`` The Scarlett Letter `` By Roger Chillingworth

In which characters do you see Hawthorne’s themes of pride, isolation, and guilt most clearly? Deal with each theme separately, with support from the text, and use transitions between each. I should be able to find this in our shared folder by Friday when you enter class.

the characters. The story reminds his audience that a man is more than a father. He is

            Hawthorne's moods or prevailing feelings during certain scenes are revealed to the reader through nature.

• What are the characters’ emotions, attitudes, and behaviors? What do these indicate to the reader about the character?

he begins to realize he is not worthy to be a god or have everlasting

This self-description of the narrator says it all. He gives a brutal, yet inflated description of himself and his friends that gives the reader a very round main character.

‘Health we must have; and health is proportion; so that when a man comes into your room and says he is Christ… …and has a message… …and threatens… …to kill himself, you invoke proportion; order rest in bed; rest in solitude; silence and rest; rest without friends, without books; without messages; six months’ rest…’ (Page 110).

            Chillingworth stood with Hester Prynne within the confines of the prison, talking with her about how he would go about finding her lover. He says to her,

Predictably, what Chillingworth finds under Dimmesdale's shirt may be a scarlet letter of his own doing, or some other mark. Whatever it is, Chillingworth seems to have secured his prey. I’m assuming he’s going to keep pulling Dimmesdale apart, if slowly. He may also be spiraling lower, even to a physical degree, distorting his face and morals. The author seems to be writing emphatically that revenge and cowardice will destroy you, and truth is the only route to forgiveness from others and to forgive oneself. I believe Hawthorne doesn’t want us to aim for societal acceptance,

ploy set by Hawthorne to add a little twist to the story, and give us the

Not knowing a character’s objectives or purpose while reading a novel is sometimes the author’s intentions, but the reader may not be aware of this until further into the reading. The character’s intentions are not always immediately apparent; what their role is, or how they may affect other characters is not yet determined. In other words, not all characters have to conform to one archetypal character type and may sometimes play somewhat opposing archetypes that in the end have the same end goals. An example of this happening is seen in Mark Twain’s The Mysterious Stranger, when the character Satan acts as both an evil figure with the ultimately good heart, and a mentor figure when teaching and guiding Theodor and his friends Seppi, and Nikolaus.

Finally, in his later years, he comes to understand that Heaven brings the process to an

realizes that his outside wants to seek forgiveness but his inside can not give up the positions that

Roger Chillingworth presents a fierce will focused on finding the man who participated in an unlawful relationship with his wife. Under the guise of a physician he learns of his wife’s guilt and immediately promises to “...seek this man, as [he has] sought the truth” (Hawthorne 81). This attitude begins as soon as he first finds out about the situation, and only grows stronger through time, until he has completely “devoted himself” to his task of gaining revenge

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