The Scarlet Letter and Hester

Hester displays acts of courage that portray her as a heroic character. Hester clearly suffers from her punishment of having to wear the scarlet letter ‘A’ in public as she attempts to maintain

At what point are you certain that Chillingworth is Hester’s husband? Cite the passage that confirms your suspicions.

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 admits to his schemes and gave a reasonable explanation of why he’s doing it. Chillingworth is still bummed out about Hester’s new lover, and it reminds him of how lonely he is. The quote shows that not only Chillingworth is isolated by society, but also from Hester.

Roger Chillingworth’s character shows evil in many ways, one of those ways is through his thoughts. From the moment he sees Hester on the scaffold he begins to plot revenge on whoever the father of Pearl is. The first meeting Hester and Chillingworth have Hester says, “Why dost thou smile so at me? [...] Art thou like the Black Man that haunts the forest round about us? Hast thou enticed me into a bond that will prove the ruin of my soul?”, then Chillingworth says, “Not thy soul, [...] No, not thine!” (Hawthorne 45). In this exchange between the once husband and wife the reader witnesses the first evil spark in Chillingworth. Every evil thought Chillingworth has stems from this moment in the story and everyone knows that thoughts generally lead to actions.

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.

From the start of the novel, Hester is portrayed in exile. She begins in the jail, and soon after is paraded through the streets to start her public exile with her child, Pearl. This first public shame caused Hester to feel “as if her hear had been flung in the street for them all to spurn and trample upon (Hawthorne 52).” The

At first Hester, agrees to Chillingworth’s terms to keep his real identity a secret. This in return hurt Dimmesdale, her secret lover. She does not stand up to Chillingworth out of fear of the chain effect of damage it would cause. Hester says, “I will keep thy secret, as I have his”, which in essence shows her weakness towards a male. Yet, at the end of the book, she recognizes that she must “do what might be in her power for the rescue of the victim on whom [Chillingworth] had so evidently set his gripe”. She comes to the conclusion that hiding Chillingworth’s secret does not help Dimmesdale like she hopes, but in fact, hurts him further. The fact that she realizes this, though, displays her to be an devoted and loyal person. These qualities display many things a female, main character, in those times, did not have much opportunity to play, especially in the role of which Hester plays it.

Throughout the story Roger Chillingworth slowly transforms and is comparable to the devil. There are phases to this transformation. The fact we learn Chillingworth trapped Hester in a marriage that she did not want be in shows that his evil transformation starts when we are first introduced to him. Later in this next phase, he uses his hatred and devotion to bring pain on Dimmesdale for seven years. Over the seven years, Chillingworth devotes his time to torment Dimmesdale with no remorse or compassion. While Dimmesdale and Hester had committed a high sin in Puritan life, Chillingworth’s conduct proves to be the greater evil. Hester and the “A” transition in the opposite direction. She was branded a

She had such a kind nature and willingness to assist others that the fact that those whom she fed often returned the generosity with nothing but insults did not cause her to cease in her endeavors. Then, towards the end of the novel, after returning from Europe to the New England town in which she had sinned and repented numerous years before, Hester began to counsel other unfaithful women. For example, "Hester comforted and counseled them as best she might. She assured them, too, of her firm belief, that, at some brighter period, when the world should have grown ripe for it, in Heaven's own time, a new truth would be revealed, in order to establish the whole relation between man and woman on a surer ground of mutual happiness." This also demonstrates Hester's generosity and helpfulness. Although the New England town harbored such unpleasant memories for her, she was willing to return in order to assist others in need. She was willing to relive her own pain and absorb the pain of others in order to benefit future generations, and she was willing to give back to a society which had given nothing to her.

5. Standing on the scaffold, Hester envisions her earlier life.  What facts do you learn about her previous life?  What was her relationship with the man “well stricken in years”?

“ Yonder woman, sir you must know, was the wife of a certain learned English man”. Chillingworth remains unforgiven because he knew sending Hester alone and not coming right after her was wrong. Chillingworth knew that the people would also blame him for what happened between Hester and Dimmesdale so he made his fake identity, Roger Chillingworth,

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.

Towards the end of the novel, Hester gets the break in life she’s been waiting for. She put up with seven years of shame and guilt, to finally be the person she used to be. Her rekindled love with Arthur makes her happy again, and everything just seems right for them. She’s filled with hope that her life will finally turn back to normal again. She feels redeemed, and the guilt is no longer on her shoulders. She’s now ready to take on the world, and start her life over to the way it was before the “A” entered her life. Having the courage to show her face in the colony again is just a sign of her bravery.

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