How Is Chillingworth Presented In The Scarlet Letter

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.

In the first interaction between Chillingworth and Hester, Chillingworth is the doctor for both Hester and Pearl. Hester is dubious of Chillingworth's motives for helping them, and with good reason. Chillingworth declares that he is not aiding her out of the goodness of his heart, but rather to make sure that she lives so that he may broadcast her sins throughout the community. "Live, therefore, and bear about thy doom with thee, in the eyes of men and women, - in the eyes /of him whom thou didst call thy husband, - in the eyes of yonder child! And, that thou/ mayest live, take off this draught!" (67) Chillingworth is very angry at Hester, but not because of love for Hester, but rather because Chillingworth feels emasculated by Hester's transgression. As revenge, Chillingworth wishes to strip her of any honor. The reader at this point feels nothing but anger towards Chillingworth at this point. Chillingworth has badgered Hester incessantly in order to ascertain the father of her bastard child. "Speak out the name! That, and thy repentance, may avail to take the scarlet letter off thy breast." (63) Up until this point the reader thinks that Chillingworth is a self-righteous crusader, but when it is finally revealed that Chillingworth is in fact Hester's husband, some sympathy is

He,(Dimmesdale), is “a rare case…I must search this matter to the bottom” (Hawthorne, 158). When Chillingworth overheard Dimmesdale having a bad dream, he entered his quarters and “laid his hand upon his bosom, and thrust aside the vestment, that, … had always covered it even from the professional eye” (Hawthorne, 159). What Chillingworth saw there, no one knows, but we know that he saw Dimmesdale’s sin on his chest. “… With a wild look of wonder, joy, and horror … (with) the extravagant gestures with which he threw up his arms towards the ceiling, and stamped his foot upon the floor” (Hawthorne, 159). When Chillingworth becomes the Devil, he is doing many strange things. Chillingworth is keeping himself secluded, and is seen lurking around town in a creepy manner. Roger secluded himself from everyday life to keep his plot for revenge focused. His plot is working too, Dimmesdale’s “… soul shivers … at the sight of the man” (Hawthorne, 240). Chillingworth is also spending a great deal of time in the “forest trees … searching for roots and twigs, for his strange medicines” (Hawthorne, 145). The townspeople even see that Roger Chillingworth is pure evil. When the town first meets Chillingworth, they think he is a kind old doctor that would not harm a soul. “ At first, his expression had been meditative, scholar like” (Hawthorne,

He finds out it was Dimmesdale and then set out to torture him. “[Chillingworth] never set him free again until he has done all it’s bidding. He now dug into the poor clergyman’s heart” (Hawthorne 117). Hester tells Chillingworth to stop, but Chillingworth does not. He wants to get revenge on Dimmesdale. Because of this revenge, he loses Hester forever. Chillingworth tortures him in his own best interest. He is selfish. He wants Hester, even though Hester no longer loves him. Even after he has the chance to learn his lesson, Chillingworth still acts in his own interest. He learns that Dimmesdale and Hester are going to leave on a boat, and he books a ticket on the same boat, causing more problems for Hester and Dimmesdale. Chillingworth wants only what was in his own best interest, not what is better for others.

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.

Physically deformed and mysterious, Roger Chillingworth finally met his wife after being separated from her for almost two years.  He showed no great anger towards her and took upon himself some of the accountability saying it was “...my folly and thy weakness,” (Hawthorne 52) which was the cause of Hester's sin.  Chillingworth's only feeling was one of revenge towards the man who had been Hester's lover.  Chillingworth was obsessed by hate and revenge so much that when Dimmesdale died “... the life seemed to have departed...” (Hawthorne 72) from him and he died within a year of Dimmesdale's death.  Chillingworth never felt guilt or attempted repentance because he “... violated, in cold blood, the sanctity of a human heart.” (Hawthorne 133).  He sought to destroy Dimmesdale's

Roger Chillingworth arrives in Salem just in time to see Hester Prynne, his wife, with a baby on the town scaffold. He is, at first, a victim of adultery, but puts himself unnecessarily in the situation of being the villain of the story. The first time we see Chillingworth he is described as having “a remarkable intelligence in his features(56)” but “slightly deformed, with the left shoulder a trifle higher than the right(55)”. As the need for revenge takes over Chillingworth we see a transformation in his demeanor, by the end of

Reverend Dimmesdale is thin and sickly and always clutches at his chest so Chillingworth becomes his hope for getting better. Though Dimmesdale doesn’t believe medicine can heal him, he caves and agrees to let Chillingworth help him. The two men spend time together and Chillingworth believes that he should analyze the reverend spiritually, physically, and mentally in order to cure him. Over time, they think it is a good idea for them ot temporarily move in together, being that Dimmesdale wasn’t married. Some of the townspeople think it is wise but others start thinking Chillingworth has “ugly and evil in his face” and that he has changed. Chillingowrth is dedicated to finding out who committed adultery with Hester. I think this shows shis darker side that he would do anything to reveal whom his wife cheated on him with.

7. Hester says something interesting about how a person's words may lead to one interpretation of his character and his actions may lead to another. How do Chillingworth's words present him? His actions?

Chillingworth is Hester’s husband, who was living abroad while Hester lived in Boston. Upon arriving, Chillingworth visits Hester, who now wears a scarlet “A” embroidered on her dress. Understanding the “A” to represent adultery, Chillingworth’s “face darkened with some powerful emotion” (Hawthorne 57). Soon, he becomes suspicious of Dimmesdale, whom he believes is the man Hester had an affair with, and he conjures a devious plan to seek vengeance for losing Hester. Chillingworth decides to torture both Hester and Dimmesdale, enough so that they can truly feel the pain of their actions against him. In a spite of anger he tells them: “Live, therefore, and bear about thy doom with thee, in the eyes of men and women—in the eyes of him thou didst call thy husband—in the eyes of yonder child! And, that thou mayst live, take off this draught” (Hawthorne 68). This passage from the novel demonstrates Chillingworth’s lack of compassion, inflicted by his anger and inability to forgive Hester and Dimmesdale. Chillingworth continues on this route, focusing especially on

From the very beginning of the novel, it can be learned that Chillingworth seeks reveng we on whoever committed adultery with his wife. Hawthorne proves this when Chillingworth says, "It irks me nevertheless, that the partner of her inequity should not, at least, stand on the scaffold by her side. But he will be known!-he will be known!-he will be known!" (43). Van Kirk realizes that when Chillingworth arrives in the colony and learns of Hester's situation, he leaves her alone nearly seven years as he singlemindedly pursues Dimmsdale. She also notices that once Chillingworth decides to pursue Hester's lover and enact revenge, he pusues this pupose with the techniques and motives of a scientist. Moving in with Dimmsdale he pokes and prods. She puts things in a different perspective when she says, "As a scientific investigator, he cold-heartedly and intellectually pursues his lab specimen.

            Later on during the story while Hester and Chillingworth are in the woods talking about Dimmesdale, Hester shouts at Chillingworth, "You search his thoughts. You burrow and rankle in his heart! Your clutch is on his life and you cause him to die daily a living death!" (Pg. 156) Hester knows Chillingworth has more evil in his blood than ever before in his life; he feeds off the pain he causes Dimmesdale and enjoys every minute of it. Chillingworth doesn't realize in the slightest how much more evil flows through his veins now, than did before in his life. It

But Hester turns her back on these escape routes.  She stays in the settlement, shackled, as if by an iron chain of guilt, to the scene of her crime and punishment.  As Hester stands on the scaffold, thinking of her husband, he appears before her startled eyes at the edge of the crowd.  And his first gesture is indicative of the man.  Whatever shock or dismay he may feel at seeing his wife on the scaffold he immediately supresses his emotions and makes his face the image of calm.  The glance he bends on Hester is keen and penetrative.  Here is someone used to observing life rather than participating in it.  His is a "furrowed visage" (43).  Chillingworth looks like a man who has cultivated his mind at the "expense of another faculties - a perilous enterprise, in Hawthorne's view" (Loring 187).  Where his overbearing intellect will take him, Hawthorne wants us to think that he could be the catalyst for great conflicts later in the novel.  Chillingworth's finger raised to his lips, commanding Hester's silence, begins a pattern of secrecy that is the mainspring of the novel's plot; a secrecy that Hester must maintain in order to protect both her and her husband from the harshness of the Puritans.  Hawthorne's emphasis on the ability of Chillingworth to analyze the human mind and reasoning foreshadows his treatment of Dimmesdale later in the novel.

In The Scarlet Letter, Roger Chillingworth changes from a freelance intellectual to an estranged physician as feelings of revenge control his life. Chillingworth neglected his marriage with Hester and the consequences ended up having an effect on both of their identities. In Chapter 15, Hester states her opinion on Chillingworth: “He betrayed me! He has done me worse wrong than I did him!” (159). In Hester's eyes, Chillingworth's actions changed her perspective on life as he is the sole reason she sinned in the first place. Hester coped with a life change while Chillingworth coped with revenge as a general effect of Chillingworth's neglect. Roger Chillingworth was physically and emotionally consumed by his years long plans for revenge on Reverend Dimmesdale. In Chapter 14, Roger Chillingworth says this of the Reverend to Hester: “Yea...better had he died...to be tortured with frightful dreams...perpetual poison of the direst revenge!” (155). In this quote, we see that Chillingworth's anger has turned his vile actions into words as he discusses the poisoning and brainwashing he forces Dimmesdale to endure on a daily basis. Chillingworth allowed jealousy and guilt control his life until it eventually ended. Chillingworth's’ revenge ended up killing him in the end since his plans worked and Dimmesdale died on the scaffold in which Hester lived out her daily punishments. Roger was ultimately responsible for the destruction of the lives of Hester, Dimmesdale and himself.

Hawthorne had introduced Chillingworth as the victim, not the villain. After all, Hester and Dimmesdale both violated him by engaging in the act of adultery. This causes many readers to sympathize for Chillingworth until he plainly confesses that it was originally himself that sinned: "Mine was the first wrong, when I betrayed thy budding youth into a false and unnatural relation with my decay."(66) Chillingworth knew that Hester didn't love him before they were married, but he was looking for what he