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Chillingworth Character Analysis

654 Words3 Pages

Dimmesdale is not the only character whose health suffers from keeping a secret, This also happens to Roger Chillingworth. When Chillingworth learns of the happenings of his former wife Hester, he decides to dedicate his time to find the man that ruined his marriage. What is most gripping is while Hester and Chillingworth have a conversation about the future of their marriage, Chillingworth states: “But, as for me, I come to the inquest with other senses than they possess. I shall seek this man, I have sought truth in books; as I have sought gold in alchemy. There is a sympathy that will make me conscious of him. I shall see him tremble. I shall feel myself shudder, suddenly and unawares. Sooner or later, he must needs be mine!” (Hawthorne …show more content…

Little to Chillingworth’s Knowledge Dimmesdale plans to confess his secret to the town making Roger unable to torture him any longer. And when this happens the townspeople state: “Nothing was more remarkable than the change which took place, almost immediately after Mr. Dimmesdale 's death, in the appearance and demeanour of the old man known as Roger Chillingworth. All his strength and energy- all his vital and intellectual force- seemed at once to desert him... he positively withered up, shrivelled away, and almost vanished from mortal sight” (231). At the death and confession of Clergyman Dimmesdale, Roger Chillingworth alongside his secret identity lost all purpose; he now had nothing to obsess or be secretive for. In addition to this his body that was already failing from his secret identity, collapsed because of the lack of purpose. In this journey Roger transformed from a strong healthy man to a person who became obsessive, secretive, unhealthy and old this all caused by his secret obsession. Nathaniel Hawthorne uses Chillingworth to explicitly convey that secret will cause physical damage that can lead to

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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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Dimmesdale and Chillingworth both have secrets that make them look and act differently, their secrets affect their character and how they do their job. Dimmesdale is the father of Pearl but he doesn 't want to face the same humiliation as Hester did for his sins. Because of his secret he self punishes and fasts, he also preaches better than he did before although his health is failing. Chillingworth’s secret is that he was the husband of Hester while he was away, before she cheated on him. Chillingworth gets uglier and uglier driven by the need to get revenge on Pearl’s father.

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After several years, Dimmesdale decides to confess. As he does this, Chillingworth’s attitude towards Dimmesdale changes. Suddenly, Chillingworth does not want Dimmesdale to confess! He seeks “to snatch back his victim from what he [Dimmesdale] sought to do” (Hawthorne, 1994, p. 172).

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1091 Words | 5 Pages

When Chillingworth visits Hester in prison, he claims that “his [the adulterer] fame, his position, his life, will be in my hands” (53). Chillingworth makes a vow to Hester that he will find the man who enticed her and will destroy the individual’s life and soul. As the novel progresses, Chillingworth establishes himself as the town doctor and Dimmesdale develops a mysterious illness that perplexes and worries the townspeople. His illnesses leads to Roger Chillingworth becoming his medical advisor, “as not only the disease interested the physician, but he was strongly moved to look into the character and qualities of the patient, these two men...came gradually to spend much time together” (84). Chillingworth takes advantage of the fact that Dimmesdale needs medical attention and establishes himself as a friend, with the intention of finding out personal information about Dimmesdale.

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And the shame!—the indelicacy!—the horrible ugliness of this exposure of a sick and guilty heart to the very eye that would gloat over it!” , thus presenting verbal abuse. He then guilts her into apologizing for not revealing that Chillingworth was her husband until then, by saying, “Woman, woman, thou art accountable for this!—I cannot forgive thee!”. Dimmesdale went further in putting down the images of others by immediately adding how awful he viewed Chillingworth, saying that he “has violated, in cold blood, the sanctity of a human heart” and implying that Chillingworth was “the worst sinner in the

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1404 Words | 6 Pages

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