Sin is an immoral act considered to be a transgression against divine law. Despite the moral principles recognized in everyone, it is so often that individuals succumb to the instant gratification of sin. In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, the plot is centered around a group of Puritans living in Boston Massachusetts, where the avoidance of sin is one of their most absolute doctrines. He truly captures how sin affects individuals in a strict civilization through the use of various rhetorical devices, focusing on the symbolism of the characters, the distinct tone employed to convey specific messages, and the analogies further that emphasize and develop the effects of sin on individuals.
When Hester responds to Chillingworth’s comment regarding the removal of the scarlet letter, she replies by saying that the magistrates do not obtain the power to take off her letter. She adds that if the symbol were worthy to be removed, it would have fallen off or have transformed into a something that would express a different meaning. Chillingworth replies to this by telling her to wear it if it suits her best. He states that a woman must follow her own whims when dressing herself. Chillingworth’s response comes off as indifferent and sarcastic.
Such dreary diction stirs up emotion of desolation and misery as Hawthorne’s word choice connects and reminds his audience of dark thoughts. By opening his novel with such a grim subject, Hawthorne creates a contemptuous tone as he indirectly scorns the austere Puritans for their unforgiving and harsh manners. With the demonstrated disdain, Hawthorne criticizes puritan society and prepares his audience for further
Chillingworth is a sinner that possibly committed a greater sin than that of adultery, but is overall gray in his morality. He redeems himself when his remaining wealth is given to Pearl, and his wrongdoing is realized. This novel will be analyzed using the Mythological, or Archetypal literary criticism type. Hawthorne clearly wrote the novel with some archetypes in mind, whether they be biblical or from another source. These archetypes and the analysis of them help illuminate Chillingworth in a way the novel fails to do on its own.
Certain circumstances can drive even the most positive man to insanity. There is an example of this in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s classic novel T the Scarlet Letter--a book about lust, hate, and betrayal. Roger Chillingworth is a model of someone who is betrayed and almost forced into hatred and vengeance. Chillingworth has an unquenchable passion for books and his studies; so passionate that he leaves Hester for two years to study Indian medicine. While he is gone, his wife, Hester Prynne, commits adultery with the young pastor, Arthur Dimmesdale.
In Chapter 9 Hester and Pearl were going out to the forest to meet up with Dimmesdale. Dimmesdale has not found peace, only but pain and sadness. Even though Hester was suppose to keep secrets she told Dimmesdale right in his face that the doctor Chillingworth was Hester’s husband, then she went on and told Dimmesdale all about the doctor that she was suppose to keep a secret. Hester took off the scarlet letter and called out for Pearl to say that the minister was her father. She reacted very different because she wanted to be a public thing not a secret.
The Scarlet Letter introduces us to a few characters. Two being Arthur Dimmesdale and Roger Chillingworth. These two characters seem to be the polar opposite. They also have a few things that they have in common. First off, Chillingworth is described as a very inhuman character.
Illnesses, such as Chillingworths’ physical deformity, have deeper meanings. Chillingworth’s shoulders may mirror his morality. A rebirth or “baptism” of character is implied when a person changes his or her name. Hester Prynne’s husband changing his name upon his return and discovery of Hester’s affair indicates that he does not wish to be known as the husband of an adulterer and has recreated himself as a different person entirely.
Chapter nine of The Scarlet Letter fully illustrates the physician’s attempts at acting guiltless. Chillingworth’s activities in themselves showcase the duplicity of the civilization and allows Hawthorne to launch his viewpoint on the touchy matter. In summary, Hawthorne illustrates Chillingworth as an immoral character in order to found the themes of duplicity within the Puritan community and also to state his viewpoint on the value of pardoning
The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne there are many many villains who greatly influence the plot of the book. However, Chillingsworth is the most influential villain. The nature of his villainy is due to his grudge against Dimmesdale, and these actions contribute to the meaning of sin. At first Roger is somewhat sneaky and subtle and no one really notices. “Sometimes a light glimmered out of the physician’s eyes, burning blue and ominous,...”
The Scarlet Letter Essay Roger Chillingworth and Arthur Dimmesdale were two of the main sinners in The Scarlet Letter. Both characters kept their sins secrete throughout the story. These sins included adultery, revenge, and even murder. Out of the two sinners, Chillingworth was the worst, because he never felt guilt for the terrible things he was doing. Dimmesdale spent his entire life in guilt and remorse for the sins he had committed (“Who”).
However, he also uses these allusions to create a new side to his narrative as evident when he describes Hester’s resilience, and to create a new element in the plot as evident in his description of Dimmesdale’s penance and need for redemption. Therefore, Hawthorne demonstrates an effective use of allusions to craft a religious and detailed narrative for The Scarlet Letter by reviewing on parallels between the Bible and the novel’s main characters. There’s more to The Scarlet Letter than these allusions though, and there are many questions to answer about this book. These questions may never be answered fully, but by reading the novel itself, we might find the right places to start searching for answers and formulate our own opinions on the matter. What’s important from this novel is the realistic warning about what might happens when an individual place themselves too highly among others, a message Hawthorne writes to warn against the fervor of transcendentalism of his time.
Roger Chillingworth, in effort to dismantle Dimmesdale’s life, has continuously lost social wealth for the seven revengeful years. Most importantly, he put incredible concentration on revenge that he even lost his once-beloved wife. In fact, Chillingworth not only lost the love of Hester, but also gained hatred from Hester. In the end, Roger Chillingworth is worth nothing more than a social outcast who lost true and peaceful relationships with people, and even obtained hatred from his own wife. Through this allegory, Hawthorne teaches his readers that revengeful purpose in life can drive oneself out of the healthy social life.
In The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne effectively conforms to the conventions of the gothic genre for the purpose of characterizing the Puritan society as oppressive, portraying the hypocrisy found within the society and highlighting the consequences for not confessing
Due to Hawthorne’s ability to play with emotion, once reading The Scarlet Letter in its entirety, readers are unsure what to feel. It is difficult to explain the tone and mood of the novel mostly because that it makes readers become connected with all their different kinds of emotions. It is possible for readers to react to certain situations in their own ways, but for the most part, readers to undergo a rollercoaster of feeling. In having scenes of suffering, anger, rejoice, romance, and relief all confined into a relatively small paperback book, the tone tends to change quite constantly. Though there are individualized moods depending on what is occurring in the novel, there is an overlying tone of hope.
