The Scarlet Letter Paper

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

Chillingworth is physically becoming a monster which is noticed by Hester; “Hester Prynne looked at the man of skill, and even then, with her fate hanging in the balance, was startled to perceive what 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…” (Hawthorne 63). Also, as Chillingworth began to work with Dimmesdale, “At first his expression had been calm, meditative, scholar-like. Now, there was something ugly and evil in his face…” showing the commencement of his transformation (Hawthorne 78).Monomania for Dimmesdale establishes and affects his physical, physiological, and and emotional condition. During the Puritan times it was common in this type of society for a husband to punish an unfaithful wife, according to Branch; however, Chillingworth only wants to get revenge on Dimmesdale (146-147). His animosity starts to grow for Dimmesdale as he continues to work with and close to him, investigating Hester’s

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,

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 Pitiless, to him, the Unforgiving!” The capitalization of the words "Pitiless" and "Unforgiving" confirm that Chillingworth is Satan in human form. Symbolically, on an additional, more perceptible note, Chillingworth steals one of Dimmesdale's gloves and drops it on the scaffold in the middle of the town. The sexton returns it to Dimmesdale saying, "Satan dropped it there,” evidently pointing to the fact

Roger Chillingworth is the symbol for evil in this novel with a personal agenda in place of a moral code making him the perfect example of how duplicity is never beneficial. Hawthorne conveys Chillingworth’s deception in the quote, “It seemed to be his wish and purpose to mask this expression with a smile.” Time and again Chillingworth hid his true identity by presenting himself as a gentle friend and preforming good deeds. For example, he insisted on the priest minimizing his workload in order to prevent an early death. Nevertheless, when Roger made the decision to seek revenge on his wife’s lover, Arthur Dimmesdale, he descended into a deep evil derangement becoming somewhat of a heartbroken devil. Consequently, this sealed his own tragic fate. "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." Chillingworth was an extremely learned scholar void of compassion who in the end, was the cause of his own demise. Roger Chillingworth was another character used by Hawthorne to show that deceit and dishonesty can do no good in the long

A common theme throughout literature is religion and how the author feels about his or her faith. Nathaniel Hawthorne uses rhetorical devices to draw comparisons between characters and events in The Scarlet Letter and Biblical figures and accounts. A few of the devices found in this novel that connect it to the Bible are symbolism, paradox, allusions, and characterization. It is important to first look at the characters and how they are described through characterization.

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.

Both Roger Chillingworth and Arthur Dimmesdale decay internally and externally throughout The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Chillingworth allows revenge to consume his soul, and Dimmesdale is tortured by his hidden guilt. During the novel, a visible change in physical appearance is greatly noticeable, and the characters’ emotional change is even more drastic. Hawthorne uses these characters as an example of the devastating psychological effects of guilt and sin, the novel’s central theme.

He was Hester's husband and he never returned to her, which was shamed in the Puritan society. He didn't want anyone knowing his true identity, so he assumed the name Roger Chillingworth. Chillingworth is known as the greatest doctor in their town, and in many of the surrounding towns. He lives this life kind of to forget his previous sins and to keep others from finding out. Roger Chillingworth wanted to keep this secret forever and the name he had before "should never more be spoken."(Hawthorn 237). He also disclosed to Hester that he was trying to kill the priest. He described him as being a "miserable priest" (Hawthorn 343) and he tells Hester that he was dying "in the sight of his worst enemy." Hawthorn (344). He is angered that Hester had an affair and had Pearl with Dimmesdale and he seeks the worst revenge possible. These issues progress the piece because they make the it more complicated and the characters, as well. Freud states that people's actions are "influenced by their unconscious" and this is especially true in the Scarlet Letter.

Nathaniel Hawthorne, a well-know Dark Romantic, employs the issues prevalent in Dark Romanticism in his novel The Scarlet Letter. These include the concepts of: guilt and sin, good and evil, and madness in the human psyche. Guilt and sin are heavily addressed in the novel, focusing on Hester’s outward versus Dimmesdale’s hidden guilt, and the sins committed by the adulterous couple and the revenge-driven Roger Chillingworth. The idea of what good and evil are is questioned in the novel. For example, the reader is led to question if Hester was right in not revealing Dimmesdale, and in turn if both Dimmesdale and Chillingworth were

            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

For many generations, people would presume a person’s mental, emotional, or moral state by just taking a quick glance at them.  In The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Hawthorne presents the characters in which their physical appearances closely resembles their mental, emotional, or moral state. The Scarlet letter starts off by introducing Hester who has committed adultery, which is a terrible offense in the Puritan community. As the story progresses, Dimmesdale who had committed this offense with Hester was suffering from his unpunished actions, as he learns that Chillingworth was planning to get revenge on Hester for committing adultery. However, towards the end Dimmesdale confesses and ruins Chillingworth’s plots for revenge. Hawthorne uses Dimmesdale, Chillingworth, and Hester to support the idea about the correlation between physical appearances and mental,

The reader first begins to see Chillingworth’s obsession with revenge on his wife’s lover when he asks her multiple times what the man’s name was. However, over the first several chapters, he gives the impression of a calm, nice man, the means he used to befriend Dimmesdale, but he actually symbolizes true evil and the causes of the spiritual imprisonment of unconfessed sin. Not only did his revenge affect him spiritually, but it affected him physically too. As Hawthorne put it so very well, “His form grew emaciated; his voice, though still rich and sweet, had a certain melancholy prophecy of decay in it,”

In literature, authors utilize character development to depict a story and create an intriguing novel. These characters are important because their process of change pieces together the base of any story. In The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Roger Chillingworth is a main character who exemplifies a change throughout the book. Roger Chillingworth undergoes in knowledge that leads to destruction, Hawthorne develops this change through the characters actions.

Chillingworth plots vengeance during all of his waking hours. His evilness and corrupt behavior are illustrated in the joy that he finds when his suspicions are confirmed. This happens when he discovers the carved letter A on Dimmesdale's chest one evening while Dimmesdale was resting. “Had a man seen old Roger Chillingworth, at that moment of ecstasy, he would have had no need to ask how Satan comports himself when a precarious human soul is lost to heaven,and won, into his kingdom. But what distinguished the physician’s ecstasy from Satan’s was the trait of wonder in it.” (95). Chillingworth is evil and he embodies the characteristics of the Devil. Even Pearl refers to him as the “black man.”