Roger, who has considerable amount of confidence, believes to have discovered Arthurs Secret. Roger plans the best way to satisfy his revenge against Hester’s lover. Making an ultimatum, Roger decided to torture and torment Arthur instead of revealing his secret to the public. Roger continues with his plan making harsh comments towards Dimmesdale causing him to have a deep sense of suffering in part due to his sin. Arthur is unaware of Chillingworth’s objectives and motives because of his shame for the sin he committed. The suffering Arthur is undergoing causes him to become a much more respected preacher as well as much more influential in his sermons to the public. Arthur tries so desperately to reveal his hidden immorality to the public.
Roger Chillingworth’s soul is immediately taken captive by revenge as soon as he finds out about Hester’s infedelity (I would go w infidelity). He is transformed into a devilish figure overcome by a passion to torture Hester’s partner in crime, Arthur Dimmesdale. Hawthorne shows Chillingworth’s evil intentions, “The intellect of Roger Chillingworth had now a sufficiently plain path before it…which led him to imagine a more intimate revenge than any mortal had ever wreaked upon an enemy” (Hawthorne 127). In The Scarlet Letter,
Roger Chillingworth is a vile man who hides his disgrace of having a disloyal wife and finds pleasure in tormenting the poor Arthur Dimmesdale. When he comes to town at the beginning of The Scarlet Letter, Chillingworth makes Hester promise not to tell anyone that he is her real husband.“ ‘Breath not, to any human soul, that thou didst ever call me husband!’…’because I will not encounter the dishonor that besmirches the husband of a faithless woman…’”(Hawthorne 52-53).
Once Roger is aware of this information he becomes close to the minister, and in all his might for revenge does whatever it takes to make Dimmesdale suffer even more: “it came to be widely believed that the Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale…was haunted either by Satan himself or by Satan’s messenger in the person of old Roger Chillingworth” (Hawthorne 201). Throughout the book it refers to Dimmesdale as the devil, simply because of the harsh acts he commits are truly evil. Most often it is seen how Roger mentally tortures Dimmesdale in many different ways without Dimmesdale knowing that Roger is aware of his secret. During the progression of the story, it is most obvious to note the progression, or more appropriately the decline in Dimmesdale physical health. Often to punish himself for his sin he would inflict pain or suffering by whip himself, or even fast for much too long of a time that would lead to serious harm: “He looked thinner and more worn down with worry...Either from his failing health or for some other reason, his large dark eyes had a world of pain in their troubled and melancholy depths” (Hawthorne 177). Through the progression of the story Dimmesdale 's health, or the lack thereof, is directly shown from his physical appearance. The physical suffering of Dimmesdale is one that is most apparent as the man begins struggling to walk to collapsing in the arms of Hester right before he dies. Arthur
He sees his former wife being shamed by the town for her sin of adultery and from that point on he is set on finding the man which whom had sinned and committed the same terrible crime as Hester Prynne. He later has a sense that it is reverend Arthur Dimmesdale. He furthers his investigation on Dimmesdale and becomes more and more evil by the day. Later on he persuades Dimmesdale to move in with him to help him as he is getting sick. At least that’s what he told him. In Roger Chillingworth’s head this is the perfect opportunity to finally find out if he is right about Dimmesdale being the father of Pearl. The shame and guilt held within Arthur Dimmesdale has made him grow very ill and he does not sleep very often because the sin of adultery keeps him awake in the late hours of the night. However, one night he slips up. He falls asleep and Roger Chillingworth takes advantage of this. He opens the shirt of sir Dimmesdale and sees what we can only assume is a scarlet letter “A” over his heart. Throughout all of Chillingworth’s mental torture and studies he does on the reverend he has been giving him medicine. Nobody knows if the medicine given to Arthur is helping him stay alive or if it’s slowly killing him inside and
Secondly, Chillingworth is manipulating Hester Prynne and controlling her thoughts. Lastly, Roger Chillingworth has an overall evil personality in going throughout his life. His evil all starts with Dimmesdale and his actions towards the beloved priest. Roger Chillingworth is slowly killing Dimmesdale. This evil is evident when the townspeople start to connect two and two with Roger coming to town coinciding with Dimmesdale’s health decreasing and to
Roger Chillingworth tries to get revenge on Dimmesdale.
He started as a neutral bystander, wanting to study medicine and science. From Hester’s act of adultery, he changed (inverted sentence). Symbolized by Chillingworth’s name change, it is apparent that there is a shift of identity in the old physician. Through a determination to inflict revenge on Dimmesdale, the father of Pearl, Chillingworth becomes consumed by an evil so intense that it is questionable whether he feels any guilt at all: “In a word, Old Roger Chillingworth was a striking evidence of man’s faculty of transforming himself into a devil, if he will only, for a reasonable space of time, undertake a devil’s office” (Hawthorne 132). When sin becomes too consuming and evil, like in the case of Chillingworth, extremely sinful actions can prevent guilt from overtaking the individual. Instead in this stage of guilt, the desire to continue to sin overcomes the person. Roger Chillingworth is transforming into a devil-like figure, choosing to immerse himself in sin, bringing him one step closer to the devil. Similar to the devil, Chillingworth is past the point of empathy, a key component when one feels guilty, showing that he lacks all
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 and Arthur Dimmesdale appear very similar in how they act, how their actions influence them, and how they respond to these actions. They both untruthfully seem like honorable men to the townspeople, and act as if they truly do conduct themselves in this way. By behaving like this, they delve further into sin and suffering; however, instead of divulging who they really are, they both continue making these mistakes of dishonesty. For example, when Chillingworth comprehends that Dimmesdale is the father of Pearl, he decides to take revenge, but this choice causes “a terrible fascination, a kind of fierce, though still calm, necessity [to seize] the old man” (Hawthorne, 120). Dimmesdale, too, suffers from deteriorating health
In this paper, we will compare and contrast the difference between a for-profit and a not-for-profit healthcare system from a financial perspective. Also, this paper will provide examples of both, and the implications of each on the health professionals, the patients, and the insurance companies. The United States is confronting some overwhelming financial difficulties, not the slightest of which is our broken social insurance framework. The U.S. spends about twice as much cash per capita on social insurance as other created countries, yet the measurements demonstrate that Americans wind up with an inadequate care and poorer health outcomes (Hill, 2011).
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.
Roger Chillingworth’s corrupt behavior is filled with revenge, cruelty and evilness. He is a fiend as he obsesses over plotting his revenge. Obsession, vengeance, and hatred consume him throughout the novel. Once Dimmesdale is dead , Chillingworth no longer has an object for his hatred or revenge. Upon his death, Chillingworth leaves his entire fortune to his daughter Pearl. This act could be seen as a redemption for his own
He instead accepts Hester and Pearl, a positive though final step. Arthur recognizes that he should have put aside his desire for public worship when he says: "People of New England!...ye, that have loved me!--ye, that have deemed me holy!--behold me here, the one sinner of the world! At last!--at last!--I stand upon the spot where, seven years since, I should have stood; here, with this woman, whose arm, more than the little strength wherewith I have crept hitherward, sustains me, at this dreadful moment, from grovelling down upon my face!'"(220) Even his confession, however, is tainted by the fact that his death is near at hand. He cannot entirely escape his desire to have the people look well upon him because he dies a hero's death. Arthur dies in the heroine's arms, publicly and somewhat triumphantly, having gotten a certain amount of ugliness off his scarred chest. The difficult blow of his adulterous fornication is softened for onlookers because his pain and impending death are so apparent. His cathartic confession is not followed by a lifetime of public shame as that which Hester has endured but rather peace in heaven, presumably, considering his repentance. It seems that Arthur has the benefit of the confession and recognition without the painful aftermath, and because his confession comes so close to his time of death, he is remembered as the sweet man he was before his death and not as shamefully as he could
It is in these chapters that Roger Chillingworth seeks revenge on Arthur Dimmesdale. In other words, in these chapters Roger Chillingworth acts as a leech that feeds on Arthur Dimmesdale, the leech’s patient. Roger Chillingworth utilizes his cleverness and mentality by claiming that he is living with Arthur Dimmesdale strictly under medical reasons. However, Roger Chillingworth actually lives with Arthur Dimmesdale because of his dilating surmises of who Pearl’s father might be. Roger Chillingworth is able to use his cleverness and mentality in a way that he contrives an identity that permits him to actualize whatever he may desire. With his cleverness and mentality, Roger Chillingworth effectively achieves moral ambiguity.
Roger Chillingworth’s sin, however, was not in an instant. His was calculated, drawn out, and committed with malice towards both Dimmesdale and Hester for years on end. He tormented Dimmesdale psychologically for years, and drained what little life Dimmesdale had in him out slowly and intentionally.He felt no guilt for these sins, nor was he ever punished for them in life.