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In The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, the character Rodger Chillingworth is considered an immoral and evil character because of his malicious and revenge filled actions. He did not start out as an evil person, but it is his backstory that makes him a sympathetic character. The audience sees that he was just a man who became too invested in his studies and lost everything that made him happy. Chillingworth’s poor decisions lead to him losing himself and becoming a cruel and spiteful man who throws his life away. Rodger Chillingworth is classified as an evil character because he intentionally tortures Dimmesdale and watches him suffer. Once Chillingworth latches on to Dimmesdale, he can’t seem to stop poking and prodding at him and …show more content…
a simple fascination becomes a despicable obsession. His interest fuels his investigation of not only Dimmesdale’s mind, but his heart. This interest becomes immoral because he invades him and violates Dimmesdale in many ways, whether mentally or physically. Not only does he guilt trip him but he also constantly pounds him with the same questions revolving his deepest, darkest secrets; Hester and Dimmesdale both agree that Chillingworth is the greatest sinner among the group because his sin was an act of hatred and vengeance, not of love. Chillingworth woke up every morning with the sole purpose of making Dimmesdale’s life a living hell, and he knew the power he had over the poor minister and he used it to his advantage. He personally violated Dimmesdale him by removing his clothing while he was asleep to see what mystery laid beneath his exterior. Chillingworth isolates himself from the town by breaking away from Puritan beliefs and rules and practices the work of the devil. He becomes an evil person by turning his cheek away from what is right and torturing Dimmesdale for enjoyment and revenge. Although Chillingworth has dedicated his life to plotting vengeance, he can be considered a sympathetic character because his actions were driven by sadness and heartbreak.
Had Chillingworth returned to see Hester with open arms, he might have lived out a full and happy life; Hearing that Hester was impregnated with another man’s child by a complete stranger was terribly painful and emotionally distressing. It drove him to dedicating his life to hunting this man down and murdering him with his own hands. Hester knew he was a very intelligent man, a scholar and a kind and thoughtful person, but she watched him throw away his talent and skill while he pursued Dimmesdale. The readers feel empathy toward Chillingworth because they know that he could have led a very successful life with a family, but he watched from the sidelines as his own wife raised her child without him. Chillingworth returned to Boston expecting a warm welcome and celebration, but instead hid behind a new identity to find out who ruined his life and put his wife on display on the scaffold. Being revealed to his full story changes the readers’ impression of him, because the author shows the audience a side to him that is hidden beneath his cruel exterior. Every character has depth and even though one must dig deep to unveil Chillingworth’s broken and fragile heart, it is still there, and proves him to be a sympathetic
character. Rodger Chillingworth’s actions cause him to lose the kind person he once was and replace that soul with one that is immoral and heartless. The readers lose any compassion they may have held for him when he intentionally tortures Dimmesdale and makes sure that he does not live another day without feeling heart-wrenchingly guilty for his sin. Chillingworth takes his own emotions and tries to make himself feel better by making Dimmesdale feel worse. Chillingworth acts like a high school bully and takes his own sorrows and heartbreaks and uses them to motivate him to break him into pieces. Knowing his background is crucial before judgements are made, because everything that Chillingworth did had a purpose and was for a reason. It is in this way that Rodger Chillingworth is an evil, yet sympathetic character which causes the reader to dig deep down inside themselves to make a final decision on his morality.
Chillingworth, the injured husband, seeks no revenge against Hester, but he is determined to find the man who has violated his marrige: “He bears no letter of infamy wrought into his garment, and thou dost; but I shall read it on his heart.” Chillingworth comments: “Believe me, Hester, there are few things.
In The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne constantly attributes the qualities of a thief to the mysteriously shady character, Roger Chillingworth. Throughout the novel, we see that regardless of who he is around, or where he is, he is repeatedly referred to countless of times as ?the old Black Man? (131). This nickname that he is given displays quite evidently that Hawthorne had no doubt intended for Chillingworth to assume the role of a cold, and shadowy personage akin to that of a lowly thief. As thieves are well known for and need to be, they are usually silent, stealthy, and more often than not, baffling, in the sense that no one else knows their cunningness and what they really are thinking of when they commit their crimes. These attributes match up directly to Roger?s personality, and throughout the novel, we see that he gradually grows to become the exact impersonation of a thief. The below examples serve to demonstrate these similarities. In the first few chapters, all the way to the tenth chapter, the reader suspects that Chillingworth has a hidden motive in tagging along as Arthur Dimmesdale?s physician. However, toward the end of chapter eleven, we realize that the mysterious Chillingworth was not simply following Dimmesdale around to hear in on other people?s confessions but also to spy on the reverend minister and his activities! After a period of time, the physician digs up something from Dimmesdale?s past that we are not aware of just yet. However, the reaction which we see upon Chillingworth?s face after his discovery is curious indeed, with him ?
Villains come in all forms of malevolence throughout all types of literature. They help to drive the plot of the story and influence the themes and purposes as desired by the author. In The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, the character assigned the appellation of Roger Chillingworth is the main antagonist. He is first seen attending the public humiliation of Hester Prynne, who is the protagonist of the book. Chillingworth is established as a physician whom Hester had previously cheated on. Throughout the novel, Chillingworth is seen as being controlling over Arthur Dimmesdale, who testifies to one of the book’s main themes of guilt. Nathaniel Hawthorne’s historical drama The Scarlet Letter renders Roger Chillingworth as the villain who
In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel, The Scarlet Letter many aspects of evil and sin are reflected through the characters Arthur Dimmesdale and Roger Chillingworth. Dimmesdale and Chillingworth made their own choice of being a sinner and being evil. Therefore, that is what Hawthorne believed to be the definition of evil and sin; an individual chooses to do an action that is considered sinful. Although Dimmesdale and Chillingworth both portray evil and sin they portray it in two completely different forms. Dimmesdale is shown as being a secret sinner throughout the novel, but with the evil torturing that he receives from Chillingworth and himself it drives him to the point where he then becomes a public sinner. It is better for an individual to confess their sin than to bury it deep down.
When asked to describe Roger Chillingworth, peers say he was an upstanding, respectful, concerned citizen. They would have been right, but he didn’t let anyone know just how much he cared. With the loss of Hester, he became filled with anger and jealousy and eventually let his emotions overtake him. At the close of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, the malevolent state of Roger Chillingworth’s heart made him the guiltiest.
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.
This strategy exemplifies Hawthorne’s theme that sin must be taken responsibility for because being dishonest will only lead to more temptation. Chillingworth does admit to one of his blames of leaving Hester behind, but choosing his temptation over redemption has formed his obsession to making Hester lover’s suffer miserably with guilt, which fuels Roger’s vengeance. Secondly, Chillingworth’s internal conflict was illustrated through the changing of his appearance. Roger was once a kind, well respected, man of science; However, his vengeance has transformed his physical character into a devilish creature. When Hester and Pearl were visiting Governor’s Bellingham’s house, Hester notices the change over Roger’s features, “how much uglier they were, how his dark complexion seemed to have grown duskier, and his figure misshapen” (93).
One of the various ways Chillingworth serves as the devil’s advocate is by being the antithesis of Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale, the palpable Jesus figure of the narrative. Chillingworth keenly sets out to devastate Dimmesdale, as Hawthorne informs us when referring to Chillingworth's unearthing of 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!” The capitalization of the words "Pitiless" and "Unforgiving" confirm that Chillingworth is Satan in human form. Symbolically, on an additional, more perceptible note, Chillingworth steals one of Dimmesdale's gloves and drops it on the scaffold in the middle of the town. The sexton returns it to Dimmesdale saying, "Satan...
The novel The Scarlet letter was written in 1850 by Nathaniel Hawthorne. The author refers Roger Chillingworth as evil, Devil-like, and a fallen man who lost everything in society. Even though Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale is Pearl’s legitimate parents, Roger Chillingworth is the best guardian for Pearl because; he looks at Pearl like his own child, he was not intending to hurt Pearl from the beginning, and gave Pearl all his properties when he died therefore Pearl could have a better life. Roger Chillingworth looks at Pearl reminiscent to his own child. He treated Pearl like his own due to his unsuccess of having a child with Hester.
Roger Chillingworth himself represents revenge. Some even believe him to be representative of evil or Satan. What is ignored in the cases of interpreting him as Satan or as evil is the fact that he has been cruelly wronged by both Hester and Dimmesdale. Because Hester and Dimmesdale are portrayed as protagonists in the novel, Chillingworth is automatically classified, because of his opposition towards the two, as antagonist. He is not actually this at all when regarded without the negative connotations under which he is crushed within the book.
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 audience experiences Roger Chillingworth in a dramatic yet critical way to justify change and retribution in one character as the consequence of cloaking deep sin and secrets. When first introduced in the story, the narrator refers to Chillingworth as “known as a man of skill” (97) through the point of view of the people in the Puritan town of Salem. He is brought into the story when the town was in a time of need of a physician to help the sickly Reverend Dimmesdale; his arrival is described as an “opportune arrival” because God sent a “providential hand” to save the Reverend. Society views Chillingworth as though as “heaven had wrought an absolute miracle” (97). The narrator feels when Chillingworth arrives in Salem he is good and has no intention of harm of others. Perhaps if the crime of the story had not been committed he would have less sin and fewer devils like features. Although this view of Chillingworth changes quickly, it presents the thought of how Chillingworth is before sin destroys him. Quickly after Chillingworth discovers Dimmesdale’s secret, his features and his character begin to change. The narrator’s attitude changes drastically towards the character from altering his ideas of the kind and intelligent persona to an evil being by using phrases such as “haunted by Satan himself” (101). The narrator portrays the people of the town believing Chillingworth is taking over the ministers soul in the statement “the gloom and terror in the depths of the poor minister’s eyes” (102). Throughout the book, Chillingworth ages exceedingly and rapidly. At the very end of the story, the narrator reveals another change in Chillingworth’s character; he searches for redemption by leaving Pearl a fortune a “very considerable amount of property” (203). By doing this, it shows
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).
The theme Hawthorne builds up in Chillingworth is not simply his pain and torment. It is a more important representation of the weakness in the values of the people in Puritan times, and how their perseverance for "justice" skewed their views on life and forgiveness. Because of his mindset, Chillingworth torments himself with his goal to destroy Dimmesdale just as much as Dimmesdale tortures himself for their seven years together. Chillingworth is ruining his own life and does not realize it, because he no longer sees the value in life as he tries to ruin one.
Torturing Dimmesdale did not relieve Chillingworth from his suffering, it only inflamed his own tortured