Everyone has some sort of goal. Some goals can be achieved within an hour, day, or week. Some however take years to achieve. Although this may seem like a long time many will say that it is definitely worth the wait. Roger Chillingworth, in The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, focuses on his main goal for many years. Despite his title as a physician, he is concerned with others well-being. He leeches off of others and is a true representation of evil. His long-term goal is to seek revenge on the person who ruined his marriage with Hester Prynne. His desire for revenge powers his persistence, which at times is on the edge of obsession. Breaking down every barrier in his way, Chillingworth is plotting an evil plan to take that person down from the inside, out. Persistence is defined as a continuous or repeated behavior. Chillingworth is persistent because he does not stop leeching off of Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale, and he continuously finds ways to create pain and suffering for Dimmesdale to endure.
Soon after Hester is taken down off the scaffold, Roger Chillingworth meets her in the jail cell. The beginning of the story, in the jail, starts his large scheme of revenge. “Here, woman! The child is yours,—she is none of mine,—neither will she recognize my voice or aspect as a father’s” (66). Chillingworth tells
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Chillingworth is deceiving Dimmesdale by convincing him that he is his friend. “Come, good Sir, and my dearest friend, I pray you, let me lead you home!” (137). Chillingworth is persisting in his plan to destroy the man that destroyed his marriage with Hester. He is so good at acting like he is a friend that Dimmesdale is starting to let the only one who is planning to hurt him, in, and befriending him. Chillingworth's persistence is finally paying off. He is destroying Dimmesdale from the inside,