Roger Chillingworth In Nathaniel Hawthorne's 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).

Roger Chillingsworth is The Scarlet Letter's equlivilant to Temple's Belacour. He is the mastermind behind his wife Hester's demise, and intentionally seeks harm on her. In the beginning of the novel, he goes to visit her in jail. He tells her, "Live, therefore, and bear about they 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!" (Letter, 70). All he wants is revenge and his mission changes from making Hester's life miserable, to finding out the identity of Pearl's father.

Roger Chillingworth, a man obsessed with revenge against Hester and Dimmesdale for the adultery committed by the pair. As a result of his hunger for revenge that is never satiated, Chillingworth undergoes a transformation where he assumes the role of the Devil. Hawthorne employs fire to condemn the mutated nature of Chillingworth by affirming that “Ever and anon too, there came a glare of red light out of his eyes; as if the old man’s soul were on fire and kept on smouldering duskily within his breast, until, by some powerful puff of passion, it was blown into a momentary flame” (Hawthorne 177). In this example, fire is symbolic of his hellish nature that is always dormant within him until triggered, which shows that here Hawthorne criticizes the negative side of fire and therefore society. The duality of both passionate and infernal represented by the single symbol of fire is Hawthorne’s claim that, as fire can be viewed as simultaneously beautiful and deadly, so can society be simultaneously viewed as necessary and unnecessary. By perceiving the meaning of fire through human interpretation, fire can no longer be viewed as objective heat energy, thus by understanding truths that apply universally, it is impossible to see them impartially, as human perspective fundamentally alters

Old Mr. Prynne began his new life in the town of Boston as the Physician Roger Chillingworth. The moment he arrived, the town deemed him intelligent and mild mannered; he always seemed pleasant although a little odd. Throughout the seven years he remained in Boston, his character changed so dramatically from admirable to evil that even those who did not know him personally seemed to notice an evil nature deep within his soul trying to break free.

Prediction #1: I predict that Roger Chillingworth, in the blind pursuit of Hester’s lover, will injure, kill, or in some other way hurt Pearl, Hester, or Hester’s lover. Throughout our exploration of Hawthorne’s short stories, a common theme that arose was the unpardonable sin, which by Hawthorne’s definition, is the quest for knowledge at the expense of one’s own humanity. While this theme is not as salient as in other stories, I have a suspicion that Chillingworth will stop at nothing in order to find the identity of Pearl’s father, and will not care who stands in his way, even at the expense of Pearl or Hester. The three times Chillingworth has appeared so far, he has tried to find out the identity of Hester’s lover, exhibiting the characteristics

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

Although the scarlet letter has several figurative meanings, it also has literal ones as well, such as the devil and its associations. In chapter sixteen, Pearl inquires Hester as to whether or not she has ever met the "Black Man," or forest-dwelling devil. She responds, "'Once in my life I met the Black Man!' ... 'This scarlet letter is his mark.'" Here, Hester is comparing the letter to the devil's symbol of previous presence. Moreover, the scarlet letter is an icon of Hell. When Roger Chillingworth and Hester are conversing in chapter three, Chillingworth admits that the adultery was "his folly", but he also makes a subtle remark about the letter itself, saying, "'I might have beheld the bale-fire of that

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.

The first instance in which Roger Chillingworth’s demands of private passion conflict with his responsibilities is in his marriage to Hester Prynne. The young woman, Hester Prynne, claims the she was convinced to marry the older man, Roger Chillingworth, by his smooth-talking and his promises that Hester would learn to love him. Chillingworth’s passion for Hester Prynne’s “figure of pure elegance” (Hawthorne 51) leads him to ignore his responsibility as a man to woo Hester or to follow through with his promise that Hester would fall in love with him. Due to her young and naïve nature, Chillingworth was able to take advantage of her.

Roger Chillingworth had begun his days persecuting others when he had discovered his wife’s adulterous ways. “But it was the constant shadow of my presence!—the closest propinquity of the man whom he had most vilely wronged! —and who had grown to exist only by this perpetual poison of the direst revenge! Yea, indeed!—he did not err!—there was a fiend at his elbow! A mortal man, with once a human heart, has become a fiend for his especial torment!" (Hawthorne 162). Therefore, his actions and desire for vengeance were justified to a certain extent, as it is only human nature to incline towards these things in the midst of anguish and sorrow. The novel precedes as Nathaniel Hawthorne conveys the troublesome situation through feelings of despair, causing one to feel compassionate towards Chillingworth, and allowing a few of his actions to be overlooked. As the reader continues throughout the story, these feelings of sympathy flee when the motive behind Chillingworth’s actions are revealed. Furthermore, he sins continuously, deliberately committing these immoral actions for his own distorted version of satisfaction. Although other characters were guilty of sin, no one else was as persistent and determined like he was. For example, when infidelity took place between Hester and Arthur Dimmesdale, they did it out of love. Of course, nothing can justify their actions and decision to betray Hester’s obligation towards her husband, Roger Chillingworth, but at least they felt remorse for their actions. They did not remain in their transgressions, but instead stopped them altogether. This is something Chillingworth refused to do, lacking compassion for others, and having no moral compass, people’s thoughts on him began to decline. Moving forward in the novel, the reader concludes that Chillingworth’s actions were anything but rational. His intentions were

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, in The Scarlet Letter, torments Arthur Dimmesdale for having an affair with Hester, his wife. In this role, Chillingsworth uses his cover as the doctor to involve himself in every attribute of Dimmesdale's life and destroy him. This is depicted in the discussion between Chillingworth and Hester outside of her cottage where Chillingworth explains that he is “a mortal man, with once a human heart” and that he has “become a fiend for [Dimmesdale's] especial torment” (Hawthorne 155). The change of Chillingworth to a “fiend” suggests that this situation forced him into a man that would control the mind of his victim to achieve his malevolent goal. This is the same role that Tom Buchanan takes on in The Great Gatsby after he discovers Daisy’s affair with Gatsby. Tom uses his role as Daisy’s powerful husband to control her and change her mind against leaving him. This is shown when they return home after the murder of Myrtle when Tom is “talking intently across the table at her, and in his earnestness his hand had fallen upon and covered her own”(Fitzgerald 145). The word “earnestness” intensifies the dramatic irony of the situation because it becomes clear that Tom does not actually care for Daisy in his personal affair with Myrtle but uses his flirtation skills to achieve his goal of keeping Daisy. Both Tom and Chillingworth use their power for personal gain by punishing those that have been

Roger Chillingworth’s concealed history and background is most likely the most compelling element of his moral ambiguity. Throughout all of The Scarlet Letter, very little is known about the past of Roger Chillingworth, except that he comes from England and is the husband of Hester Prynne. Even at the very culmination of The Scarlet Letter, very little information regarding Roger Chillingworth’s past is discovered. With an arcane past, Roger Chillingworth is bestowed the ultimate ascendancy of moral ambiguity. One’s past may often act as a deficiency that one’s enemy may utilize at their own personal will. However, with a nebulous past, Roger

In The Scarlet Letter Roger Chillingworth was Hester Prynne’s husband who had been gone and hadn’t been home for a very long time. During that time, Hester Prynne committed

Chillingworth’s life is by now taken over by the need of revenge. Though, with that idea, Roger tries to hide his real feelings and cover them up. As an example of that, he would tell Hester that he loves her, but in reality he wants to