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Analysis of Hester in The Scarlet Letter
Analysis of Hester in The Scarlet Letter
Analysis of Hester in The Scarlet Letter
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The Changing of Chillingworth throughout The Scarlet Letter
The character of Roger Chillingworth in Nathaniel Hawthorne's Scarlet Letter is one of many different faces. Hawthorne changes the character of Chillingworth during different periods of the novel. As Chillingworth's actions and his motives change, so in turn does the reader's opinion of him, which ranges from compassion to antipathy. Hawthorne keeps the character of Chillingworth an enigma, and Hawthorne uses his narrative to shed light on the true feelings of Chillingworth, as well through the good doctor's interaction with other characters, especially Hester, Pearl, and Dimmesdale. As we watch the plot evolve, and the reader observes Chillingworth's actions, Chillingworth's character continues to confuse the reader. This is because Chillingworth is empty. Roger Chillingworth is a vacant vessel in search of a captain. Chillingworth looks to validate his existence through his crusade. Chillingworth attempts to present himself as an upstanding, righteous, religious man only in search of justice. This righteousness is only one layer, underneath his façade is hatred, and underneath that is a deep sense of self loathing. Chillingworth hates who he is, so in an attempt to appease his own sense of self, Chillingworth attacks others in order to transfer his loathing from himself to Hester, Pearl, and Dimmesdale.
Chillingworth's relationship with Hester is rife with conflict and confusing details. This husband and wife tandem are officially married, the union seems artificial. Hester and Chillingworth spent a large amount of time separated from each other, starting with Hester journeying first to America, and were only reunited after Chillingworth spent time traveling...
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.... Chillingworth drives away his wife, and accelerates Dimmesdale's physical decay. Chillingworth never learns how to love anyone, and he never loved himself. He never was upset because Hester broke a sacred trust, but because her absconding of their vows was one more example to invalidate Chillingworth's existence. Chillingworth finally realizes the error of his ways at the end of the novel, and that why he leaves all of his property to Pearl. Chillingworth becomes aware of the vast emptiness of his soul, and how he has been torturing others to avoid dealing with his own tortured soul. Chillingworth attacked two people who loved each other, so he tries to make amends by helping the product of this love. Chillingworth dies a lonely man, but becomes righteous in the end.
Bibliography:
Hawthorne, Nathaniel "The Scarlet Letter," Penguin Books (1986)
Roger Chillingworth’s suffering arose from a domino effect that he had no control of. Roger was merely a casualty of a sin that he had no partake in, but it turned his life upside down for the worse. The big punch that started Roger’s suffering was the affair between Hester and Dimmesdale. His suffering from this event was unlike the suffering it caused Hester and Dimmesdale as they suffered for their own sin, but Roger Chillingworth did not suffer from his own sin. Roger’s suffering comes directly from his own wife having a child with another man, an event he had no say or action in: “his young wife, you see, was left to mislead herself” (Hawthorne 97). Left all by herself Roger’s wife, Hester, mislead herself as no one was there to watch
The quote in Chapter 20 of The Scarlet Letter applies to Roger Chillingworth for numerous reasons. Roger Chillingworth is first introduced as an strange man with a humped back and deformed shoulders, who is a kind of creepy looking individual who recently arrived to the town. Once he arrives he makes eye contact with Hester and she knew it was her husband, the man who sent her to America alone. He tells people “I am a stranger,and have been a wanderer,sorely against my will.I have met with grievous mishaps by sea and land, and have been long held in bonds among the heathen-folk to the southward…”(69-70) The fact that Chillingworth does not reveal his true identity illustrates that maybe he is going to to revoke revenge upon Hester and whoever she committed adultery with. When Roger Chillingworth came to the jail cell to help baby Pearl and Hester, he offered her and Pearl medicine, she was hesitant to drink it. But when he sees her hesitation he responds with “Even if I imagine a scheme of vengeance,what could I do better for my object than to let thee live”(82) Even though Chillingworth didn’t directly say he's planning his
Chapter 15- After Chillingworth left the meeting with Hester, Hester for the first time realized that she hated him. This change occurred very rapidly as she went from pity to hatred after realizing all the pain that he has caused not only her but everyone that he has been in contact with. We also get another example of a juxtaposition that Hawthorne has created between the relationship Hester has with Chillingworth and Dimmesdale respectively. Hester’s relationship with Chillingworth is a hate filled one with no love, while her relationship with Dimmesdale is a forbidden one that is filled with love. Hawthorne has an obvious motive in writing this chapter, and that is to demonstrate to reader the effects of being consumed into something. Chillingworth
18th century’s perception of the Puritan Society was that Puritans were a zealous community of people that lived with strict moral standards which allowed them to live in perfect harmony. However, the truth is Puritans were overly zealous whose values created paranoia and intolerance for other views. Through the characters Dimmesdale and Chillingworth who are also falsely perceived, Hawthorne suggest they are representative of the dour living of Puritan society that is hidden by the puritan’s tranquil and utopian outlook.
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
[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).
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 Nathanial Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, the deceptive Roger Chillingworth could most certainly be considered a morally ambiguous character. Throughout the novel, Roger Chillingworth everlastingly remains misleading as to whether he lies on the side of good or evil. Even at the end of The Scarlet Letter, the knowledge of Roger Chillingworth is extremely nebulous. The mysterious Roger Chillingworth, although ultimately emanating to be evil, attests to be a challenge when determining his morality. Roger Chillingworth attempts to beguile us by enacting the role of a physician, and ensconces his relationship with Hester Prynne. He lives with Arthur Dimmesdale, vindicating that he is serving Arthur Dimmesdale a helpful medicine, while he is actually depleting the very life from his bones. Roger Chillingworth, therefore, achieves his moral ambiguity through deception, cleverness, and an unknown history.
Nathaniel Hawthorne crammed The Scarlet Letter with religious symbolism. One of the most interesting symbols is that of Chillingworth as the devil. All through the novel there are numerous indications and relations that verify the fact that Chillingworth is a delegate for the king of darkness.
...om doing what is right. Chillingworth is actually attempting to keep his essence. He is ruined without his revenge. Defeated, purposeless, Chillingworth soon dies after Dimmesdale's confession. Chillingworth's source of happiness, Hester, has been taken away along with his chance at reprisal.
The world of Puritan New England, like the world of today, was filled with many evil influences. Many people were able to withstand temptation, but some fell victim to the dark side. Such offences against God, in thought, word, deed, desire or neglect, are what we define as sin (Gerber 14).
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.
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.