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Ambivalence In The Scarlet Letter

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Recommended: Critical appresiation of the novel the scarlet letter by nathaniel hawthorne

A Reader’s Ambivalence of Roger Chillingworth A successful novel is able to make readers feel a certain way about characters: a liking or disliking, a desire to succeed or not succeed, and anything in between. After seizing the reader’s feelings, the author has the potential to change them over the course of the book. There is also the feeling of ambivalence, which is, “the state of having mixed feelings or contradictory ideas about something or someone.” In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s, The Scarlet Letter, some readers assign this emotion to Roger Chillingworth. Roger Chillingworth is a character that readers feel ambivalent about, which is cultivated by Hawthorne to further the plot and develop characters. Mr. Chillingworth is a constantly changing …show more content…

Depending on how the reader chooses to interpret it, one could be reasonable in thinking Chillingworth did not want to come forward because of fear of his own reputation and the possible punishments he would have to face. Roger had a valid argument in not wanting to expose himself, but each individual’s interpretation could determine their stance on the matter. Hawthorne then makes reader’s perceptions more uncertain when he adds money to the plot. Towards the end of the novel readers learn Chillingworth leaves Pearl, the daughter of Hester and Dimmesdale, a great sum of money. Thus, questions arise in the minds of readers. Roger’s desire for revenge against all things relating to the affair were so strong, but this action could make him favorable to the audience once more. The reasons for the actions of Chillingworth, as created by Hawthorne, can impact reader’s uncertainty towards this complex character. Throughout the novel Hawthorne uses ambivalence, especially in relation to Roger Chillingworth, which is made evident by previously mentioned examples. Hawthorne’s reasoning for this particular style could be many things. The constant occurrences of Chillingworth, either in a positive or negative light, are significant because they amplify the plot, allow readers to choose whether they view him as a protagonist or antagonist, and affect the thoughts and

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Roger Chillingworth is speaking to Hester in this quote about how much her cheating affected him. Since the author did not give very much information about Roger before he returned to Boston, it was difficult to measure exactly how he had changed since learning of the scarlet letter. Through his previous words and actions regarding Hester and especially Reverend Dimmesdale, Roger depicts himself as a man filled with hatred and focussed on revenge. Before mentioning his old self, Roger Chillingworth told Hester about Reverend Dimmesdale’s suffering since he had become somewhat of his personal physician. Roger says that the reverend sensed “an eye was looking curiously into him,” which, undoubtedly, represents the presence of Roger Chillingworth,

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Hester wants to reveal the secret, but Chillingworth wants to keep it concealed in order to torture Dimmesdale even more (Hawthorne, 1994, pp. 118-119). This shows the devious aspect of his character. The association between Chillingworth and Hester transitions from a professional to personal relationship as the truth of Chillingworth’s real intentions comes to the

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Chillingworth knows that in his search for revenge he is getting closer to the Devil and is incorporating that, and this self reflection only serves to drive him farther into his goal. With Chillingworth interacting with the Devil and doing his work is thus isolated from the baseline society thus having no one to turn to but the Devil and his demons. This is dangerous because Chillingworth knows he has no one and will never give up his goal until it is completed, with the destruction of Hester and

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He went into the town to see someone he knew very well up on a scaffold showing her sinful mistake to everyone who could see. The woman on the Scaffold was not only someone Chillingworth knows but his wife, Hester Prynn. Though she was on the scaffold she was not alone, in her arms lay a small baby, Hester's baby. A pain ran through Chillingworth's mind, or maybe is wasn't pain it was anger. Hester did not see the baby as bad news, Chillingworth did force her into marriage and left her for 2 years in a new town, Hester is a very attractive girl and because Roger was so old and gone for so long everyone assumed he had perished.

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833 Words | 4 Pages

Chillingsworth works day in and day out making Dimmesdale sick with work that people will find out what he had done. It's so bad that Dimmesdale starts to do self harm. Chillingworth even goes about so that hester knows what she had done was wrong too and he makes her life like she is walking on

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505 Words | 3 Pages

Throughout the book Chillingworth reminds Hester of her wrong doing an example of this is when the novel states, “As he spoke, he laid his long forefinger on the scarlet letter, which forthwith seemed to scorch into Hester’s breast, as if it had been red-hot. ”(Hawthorne 64) Chillingworth's efforts to please himself by making Hester feel guilty for her actions during his absence sways the way many things happen in the book, like at the end when he decides to join the voyage that Dimmesdale and Hester planned to escape

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1003 Words | 5 Pages

Chillingworth’s guilt results in the degradation of his physical and mental demeanor, which ultimately turns him into a figure of evil. Chillingworth faces a multitude of problems, but the concealed guilt transforms his body and changes his physiognomy for the worse. Originally, Chillingworth is portrayed as an innocent man with great knowledge, but after some time the studious nature that offered Hester a reason to accept his proposal changed, for the, “former aspect of an intellectual and studious man... had altogether [vanish],”(Hawthorne 145), which portrays the first inclination into the physical deformities of Roger Chillingworth after torturing Dimmesdale. What was once an innocent man free of guilt, is now a demonic person with the intent of revenge.

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While both Chillingworth and Dimmesdale were living together so Chillingworth can conduct laboratorial exams, the narrator makes

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Another statement that Hawthorne makes in this section is that Chillingworth will not find anything except for mortality and corruption, but these were the things that he sought (125). This is giving the reader more insight on Chillingworth and his obsession. Chillingworth’s plan to infiltrate Dimmesdale’s home as his personal caretaker was to search for the truth. The once wise man had transformed once his obsession took control of him. Chillingworth’s

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1270 Words | 6 Pages

He moves in with Dimmesdale, and claims he will care for him, but the public cannot see that his intention is to torture Dimmesdale. Hawthorne explains, “The intellect of Roger Chillingworth had now a sufficiently plain path before it. It was not, indeed, precisely that which he had laid out for himself to tread. Calm, gentle, passionless, as he appeared, there was yet, we fear, a quiet depth of malice, hitherto latent, but active now, in this unfortunate old man, which led him to imagine a more intimate revenge than any mortal had ever wreaked upon an enemy” (126). He deliberately chooses to drive Chillingworth into insanity.

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Hawthorne’s immoral imagery depicts Chillingworth as untrustworthy. Later on, symbolism associates Chillingworth as a vicious person that seeks information for his own well-being. “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

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Midway through chapter fourteen, a dialogue between Chillingworth and Hester is occurring and Hester states, “Better he had died once” (Pg. 117) referring to Dimmesdale which forces Chillingworth to retaliate in the argument which leads to a great revelation in chillingworth’s mindset. He opens his eyes to a mirror and realizes the man this has turned him into. “... lifted his hands with a look of horror, as if he beheld some frightful shape.” (Pg. 118). Chillingworth sees the man he has become from the fact that Hester forced him to look back to see what he had done.

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291 Words | 2 Pages

Even in a novel full of instances of sanctimony and sin within the Puritanical community about which he writes, Nathaniel Hawthorne is careful to only ever subtly develop a homosexual subtext to the relationship that exists between doctor Roger Chillingworth and Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale. The Scarlet Letter’s men of science and faith are inextricably linked from the earliest chapters of the novel and spend much of the narrative in each other’s company: Chillingworth, suspicious that the guilt-ridden and sickly reverend impregnated his wife, protagonist Hester Prynne, and hellbent on vengeance as a result, inserts himself into Arthur Dimmesdale’s life as the ailing man’s primary physician. Not long thereafter, though, the relationship between

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1022 Words | 5 Pages

In the romantic novel, The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne portrays Roger Chillingworth as the prime example of pure evil. Chillingworth is characterized as a symbol for evil because Hawthorne illustrates him and his thoughts as being associated with the devil and Hell. Through Hawthorne’s descriptions, Chillingworth’s malevolent ideas and eagerness to expose Hester Prynne and Reverend Dimmesdale are revealed. Consequently, Chillingworth serves as the antagonist in the novel because of his plot to seek vengeance on and torment Dimmesdale. Through the use of figurative language and syntax, Chillingworth’s description and his actions symbolize him as a mysterious and wild evil doing the devil’s bidding.

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Amanda Vicente The Scarlet Letter Reading Response AP English Language Period J 16 August 2016 Journal Entry 1: Chapters 1-2 In The Scarlet Letter, the author sets a mood from the beginning of the book. The setting is old and beat up in front of an aged wooden prison with judgmental Puritans ready to tear a women apart. The Puritans are hypocrites and the author portrays that in the story.

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