Chillingworth And Dimmesdale In Nathaniel Hawthorne's 'The Scarlet Letter'

Essay 2
Nathaniel Hawthorne’s classic tale, The Scarlet Letter, is an excellent piece of literature with many plot twists. In the beginning of the story the reader meets Hester, who is one of the main characters in the story. The reader soon learns that she has committed adultery and has received the scarlet letter,an identifying mark put on someone who has committed adultery, in front of the town. Once she has received that letter, her husband, Roger Chillingworth, who she thought was captured, shows up and finds her. Chillingworth quickly becomes the town doctor and soon seeks revenge to the one who committed adultery with Hester. Later in the story the reader discovers that Arthur Dimmesdale is the one who committed adultery with Hester; and Pearl, Hester’s daughter is Dimmesdale’s daughter too. As the reader gets farther into the story the reader may realize Chillingworth and Dimmesdale have a lot in common. Similarities play a very important role in

Chillingworth is a good guy who has done everything right except for wanting revenge on Dimmesdale. Dimmesdale is also a good guy who has done everything right except for commit adultery with Hester. Their personalities are very similar in the way they act toward Hester and the way they speak to other characters in the story. Dimmesdale and Chillingworth actually are so close in their personalities that they become friends when Chillingworth becomes Dimmesdale’s doctor. They both open up to each other too about how they are unhappy. In addition, both of the men actually torture themselves in the book,“ This unhappy person had effected such a transformation by devoting himself, for seven years, to the constant analysis of a heart full of torture” (116). Their personalities aren’t the only thing that is similar in the story, their roles and functions in the story are similar