“Human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires”(James 1:20). In the Puritanical society that Hawthorne illustrates the citizen’s goal is to please their divine Creator. Puritans believe that there are many different ways to please God, but they also understand that there are also many ways to disgrace God. If this is true then Chillingworth is not a good pupil of God. For, Chillingworth disgraced God by committing one of the seven deadly sins, and his fate was to cause his own destruction. Nathaniel Hawthorne portrays the character Chillingworth as a hateful, evil antagonist whose sin of wrath is loathsome because of its deceitful revenge.
Even though Chillingworth presents himself as a scholar and religious follower, he is
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Throughout the novel, Chillingworth disguises himself as a scholar and a religious man, but he is really full of revenge and hate. This disguise that he makes for himself allows him to seek the truth he desires, with any tools he has at his disposal. With all of the tools he had, he was able to infiltrate Dimmesdale and his privacy, as well as, misleading the entire town. Throughout the duration of The Scarlet Letter, it is shown that seeking the truth can have negative or positive effects. Hawthorne makes it overt that the truth that Chillingworth was searching for had extremely negative effects on his life, and ended up destroying him. This bring up the question of, in Chillingworth’s case was the truth really worth the painful path? However, finding out the truth can not only make you a prisoner within yourself, but it can also set you free. For example, in the bible, in John 8:31-32, Jesus said, “If you abide in my Word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” This suggests that if you follow God, then the truth can set you free, but since Chillingworth did not follow God, the truth eventually lead to his self