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Captain Ahab's Loss Of Innocence In The Scarlet Letter

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In The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Roger Chillingworth displays evil traits while trying to get revenge on his wife’s lover. Another classic American novel, Moby Dick, by Herman Melville, features Captain Ahab trying his best to seek revenge on the gargantuan whale that took his leg. Roger Chillingworth and Captain Ahab are both evil characters trying to get revenge with many differences such as their reason for revenge, their way of torture, and the help they have on the way to their vengeance. Roger Chillingworth is seeking revenge on Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale for stealing his wife. Chillingworth is upset and wants revenge because his wife left him for another man. He undergoes an emotional loss of his wife, causing him to go insane. His emotional loss of love drives him to take action. When seeking revenge, he wants to keep Dimmesdale alive to make him live with his guilt. This is torturous …show more content…

This is captain Ahab’s life obsession to attack and execute Moby Dick. Captain Ahab wants revenge over the loss of his leg. This physical loss is the initial event that causes his life obsession of killing Moby Dick. Captain Ahab’s life is captivated by the, “death of Moby Dick”, which is his ship, The Pequod’s, motto. He is willing to give away precious gold just to kill Moby Dick to get revenge for his absent leg. He went to extremes and put his crew in ample amount of danger for the gigantic white whale’s death, just for his own wrath. Ahab has a whole crew to help him with his vengeance on Moby Dick. He makes absolutely insane decisions to force his crew into danger they should not have been in. Because of this in their final spotting of Moby Dick every crewmember dies except Ishmael, just because of Ahab’s decisions to chase the large whale instead of killing many whales for profit. Their crew has no choice but to follow the captain’s orders to chase and kill Moby Dick in which they fail to

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Mentally, his guilt strains his mind, which causes his physical deterioration, and the weakening of his body. As Dimmesdale finally admits his sin to the townspeople, his guilt is lifted, and he is able to release himself from his captivity. Though he deteriorated both mind and body from his guilt, by telling the townspeople of his sin, it was as if “a spell was broken” (238). He no longer needed to force himself to hide his sin, which was what was hurting him. By finally dealing with his sin in a similar way to Hester, Dimmesdale was able to free himself of his self-imposed captivity and

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Hawthorn Uses revenge to illustrate Chillingworth's decline of death. Roger Chillingworth has one main reason to get revenge and that reason is Dimmsdale, the Minister who stole his wife. Roger Chillingworth has spent 7 years of his life he will never get back just to get revenge on Dimmesdale who at the moment could care less as long as he is innocent in all of this. Chillingworth is wanting revenge more than anything in the world, His face has become as terrible looking as his soul just trying to get revenge, revenge is aging him very quickly and had caused Roger to look like a demon. Roger Chillingworth is doing everything is his power to try to get Dimmsdale to tell his big secret but Dimmesdale is doing everything is his power to keep

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To some this in an unneeded, extraneous line in the story that adds no real substance. To others, this provides insight into the characters of Nurse Ratched and Mr. McMurphy. The white whale refers to Moby Dick by Herman Melville. In Moby Dick, the whale wreaks havoc and is relentlessly pursued by Captain Ahab. In the end it can be argued that Moby, the whale, and the Captain are both defeated, paralleling the story with Nurse Ratched and Mr. McMurphy.

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Character Foils In The Scarlet Letter Those who contrast each other make for engrossing storytelling. Nathaniel Hawthorne demonstrates this truth often in his romantic narrative, “The Scarlet Letter”.

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The Scarlet Letter In The Scarlet Letter by Daniel Hawthorne many villainous acts occur that contribute to the plot and direction of the text. One antagonist in the novel is Chillingworth, the “departed” husband of Hester Prynne. Chillingworth and his constant mission to gain his wife's love and to reveal the father with whom Hester's baby was conceived by leads him to take some villainous actions. Chillingworth took many actions to obtain his goals, examples of this are constantly exemplified throughout the novel, one example is Chillingworth’s unrelenting hatred towards Dimmesdale.

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There’s always that one family member that nobody else likes. Whether it be that weird uncle, that crazy aunt, or that annoying cousin - almost everyone has one. Hawthorne, author of The Scarlet Letter, takes this idea to the extreme. John Hathorne was a judge during the Salem Witch Trials and the great-great grandfather of Nathaniel Hawthorne. Hathorne is also known to be the cruelest judge during the Salem Witch Trials - people began referring to him as “the hanging judge.”

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Dimmesdale starts living with Chillingworth so the doctor can keep the feeble minister ‘healthy’; the doctor, reversely, tries to make Dimmesdale feel conflicted about his morals which leads to Dimmesdale obsessively whipping himself “...on his own shoulders” and“... fast[ing]...in order to purify [his] body… rigorously...until his knees trembled beneath him[self]...” (132). He is enveloped in his sin, and cannot escape it unless he tells the truth. In fact, Dimmesdale could not stop thinking about his sin which “...continued to give Mr. Dimmesdale a real existence [which] was the anguish in his inmost soul” (133).

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How might one be defined by their actions? Good? Evil? Bad? Each are words used to describe a person’s being, yet no one knows who another's inner self truly is.

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 “For Pai, the danger is most obviously manifested in her near-death at sea, symbolising the potential destruction of her tribe, should her grandfather remain stubborn”(Crittenden, 2015, p. 88). In the end, the act of Pai climbing the largest of the beached whales, which has a stong symbolism as that whale is thought to be the whale that brough the

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He knows that if he reveals what he has done, then his followers will lose their respect for him. He is burdened with his sin; therefore, he inflicts pain upon himself for his wrongdoing. Dimmesdale goes as far as having vigils all night, being tortured by “diabolic shapes,” and emaciating and whipping himself. Dimmesdale punishes himself because he wants to repent for the sin that he has committed.

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As the moving of story, the “side effect” of the hidden sin has reveal. Dimmesdale become more sick and powerless. As the end of the story, Dimmesdale concede the sin and died as the winner of the fight with hidden sin. Dimmesdale as a combination of saint and sinner, his sin is not committed adultery, but it is that he cannot face the sin and admit it. He wanted to be all perfect in the eyes of the masses, but destroyed his perfectly in the eyes of God.

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Chillingworth shows no restraint in persecuting Dimmesdale to achieve his ends. When he arrives in the town he finds that a man has committed adultery with his wife, which “[leads] him to imagine a more intimate revenge than any mortal had ever wreaked upon an enemy.” From that moment, Chillingworth swears to exact his retribution. He forms a plan which will only satisfy his selfish desire to destroy the man that wronged him.

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As the whaling ship, the Pequod, sets sail. The Crew doesn’t see Captain Ahab for a few days of being aboard the ship. When they finally see him he makes the three harpooners and his three mates take a blood oath to killing Moby Dick. After a few months of being on the journey they see the white whale and go after him. After hours of hunting him it becomes dark and Ahab is still going after him while all the crew is trying to get him to give up.

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Ahab’s main goal for going on the whaling ship is to kill the whale, Moby Dick. Roger Chillingworth and Captain Ahab are both evil characters with many differences.

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For the characters in Moby Dick, they have trouble objectively understanding the white whale. Ahab believes Moby Dick represents evil, while Ishmael fails to determine scientifically the whale’s fundamental nature. Ahab sees the whale as a manifestation of that is wrong in the world and accepts that he must destroy this symbolic evil. Ishmael does not understand the meaning behind Ahab’s quest and his purpose to kill the whale as he sees whales as peaceful creatures. Ishmael states, “And thus, though surrounded by circle upon circle of consternations and affrights, did these inscrutable creatures at the centre freely and fearlessly indulge in all peaceful concernments; yea, serenely revelled in dalliance and delight” (Melville 433).

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