Gothic Elements In Scarlet Letter

The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne is an American gothic novel, set in the 17th Century Boston during Puritan times. The main character, Hester Prynne, commits adultery against her husband, Roger Chillingworth, while he is away somewhere. As a result of her sin she is forced to wear a red letter “A” on her chest and stand on a scaffold for many hours, with her illegitimate child Pearl. Hester does not reveal the name of the father who happens to be the town’s new young minister Arthur Dimmesdale. Roger Chillingworth, when he arrives in Boston and learns of Hester Prynne’s sins, sets to find the man; he does and he tortures the minister by pretending not to notice his obvious inner pain and guilt. Another American gothic novel is Moby

Dick by Herman Melville, which is set in the 19th century in a town called Nantucket, then later on a whaling ship, the Pequod. The main character Ishmael decides he wants to go whaling and sets to find a ship; prior to finding the ship he meets his future best friend and harpooner Queequeg.

Ishmael is lead to the Pequod and joins the crew with Queequeg despite warnings of the doom by a man named Elijah. Once upon the ship Ishmael meets the Captain, Ahab, and learns of his mission to find and kill the white whale, who took Ahab’s leg. Ahab leads the ship to far away odd places with his insane antics of murder. Everyone on the ship dies, except for Ishmael who finds a ship and arrives back to Nantucket. Since both are on a mission of revenge and torture, Roger Chillingworth and Captain Ahab are both evil characters with profound similarities.

In The Scarlet Letter, Roger Chillingworth is inferred to be a truly evil character. Roger Chillingworth, much like Captain Ahab is on a mission of vengeance. This is seen when Chillingworth tells Hester Prynne that he will find out who the father of Pearl is. This is part of the mission of vengeance because if Chillingworth were not completely obsessed with revenge then he wouldn’t want to know the man that Hester Prynne cheated on him with. Another point about the mission of vengeance, Chillingworth feels wronged by Hester Prynne and Dimmesdale, so he continues to pretend not to know. This is seen in the novel when Chillingworth

discovers the self-inflicted marks on Dimmesdale, he giggles manically because he is glad to know the man that wronged him is suffering. His mission is continued when he offers to take care of the sickly minister, whose guilt is eating him alive. Dimmesdale’s guilt continues to eat away at him, but Chillingworth stays and watched Dimmesdale suffer more and more. Roger Chillingworth is an evil character because he causes harm and suffering to those around him with no regrets. This is seen in the novel when Chillingworth accuses Prynne of turning him into a fiend and tells her that the letter “A” has made her strong and that he pities her. Chillingworth knows that the minister and scarlet letter are sensitive to Hester Prynne, but he still tells her that it is the only reason she is strong. He attacked the very thing that makes Prynne herself, which is harmful and evil because it is only Chillingworth’s fault for not being forgiving and godly. Another instance where Chillingworth causes harm is when he signs to sail with Dimmesdale and Prynne, because he doesn’t want them to be able to escape. This is relevant because he should be more forgiving and let Hester Prynne and Dimmesdale escape their hard life here, but on the contrary Chillingworth chooses to torture Arthur by watching and shadowing and fueling the self-hate. He may not be the way he is for no reason, he was hurt and turned into this. Chillingworth has his feelings hurt when he learned of Prynne’s adultery, because he truly felt she could learn to love him. Chillingworth wasn’t always evil; he is evil because Prynne hurt him. He was betrayed when she fell in love with another man, Dimmesdale, and had his baby, this is what made Chillingworth evil.

Captain Ahab, much like Roger Chillingworth, is an evil character because of his internal pain, mission of revenge, and abuse of his crew. In Moby Dick, the white whale haunts Captain Ahab, which causes Ahab to make the crew swear to hunt only the white whale. He makes them swear by drinking grog and his blood from the hollow end of a harpoon. This is just the beginning of his mission of vengeance, which stretches all the way to Antarctica. This shows Ahab’s mission because it shows what he wants to accomplish, and that he will do anything to accomplish it, which is seen by his blood in the harpoons. During the night Ahab takes the crew whaling because it will be easy to see the white whale, and he hunts only the white whale while Starbuck kills a regular whale instead. This angers Ahab because he wants to kill the whale. Ahab’s mission was delayed because of Starbuck’s kill and it angers him. This is just a scene from his arduous mission of vengeance. Ahab mentions the wife and child he basically widowed because of his mission to kill the white whale. He has given up everything to hunt and kill this albino whale who took his leg. But another similarity would be Ahab’s tendency to hurt the men around him, albeit indirectly. Ahab leads the Pequod to Antarctica on his hunt, this hurts the men physically because the cold is freezing, and this hurts them monetarily because they are forced to burn the oil that will make them money. This is evil because knowingly forcing men to burn their gains isn’t right. Ahab also hurt his crew by not letting them board the other passing ships and enjoy themselves on the other ships. This is evil because he knows it hurts the men to work nonstop for months at time. Another reason is that he keeps the men at sea for far longer than they should be, which is rough and difficult on the crew. Ahab does not care about the willing being of his crew, only that he gets vengeance on the white whale. Finally, Ahab is hurt as well, but that is why he is evil, much like Chillingworth. Ahab lost his leg to Moby Dick, which fuels the fire inside of him to hunt and kill this beast. Ahab feels wronged and is insane, so he becomes evil. Ahab lost his sanity on the long voyages looking for the whale, it took such a toll on him that he became obsessed. His morbid obsession caused him to be evil because he could not learn to forgive the whale; he only wanted it dead.

In conclusion, Captain Ahab and Roger Chillingworth are evil characters because of their vengeful ways, selfish ways, and painful pasts. That is what makes them similarly evil. Both are ungodly because of their unwillingness to forgive the one who caused them pain, which fuels their evil.