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Critical analysis over the scarlet letter
The characterization scarlet letter essay
Analysis of The Scarlet Letter
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n the novel, The Scarlet Letter, there are four main characters, Hester, Dimmesdale, Chillingworth, and Pearl. Hester is married to Chillingworth, a physician that has not shown his face in roughly two years. During his period of absence, Hester has committed adultery with the reverend of Boston, Arthur Dimmesdale. Hester gets impregnated by this horrible sin, resulting in Pearl. Hester refuses to reveal who the father of her child is. She also takes her punishment, and while doing so, Chillingworth appears back in town as she stands on the scaffold with a scarlet letter A and her child in her hand. Chillingworth was determined to find the father and seek revenge after Hester told him she was not telling him who he was.
Chillingworth eventually turns into an evil character in this novel. Dimmesdale starts having some problems, so Chillingworth offers Dimmesdale to come stay with him. They would have interventions, and Chillingworth would ask Dimmesdale about his deepest secrets. Dimmesdale always told him that he had nothing more to tell, but Chillingworth knew he was lying. One night, while Dimmesdale was sleeping, he proceeded to check vitals of Dimmesdale, he pulled back his shirt and on his chest was a “to be determined type thing.” Whatever was on there it automatically hinted that he was Pearl’s father, and Hester’s lover. Dimmesdale almost started to chuckle in this scene, smiling, and almost happy to see it.
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The novel mentions he was leeched onto Dimmesdale, and he felt that he could hold this over Dimmesdale's head. Chillingworth would not let it go, forgive, or anything but try to make the lives of Dimmesdale and Hester more miserable. Eventually, Dimmesdale dies after confessing on the scaffold with Hester and Pearl, in front of everyone. Chillingworth soon dies shortly after, within the year of Dimmesdale’s
For the past month our class has been reading the scarlet letter. There has been some interesting topics that sometimes people skip as they're reading. When someone reads the scarlet letter they tend to think that the book is about Hester prynne who had affairs and died being buried to the person whom she had an affair with. But there's more to that. The story starts out with Hester prynne an adulterous women who ends up in jail with her baby named pearl. Later in the book you will found out that pearl was being called the “devils child” because of the sin that her mother had committed. Pearl changes throughout the book because she never really finds out who her father is. Reveren dimsdale is the
In “The Scarlet Letter,” the main character Hester get punished for adultery. In the beginning, she thought that her husband has died so she fell in love with Dimmesdale. However, her husband did not die and came back. Her husband, Chillingworth, later finds out that Hester has a secret lover. Therefore tried to find out who he is. At first Chillingworth does not reveal himself as Hester’s husband because she was being punished for adultery and he did not want to be ashamed. Later he tries to find out Hester’s secret lover by asking her but she will not tell him which makes him for desperate and angry. When he finds out that the secret lover is Dimmesdale, he finds out a secret about Dimmesdale.
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.
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.
[having] a wild look of wonder, joy, and horror? (135) at the same time. Hawthorne goes further beyond this description by comparing this sudden outburst of emotion to Satan?s ecstasy by saying that the only factor which ?distinguished [Chillingworth?s] ecstasy from Satan?s was the trait of wonder in it? (135). As the reader delves deeper into the book, we come to the conclusion that Dimmesdale is indeed the father of Pearl, the product of the horrendous sin consummated through Dimmesdale?s and Hester?s illicit affair. This point brings us back to Chillingworth?s reaction to realizing this earlier at the end of chapter ten. Although this shocking news explains why Chillingworth might have been angry or horrified, it does not clarify why Chillingworth did not attempt to murder or poison Dimmesdale whilst he had the chance, especially since the reader knows from a point made by Chillingworth earlier in the book, that after Chillingworth had sought out the man who had an affair with his Hester, he would have his long sought-after revenge (73).
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
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.
The first theme expressed in The Scarlet Letter is that even well meaning deceptions and secrets can lead to destruction. Dimmesdale is a prime example of this; he meant well by concealing his secret relationship with Hester, however, keeping it bound up was deteriorating his health. Over the course of the book this fact is made to stand out by Dimmesdale’s changing appearance. Over the course of the novel Dimmesdale becomes more pale, and emaciated. Hester prevents herself from suffer the same fate. She is open about her sin but stays loyal to her lover by not telling who is the father of Pearl. Hester matures in the book; becomes a stronger character.
When he says this, he is. hinting that he is going to do something for Dimmesdale. This is why Hester makes Chillingworth promise not to kill her lover if he finds out his identity. Chillingworth deserves to know who slept with his wife. although Hester should not have had to tell him. I think that Dimmesdale should have admitted that he was Pearl's father. Today, if a priest admitted such a crime, he would probably be sent to jail. However, in the novel, had Dimmesdale confessed, the townsfolk would have liked him even.
The Scarlet letter is a novel written by Nathaniel Hawthorne. The plot focuses on sin in the Puritan society. Hester Prynne, the protagonist, has an affair with Reverend Dimmesdale, which means they are adulterers and sinners. As a result, Pearl is born and Hester is forced to where the scarlet letter. Pearl is a unique character. She is Hester’s human form of her scarlet letter, which constantly reminds her of her sin, yet at the same time, Pearl is a blessing to have since she represents the passion that Hester once had.
...st new mothers, Dimmesdale dies after delivering his sermon and confessing his sins. Chillingworth is unable to survive this loss since his dependency on Dimmesdale is unnatural. Of all the central characters, Hester, along with Pearl, is the one who strong enough to survive.
In the novel the Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne’s character Roger Chillingworth is supposed to represent the evil in the story. Hawthorne shows Chillingworth to be evil by several means. The physical description of Chillingworth shows him as an evil character. Statements are also made by Hawthorne referring to the inner content of Chillingworth that would lead the reader to feelings of his evilness. Another good way Hawthorne expresses that Chillingworth is evil is his name. There are many methods Hawthorne uses to demonstrate the evil qualities of Chillingworth.
1. Chillingworth plans to destroy Dimmesdale and make him suffer every single day. He wants to hurt him mentally so he goes through more than just the guilt he is already suffering from and to cause him more pain. He will turn into his biggest enemy. This is all because he found out that Dimmesdale is Pearl’s father and the one Hester betrayed him with. He loved Hester and wanted her to be his but she went and loved another man, which was Dimmesdale.
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