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Chillingworth's Expectations Of Dimmesdale In The Scarlet Letter

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Expectations of Dimmesdale to be “morally pure” and free of sin have created a divergence between Dimmesdale’s reality and the expectations of the public. This divide causes a corruption of Dimmesdale that smolders underneath the façade of the public 's perception and his reality. The conflict manifests itself in Dimmesdale as illness; a metaphor that provides a clear view on Hawthorne 's views of society: how divergence of an individual 's reality and society 's demands sickens and corrupts an individual. Dimmesdale 's isolation within his house allows him to escape others and atone for his sins by prayer, but Chillingworth 's influence turns it into a place of evil, forcing Dimmesdale to hide his secret. Chillingworth 's constant presence becomes a corruptive force in Dimmesdale 's life, and his constant presence damages Dimmesdale 's physical state. …show more content…

Hawthorne even goes so far to draw parallels between Chillingworth and the serpent of Genesis 3, describing Chillingworth as having features “like a snake” (The Scarlet Letter, 79), even calling Chillingworth as "The Black Man" on several

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