shorter works. Dimmesdale bears similarities to Young Goodman Brown who, having once glimpsed the darker nature of humankind, must forevermore view humanity as corrupt and hypocritical. There are also resemblances between Dimmesdale and Parson Hooper in “The Minister’s Black Veil,” who continues to perform the duties of his calling with eloquence and compassion but is permanently separated from the company of men by the veil that he wears as a symbol of secret sin. Chillingworth shows resemblances to Ethan Brand, the limeburner who finds the unpardonable sin in his own heart: “The sin of an intellect that triumphed over the sense of brotherhood with man and reverence for God, and sacrificed everything to its mighty claims!”” (Mazzeno) This quote is evidence that it is not farfetched that Hawthorne made this a theme in many of his works because
In Chapter 9, “The Leech,” Hawthorne uses many devices to reveal aspects of both Chillingworth and Dimmesdale’s character. For instance, even the title of the chapter hold significance in regards to Chillingworth’s character. Hawthorn used the old-fashioned term “leech” for “physician” because of its double meaning; while Chillingworth is acting as the minister’s doctor, he is also metaphorically sucking the life out of his as he seeks his revenge. Throughout the chapter Chillingworth’s evil nature is developed through the descriptions of his features. While before his expression had been “calm, meditative, scholar-like,” Hawthorne soon describes the change in his face to be “something ugly and evil” (Hawthorne 145). In addition, Hawthorne
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.
The author conveys a message of forgiveness over revenge. Chillingworth dedicates his life to exacting revenge on Dimmesdale. At the conclusion of the novel, however, Hester and Dimmesdale recognize that Chillingworth’s sin is worse than their own. Hester and Dimmesdale perceive Chillingworth as the embodiment of Satan, as the evil and hateful revenge corrupted him and transformed him into a malicious entity.
...how horrible sin was and yet he couldn't bring himself to confess his sin. Chillingworth was a completely evil man. He professed to being a man of healing and learning and yet his entire goal is to extract revenge. He spends the entire book torturing Dimmsdale for his own sick form of retribution. Let's not forget the entire Puritan society. They judged and condemned Hester for committing one sin. The behaved as if they had never sinned. Yet they did sin, on a regular basis. Even though they acted as though they hated Hester, they still had no problem with buying their clothes from her for the sake of vanity. Nathanial Hawthorne clearly shows hypocrisy in The Scarlet Letter through Dimmsdale, Chillingworth, and above all, the entire Puritan society.
...seemed at once to desert him; in somuch that he positively withered up, shriveled away, and almost vanished from mortal sight, like an uprooted weed that lies wilting in the sun. This unhappy man had made the very principle of his life to consist in the pursuit and systemic exercise of revenge; and when by its completest triumph and consummation, that evil principle was left with no further material to support it, when in short, there was no more Devil’s work on earth for him to do, it only remained for the unhumanized mortal to betake himself wither his Master would find him tasks enough, and pay him his wages duly”. It is almost as if Hawthorne and wrote him to be a picture of the devil so that there would be some kind of antagonist in the story that knew the whole story between Hester and Dimmesdale. This is why Chillingworth is the greatest sinner in the story.
All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away. -Isaiah 64:6 Everyone sins, and Nathaniel Hawthorne, the author of The Scarlet Letter, Created characters representing forms of sin that everyone commits either consciously or unconsciously. The bible makes it known that we can get swept up in our lives and emotions and this is the cause of sin, Chillingsworth did just this throughout the book. Chillingworth is the personification of purposeful sin rather than subconscious sin.
Have you ever met that one person who was so vile you considered that they might even be the devil himself? Hawthorne has a character much like this in his book, although chances are this character might be a bit worse than your own personal devil. Chillingworth, Hawthorne 's devil, is called "the black man" several times throughout the novel and Hawthorne uses several different way to show just how devil-like Chillingworth can actually be. Evidence to show that Chillingworth is worthy of being called "the black man" is seen, not only in his actions and words but also in his appearance and his reaction to loss.
Nathaniel Hawthorne created themes in The Scarlet Letter just as significant as the obvious ideas pertaining to sin and Puritan society. Roger Chillingworth is a character through which one of these themes resonates, and a character that is often underplayed in analysis. His weakness and path of destruction of himself and others are summed up in one of Chillingworth's last sentences in the novel, to Arthur Dimmesdale: "Hadst thou sought the whole earth over... there were no place so secret, no high place nor lowly place, where thou couldst have escaped me, save on this very scaffold!" (171).
...ing to us a character like Chillingworth, Hawthorn creates a villain that one has to think whether he/she hates Chillingworth or feels as though he's a victim of circumstance. Without directly telling us that others influence our lives in such a powerful way, Hawthorne conveys this idea through Chillingworth and Chillingworth's effect on those around him. Because of Chillingworth, the reader gets to see how a person who is not necessarily an evil man to begin with, can become so corrupt that even those around him view him as the Devil's worker. By putting a character like Chillingworth in his book, Hawthorne is able to show how religion had a big influence over the people during that time period. Even though Chillingworth harassed Hester and Dimmesdale, the two were more afraid of their fates after death, than Chillingworth during their lifetimes.
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.
The book The Scarlet Letter was a difficult read. It was not my favorite book in the beginning, but toward the middle of the book, it got interesting. I have learned many things from this book such as we have a light and dark, a good and evil in all of us. Throughout the novel, Hawthorne uses the symbols of light and dark to depict the good and evil among the characters, Hester Prynne, Arthur Dimmesdale, and Roger Chillingworth.
One of the many aspects to the complicated nature of sin is reveling in sin and allowing it to engulf one’s whole soul, as displayed through Roger Chillingworth throughout the novel. It is demonstrated again and again in The Scarlet Letter how Chillingworth undergoes a drastic change, what causes that transformation, and w...