Who Is Chillingworth Misdeed In The Scarlet Letter

Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter is a study of the effects of sin on the hearts and minds of the main characters, Hester Prynne, Arthur Dimmesdale, Roger Chillingworth. Hester, Dimmesdale, and Chillingworth. Sin strengthens Hester, humanizes Dimmesdale, and turns Chillingworth into a demon.

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

The Scarlet Letter illustrates that the illumination of self-deception gapes open after one like the very jaws of hell. This is apparent through all the main characters of the novel. Although Hawthorne's work has several imperfect people as the main characters, including Hester Prynne, Arthur Dimmesdale, and Roger Chillingworth, the worst sinner is Roger Chillingworth. Chillingworth commits the greater sin because of his failure to forgive; he has an insatiable appetite for revenge; he receives extreme pleasure in torturing Dimmesdale. Hester Prynne, however, has committed sins of almost the same magnitude.

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

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 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.

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

Chillingworth’s goal was to “ruin” (65) Dimmesdale's soul, an act that continued to fuel his vengeance and fill his own soul with darkness. His entire demeanor was affected by this purpose; while he did attempt to hide what he felt internally by acting “calm , gentle, [and] passionless”, he failed and showed his “active” “malice” that “led him to imagine a more intimate revenge than any mortal has ever wreaked upon an enemy” (116). The significance of the immorality of his plan further shows how he was inhumane, more like a Devil than a person. Chillingworth “brought himself” “below” “her level” “ by the revenge which he has stooped for,” (138) because it filled him with such hatred that it drained him of morality and humanity, making him lower than Hester and ultimately less powerful. Hester on the other hand, wanted to repent for previous transgressions, doing this by utilizing her flaming passion for charity. She became known as one “who is so kind to the poor, so helpful to the sick, [and] so comfortable to the afflicted” (134-135). Her Scarlet Letter stopped being interpreted “by its original signification”, and now “meant Able” (134) instead. This new purpose in life brought her higher than Chillingworth and put her in a higher position of power due to its emphasis on

In The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne exhibits how three very unique characters are evidently brought together by the sins that they have perpetrated and how they manage to perform acts of atonement in the puritanical Boston society. Hester Prynne sins by committing the shocking transgression of adultery. Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale, who as well engages in adultery with Hester, abandons her and their daugher because of his own cowardice and hypocrisy. Roger Chillingworth grows to become a maleficent being who tries to corrupt the very soul of Reverend Dimmesdale. Although Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale do sin greatly, it is Roger Chillingworth who sins to the most ferocious degree.

In The Scarlet Letter there are three main sinners presented to the reader. Hester Prynne, Arthur Dimmesdale and Roger Chillingworth are all written with their own forms of sin, and each has a unique coping mechanism for their sins and guilt. Sin, at this time, was a hugely important part of daily life, and punishment for one’s sins was universally seen as not only a positive thing, but a necessary action to keep the people of the colony pure. Both Hester and Dimmesdale receive great punishments for their sin of adultry. However, one character is portrayed as a true sinner, more so than the others. Roger Chillingworth is by far the worst sinner in The Scarlet Letter. This is made apparent by

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 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

In Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, the reader is able to observe how one sin devastates three lives. Hester, Dimmesdale, and Chillingworth are all guilty of succumbing to temptation, anger, and desire, causing all to fit the definition of a sinner. Yet, Chillingworth's iniquities raise him up above Hester and Dimmesdale on the level of diabolic acts.

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.

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