How Is Chillingworth A Dynamic Character

Prompt:
In a five-paragraph essay, trace the development of Roger Chillingworth in The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne AND explain how he is perceived by other characters in the
Story.

Roger Chillingworth, the revenge-seeking antagonist in The Scarlet Letter, is a dynamic character that plays a vital role in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s story. Hester Prynne’s ex-husband was described as calm, quiet, and gentle before the idea of getting even with Reverend Dimmesdale crossed his mind. Chillingworth became engrossed in the process of revenge, and his change in character soon became evident to Hester, Dimmesdale, and even the townspeople. Chillingworth develops from a polite and kind scholar into a vengeful fiend, and although once viewed as

a blessing sent from God, people begin to see that he is filled with evil intentions.
When Roger Chillingworth first comes onto the scene, Hawthorne describes him as, “small, with a furrowed visage...one shoulder higher than the other” (51). This image, coupled with the sad situation that he has walked into, makes the reader feel sorry for Chillingworth. However, that attitude towards the scholar changes when he chooses to take the path of revenge over that of mercy and grace. Chillingworth, posing as a doctor, moves in with the ill Reverend Dimmesdale to dig deeper into his life. Once he finds out that Dimmesdale is Pearl’s father, he begins to torture the minister’s mind and conscience, and his true character is revealed.
Chillingworth is a symbol of evil, and his desire for revenge had taken a toll on both himself and the Reverend when he meets his ex-wife on the beach in Chapter 14.

Hester, talking with Chillingworth for the first time in seven years, is shocked at the changes in his appearance and his soul. Hawthorne writes, “There came a glare of red light out of his eyes; as if the old man’s soul were on fire, and kept on smouldering duskily within his breast until it was blown into a momentary flame” (132). Chillingworth has become overtaken by his quest for revenge, and he has become a shell of his former self, “A striking evidence of man’s faculty of transforming himself into a devil” (Hawthorne 132). He has ruined his life trying to get back at Arthur Dimmesdale, and he is resigned to the fact that it is his fate to live as a miserable, evil man set on exacting

revenge.
Chillingworth interacts with several different characters throughout The Scarlet Letter, and they all have slightly different views of him.

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

on.
The development of Roger Chillingworth’s character is evident throughout The Scarlet Letter. A man who was once calm, quiet, and studious becomes one that is devilish and set on revenge. A man who was once viewed as a miracle becomes known as the face of evil. A man who was once full of passion for knowledge becomes one who is searching for purpose. Hawthorne sums it up best when he writes, “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 analysed and gloated over” (132).