Revenge

Described as intelligent, scholarly, and aged, Chillingworth was a man of knowledge and pure reasoning. Though a flat character in the novel unlike the complexities shown in Hester or Reverend Dimmesdale, Chillingworth gradually deteriorated from a studious man to a symbol who carried out the devil’s deeds. Thus in his plot for revenge, Chillingworth sought to find out the man to blame for his wife’s pregnancy by taking advantage of his studies in alchemy and becoming Reverend Dimmesdale’s personal physician in his time of need. With his weakening relationship with his wife and others, Chillingworth was thus compared to a “leech” for feeding off the vivacity of his victim to accomplish his vengeance. His constant presence became a reminder to Dimmesdale’s looming fate, psychologically torturing the poor minister’s guilt-stricken soul. Chillingworth’s glimpse of the scarlet letter over his victim’s chest only contributed to his profound satisfaction. However, unlike Hester Prynne’s and Arthur Dimmesdale’s sin as a result of love, the physician had the intentions of pure hate and destruction. Once a man of knowledge morphed into a creature whose “soul were on fire, and

There are drastic events that change people for good and bad throughout everyone's life. In the Gothic Romance, The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne portrays Roger Chillingworth as an old, deformed, and ugly man married to a beautiful young woman. Although Chillingworth is well and alive, Hester, his wife, thinks he died at sea and is impregnated with Reverend Dimmesdale's child. As Chillingworth comes to this small Puritan town where Hester and Dimmesdale live, the truth of Hester's crime affects him emotionally, physically, and psychologically. These effects begin to portray a change in his character. Chillingworth fails to achieve individuation as a result of his monomania;

Chillingworth’s desire for revenge for Dimmesdale in The Scarlet Letter greatly conflicts his moral duty as a self-proclaimed physician in Puritan Boston. This revenge began once Chillingworth suspected Dimmesdale of having intimate relations with Hester, although he never confronted him. Dimmesdale’s physical and mental health began to deteriorate once Chillingworth relentlessly tormented him, conveying the significance behind internal guilt and poor external health. It was also quite ironic how Chillingworth was seen as Dimmesdale’s mentor to the public, and although he was a physician whose friend was in failing health, his credibility was never questioned. This revenge was fueled by the betrayal of Hester, who was Chillingworth’s wife before he claimed a new identity and persona. According to Chillingworth, Dimmesdale could never suffer enough for what he’d done unless he’d faced it publicly, but once he did, Chillingworth had nothing to motivate his devious acts. The repugnant acts committed by Chillingworth claiming to be provoking Dimmesdale’s confession are absolutely influential to his failing health and significance in the book, "Better had he died at once! Never

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,

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

"Hester looked at the man of skill, and even then, with her fate hanging on the balance, was startled to perceive what a change had come over his features, --how much uglier they were, --how his dark complexion seemed to have grown duskier, and his figure more misshapen..." (Pg.103).  Hester is not the only person to notice the change in Chillingworth; many of the townspeople recognize the changes in him as well, "At first his expression had been calm, meditative, scholar-like. Now there was something ugly and evil in his face, which they had not previously noticed, and which still grew more obvious to sight the oftener they looked upon him" (Pg. 117). Slowly but surely Roger Chillingworth is changing from a man with normal interests, to a man with an evil obsession; every day he is getting closer and closer to the dark side.

In the novel, The Scarlet Letter written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Hawthorne in chapter 10 titled “The Leech and His Patient” gives insight on how much evil the character Roger Chillingworth disguising by using potent metaphors. Hawthorne incorporates the four main characters of the novel in chapter 10, but reveals the character Roger Chillingworth, who the previous chapter names a leech, the most. Roger Chillingworth is vile, but just to make sure Hawthorne not only has two chapter titles describing Chillingworth as a Leech, but he also uses s another strong metaphor when Pearl warns her mother saying, “Come away mother! Come away, or yonder old black man will catch you! He [has] hold of the minister already.”

Even though the Puritans had their own idea of punishing sins, Hester too, knew that leaving Boston would not erase the sin she’s hold. After deciding to stay in Boston, Hester sews a piece of gold thread around the scarlet letter to show acceptance of her sin instead of cowering in shame as the village thought she would. Because Chillingworth’s revenge is on Dimmsdale, he attempts to get as much information on him as possible which is why in chapter 9, Hawthorne compares Chillingworth to a leech. Eventually, Chillingworth moves in with Dimmsdale as his doctor. This chapter shows just how sin feeds off sin because the two men hold sins, but unlike Hester, they hide it.

Chillingworth’s deep love for his wife, Hester, combined with her rejection proves Hawthorne's idea that obsession turns Chillingworth into a dark mysterious man. Hawthorne’s idea of Chillingworth being a dark and mysterious man as a result of his obsession over Hester is portrayed through his external traits and was described as “a deformed old figure with a face that haunted men’s memories.” The characterization shows that the obsession took an effect on Chillingworth physically turning him into a deformed old man that scared old men. Hawthorne also describes Chillingworth with “a writhing horror twisting itself across his features” as if there was a snake slithering over him. The comparison of Chillingworth to a snake shows that his facial

Hawthorne uses dark supernatural elements to characterize Roger Chillingworth. Hester’s affair makes Chillingworth an envious and vengeful man, and his need for revenge turns him into a fiend. Chillingworth’s physical appearance changes for the worst in the course of seven years, “old Roger Chillingworth was a striking evidence of man’s faculty of transforming himself into a devil” (Hawthorne 156). Chillingworth’s appearance changes from a studious and scholarly man to a stooped and deformed creature with red glowing eyes. Pearl observes Chillingworth’s hideous and terrifying features and suspects that he is the Black Man. Not only is Chillingworth’s appearance effected by the supernatural elements of the devil, his demonic character is exposed when he leeches onto Dimmesdale. Chillingworth seems to embrace his demonic identity when Hester condemns him for torturing Dimmesdale and making his life hell. Chillingworth admits to doing so, but refuses to stop because Dimmesdale deserves it. Hawthorne uses the evil supernatural elements of the devil to make Roger Chillingworth a symbol of the Black Man. His reason for doing so provides grave conflict in the lives of Hester, Pearl, and especially Dimmesdale. The comparison of Chillingworth to the devil

Revenge consuming and absorbing the rest of Chillingworth’s life, turned him into a fiend. When Dimmesdale finally died, Chillingworth was also set free in a sense and vanished leaving Pearl his inheritance. Before the story started, his wife, Hester, mentioned that he was a decent man. After a while he begun to transform into a barbarian like creature. Chillingworth was hated by almost everyone in the novel. To sympathize with him, someone would need to understand betrayal within their life. The opposing side also has their reasons for disliking Chillingworth and not understanding him because of his revenge. Even if Chillingworth is the antagonist of The Scarlet Letter, he is not the dreadful man the story makes him out to be. Revenge may

Roger Chillingworth is a man of mystery. A man whose intentions are questionable. Through his undeniable knowledge and his unclear motives, one doesn’t know if they can trust Mr. Chillingworth. When Roger takes in Mr. Dimmesdale as his project to cure him of his illness, the reader inquires why he wants to treat him. Does he think Arthur is the father? Is he seeking revenge on him for that reason? Roger Chillingworth’s hidden motives are seen when the narrator says “This diabolical agent (Roger Chillingworth) had the Divine permission, for a season, to burrow into the clergyman’s intimacy and plot against his soul” (Hawthorne, 124). The reader gets a sense of his motives and how he is seeking answers from Mr. Dimmesdale and to see if Arthur

Confucius once said, “Before you embark on a journey of revenge, dig two graves.” In The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, one of the characters named Roger Chillingworth finds out that his wife, Hester Prynne, believes that he is dead and has an illegitimate child with another man named Arthur Dimmesdale. Chillingworth finds out and feels betrayed so he takes matters into his own hand and decides to seek revenge on the man who had relations with his wife. Chillingworth befriends Dimmesdale and administers his revenge directly, however this does not stop revenge from also going after Chillingworth. Chillingworth is an example of the book’s theme of revenge being bad for the soul and body. Chillingworth’s acts of revenge for a long period of time cause his physical health to slowly decline and his outward appearances to take on a devilish look. Roger Chillingworth is the living embodiment of the theme of revenge and Chillingworth shows that revenge alters a person 's appearance, revenge is bad for a person 's soul since it is the work of the devil, and that revenge will ultimately be a person 's demise.

In The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne analyzes Hester, Dimmesdale, and Chillingworth. In the story, Hester is the main character of the story and was called Mistress Prynne (Hawthorne 70). Dimmesdale, in the story was referred to as Reverend Dimmesdale (Hawthorne 90). Chillingworth was originally named, Roger Prynne but later in the story he changed his name to Roger Chillingworth. In the story, Hester committed adultery with Dimmesdale against Chillingworth and in the beginning she got punished and sent to prison and later she got to get out of prison but with the exception of having to wear the letter A on her breast every time she went out in to town.

Roger Chillingworth is the antagonist in Nathaniel Hawthorne's, The Scarlet Letter, because of his vengeance against Hester, his cruel treatment of Arthur Dimmesdale, and his evil behavior upon confirmation of the affair.