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Differences Between Chillingworth And Dimmesdales In The Scarlet Letter

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In Hawthorne’s Scarlet Letter, a women, Hester Pryne, who lives in the village becomes pregnant after her husband allegedly passes away. In the puritan community, this is a sin of adultery and Hester is brought to the scaffold in front of the entire village to be shamed. By the middle of the novel, it is realized that Arthur Dimmesdale is the father of Pearl, Hester’s baby. Roger Chillingworth comes back and conceives the idea of Dimmesdale being the father and starts his vengeance. In Hawthorne’s the Scarlet Letter, Chillingworth and Dimmesdale differ in their personalities, their positions in the village, and their relationship with Hester. In Hawthorne’s the Scarlet Letter, Chillingworth and Dimmesdale differ in their personalities. In the beginning of the novel, Dimmesdale is the Puritan Minister who is well educated, has a philosophical mind, but has a hard time disclosing sin from his personal life. Chillingworth has the personality of a scholar and is very well educated and when he returns, presents himself as a doctor. As the time continues and everyone is trying to figure out who the …show more content…

The two relationships can be contrasted as Hester loving Dimmesdale and Hester wanting nothing to do with Chillingworth. Hester loves Dimmesdale and wishes that he could replace the role that Chillingworth previously had. Hester wants nothing to do with Chillingworth and wishes he had never come back. She doesn’t like how much Chillingworth has changed and how he has an evil vengeance attitude. In the novel it is stated, “Art thou like the Black Man that haunts the forest round about us? Hast thou enticed me into a bond that will prove the ruin of my soul?” (112). This quote accurately describes how Hester, among many other people, viewed Chillingworth towards the end of the novel. He had become evil and sinister and only seeked revenge on

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155 Words | 1 Pages

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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361 Words | 2 Pages

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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964 Words | 4 Pages

Hester assumes that has has died and has an affair with the minister of her town, Dimmesdale. He later comes back, unharmed and finds out about the affair. He then threatens to get his revenge upon Dimmesdale. Although Abigail and Chillingworth are alike in the way they respond to their affairs, but they differ in why they respond that way. Both Abigail and Chillingworth reacted wickedly to their affairs.

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539 Words | 3 Pages

Chillingworth seeks revenge but doesn't quite know how to go about it. The minister feels something negative is coming his way, but does not suspect it to come from a trusted colleague. One gesture that I believe foreshadows the presence of something beneath Dimmesdale’s vestment is when he would often grab his chest in stressful experiences would arise. One example from the text

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833 Words | 4 Pages

Chillingsworth works day in and day out making Dimmesdale sick with work that people will find out what he had done. It's so bad that Dimmesdale starts to do self harm. Chillingworth even goes about so that hester knows what she had done was wrong too and he makes her life like she is walking on

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1218 Words | 5 Pages

Pacino’s Looking for Richard is a modern reinterpretation of the underlying themes from Shakespeare’s Richard III. Power, ambition, and free will are recurrent themes in both, yet they also relate to the more basic elements of what makes us human. It is what has changed between Shakespeare’s portrayal of a monster and Pacino’s subversion of the character which gives insight into the respective contextual concerns. Pacino’s Looking for Richard demonstrates how the reshaping of an original text, Richard III, is influenced by the cultural assumptions, context and key values. P1 - Cultural assumptions - the pursuit of power Shakespeare makes symbolic use of cultural assumptions Religion was a very integral and key part of the Elizabethan era.

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505 Words | 3 Pages

Throughout the book Chillingworth reminds Hester of her wrong doing an example of this is when the novel states, “As he spoke, he laid his long forefinger on the scarlet letter, which forthwith seemed to scorch into Hester’s breast, as if it had been red-hot. ”(Hawthorne 64) Chillingworth's efforts to please himself by making Hester feel guilty for her actions during his absence sways the way many things happen in the book, like at the end when he decides to join the voyage that Dimmesdale and Hester planned to escape

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1003 Words | 5 Pages

At first Chillingworth is portrayed through the introduction as a civil man, almost feel sorry for him for the fact that his wife cheated on him, and that she is now imprisoned, Hester even calls him, “the Black Man that haunts the forest round about [the town],”(Hawthorne 94), however, these words foreshadow the dive to insanity Chillingworth later takes after he sets his sights on revenge. Although Chillingworth’s arrival to Massachusetts is not a happy one, the reader can’t feel bad for Chillingworth because during his conversation with Hester, Chillingworth didn’t approach Hester with the intent on being a good husband, but rather as a physician. The lack of love Chillingworth displays to Hester, sheds light onto the how riddled with guilt Chillingworth really is, the mere opposition to comfort her, provides Chillingworth’s first step towards his mental downfall. Some people may argue that Chillingworth never saw a downfall into his own mental state, and that he was passing the punishment that Dimmesdale had deserved. However, the punishments that Dimmesdale was receiving was more torture than anything else, which exemplifies the civility he has lost.

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910 Words | 4 Pages

(125). Chillingworth was not always a bad man, as he says. Hester’s scandal and betrayal hurt Chillingworth deeply, to the point where he became evil and sought revenge. Chillingworth was humiliated, and Dimmesdale and Hester were the two people that had made him that way, which is why he sought

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1064 Words | 5 Pages

There’s always that one family member that nobody else likes. Whether it be that weird uncle, that crazy aunt, or that annoying cousin - almost everyone has one. Hawthorne, author of The Scarlet Letter, takes this idea to the extreme. John Hathorne was a judge during the Salem Witch Trials and the great-great grandfather of Nathaniel Hawthorne. Hathorne is also known to be the cruelest judge during the Salem Witch Trials - people began referring to him as “the hanging judge.”

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392 Words | 2 Pages

and yet he ambitiously seeks further torture. As his antipathy amplified, Chillingworth perpetually imbued Dimmesdale with a fiery warmth of regret for the scandalous iniquity he had wrongfully commit; Yet, Chillingworth’s “righteous” acts are not righteous at all, in fact he commits sin tenfold that of Dimmesdale just through these acts. Chillingworth poses himself as a kind man attempting to heal the Reverend, but this is a lie, a lie directly to the face of God. Chillingworth does not care for the health of the Reverend, his true underlying intentions are to seek information from

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570 Words | 3 Pages

Chillingworth’s gravitation towards evil stimulates his lost of humanity, ultimately forcing his fate to become dependent on Dimmesdale’s public confession. When he arrives in the Puritan society in Boston, Chillingworth encounters his wife, Hester, enduring the consequences of public humiliation for an adulterous crime. Due to Hester’s defiant nature and her desire to conceal her partner’s name, Chillingworth was compelled to privately seek the identity of Hester’s partner. During his mission, Chillingworth earns the trust of Reverend Dimmesdale, whom he later identifies as Hester’s partner after discovering marks on the clergyman’s chest that closely resembles the shameful scarlet letter that Hester bears as punishment. Upon his discovery,

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978 Words | 4 Pages

While both Chillingworth and Dimmesdale were living together so Chillingworth can conduct laboratorial exams, the narrator makes

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1146 Words | 5 Pages

The narrator portrays him as an intelligent but angry old man that does not have any interest in his wife any longer unless it is plotting revenge. One theme in this chapter is something that can slowly destroy people mentally, guilt. The irony that took place in this story is that Chillingworth is trying to find the father of his wife's child. The main theme in chapter three and four is obeying the law of the people and if failed to be done it will end in punishment. Journal Entry 3: Chapters 5-6 For the rest of Hester’s life she will be forced to wear a red embroidered “A” at all times on her clothes.

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480 Words | 2 Pages

One major difference between the sins was that Chillingworth’s sin was directed to hurt and pain another person. Dimmesdale simply committed adultery out of passion and love for another. Dimmesdale also felt an immense amount of guilt and pain for the sin he did. Chillingworth felt no guilt for what he was doing to Dimmesdale and sinned time after time again, eventually leading Dimmesdale to kill himself. This showed how much more serious the sin Chillingworth committed was in the story (“Who”)

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