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How Does Chillingworth's Character Change Throughout The Scarlet Letter

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A person’s outward appearance often influences the way others perceive their character. In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, Roger Chillingworth arrives in the colony to find that his wife, Hester, is being punished for extramarital relations. As the storyline continues, Chillingworth acts as the colony’s physician, becoming very close to Dimmesdale and Hester Prynne. Consequently, Chillingworth’s desire for revenge guided his appearance and interactions with Hester Prynne and Dimmesdale, ultimately altering his character. Chillingworth’s appearance changes as he focuses more and more on avenging Dimmesdale’s actions. When Chillingworth first entered the Puritan community, he was “small in stature, with a furrowed visage” (Hawthorne, …show more content…

In chapter 4, Chillingworth is brought into the jail to examine Hester’s baby, Pearl. During this time, they talk of things that have happened since they last saw each other a. Most of the conversation is purely informational, and they maintain a surface relationship. This changes, however, when Hester and Chillingworth meet in the woods. They speak on a personal level and of their “promise of secrecy” within their relationship (Hawthorne, 1994, p. 117). Hester wants to reveal the secret, but Chillingworth wants to keep it concealed in order to torture Dimmesdale even more (Hawthorne, 1994, pp. 118-119). This shows the devious aspect of his character. The association between Chillingworth and Hester transitions from a professional to personal relationship as the truth of Chillingworth’s real intentions comes to the …show more content…

Originally, Chillingworth becomes very close with Dimmesdale. Then, he uses his position as physician to bring guilt upon Dimmesdale. Chillingworth asks him many questions, and Dimmesdale replies with “[why] call in a physician, and then hide the sore” (Hawthorne, 1994, p. 93). He shows a lot of “fierceness” and forcefulness to Dimmesdale in trying to get him to confess his sin with Hester(Hawthorne, 1994, p. 94). After several years, Dimmesdale decides to confess. As he does this, Chillingworth’s attitude towards Dimmesdale changes. Suddenly, Chillingworth does not want Dimmesdale to confess! He seeks “to snatch back his victim from what he [Dimmesdale] sought to do” (Hawthorne, 1994, p. 172). Basically, Chillingworth wants to keep Dimmesdale from confessing of Chillingworth’s pleasure. Through his interactions with Dimmesdale, Chillingworth shows the vengeful aspect of his

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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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Roger Chillingworth plays an important role to the plot of the novel The Scarlet Letter. He is more of a symbol rather than a main character throughout the entire novel. This is due to the fact that he represents how all Puritans should act, at least on the surface. While he is becoming part of a community, he is also planting revenge on Hester and her lover. At first his plot was to reveal Hester’s lover, but that plot turned him into something more vile and evil than before.

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His persona shifts from a “man of skill, the kind and friendly physician” to a man with “something ugly and evil in his face” (85+). The community believes that Chillingworth is in some form of Satan, and they believe Chillingworth was sent to test Dimmesdale’s faith. Chillingworth sparks an interest in the health of the young Reverend Dimmesdale and fulfills a “new purpose”. Chillingworth

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612 Words | 3 Pages

The reader is especially made aware of Dimmesdale's mental state in the eleventh chapter, “His inward trouble drove him to practices more in accordance with the old, corrupted faith of Rome, than with the better light of the church in which he had been born and bred” [150]. This suggests that he is racked with immense guilt and shame at the falsehood he is living and suggests that he is physically abusing himself as a result of this guilt. This directly contradicts Chillingworth's mental state of fury and vengeance that he falls deeper into as the story progresses. These two characters also hold striking incongruities as to what drives them onward as the account

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He is very worried that Hester will out his secret to the townspeople and rev. Dimmsdale. Chillingworth starts to try to find out who Pearl’s father really is and wants to seek revenge on the father. He is getting sketchy about reverend Dimmesdale

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Chillingworth does not know until one night he spots something that looks as if it was a scarlet letter branded on Dimmesdale’s chest. As he sees this Chillingworth completely changes, “At first, his expression had been calm, meditative, scholar-like. Now there was something ugly and evil in his face.” Chillingworth has now turned into Reverend Dimmesdale’s own personal hell, “...haunted either by Satan himself, or Satan’s emissary, in the guise of old Roger Chillingworth.” Chillingworth has now sold his soul to the devil for revenge on

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

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Hawthorne immediately corrects himself, and says that Chillingworth is more like “a sexton delving into a grave, possibly in quest of a jewel that had been buried on the dead man’s bosom” (125). These comparisons of Chillingworth to a miner and a sexton, and the truth to gold and a jewel emphasizes this obsession that Chillingworth must finding the truth. Chillingworth is “the leech” and he 's by Dimmesdale’s side making him sick. The longer Chillingworth stays with Dimmesdale, the worse Dimmesdale’s condition gets. This is his newfound passion and his persistence won’t allow him to end this hunt for the truth.

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Dimmesdale internal conflict was he couldn’t find peace in his life. He was always in pain because his hand was over heart. Dimmesdale could do is to make Chillingworth leave. But can’t because he doesn 't know Chillingworth is his enemy. He could go to Hester for help to see if that solves his problems.

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711 Words | 3 Pages

Chillingworth emerges as a stranger in the colony, and after seeing Hester displayed as an adulteress, isolates himself. When he has his first conversation with Hester in the jail cell Chillingworth says that he is “a stranger” and was made one “sorely against [his]

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610 Words | 3 Pages

While Chillingworth secretly torments Dimmesdale, his stress begins to weaken and

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452 Words | 2 Pages

Dimmesdale seemed to be very ill which is why Chillingworth came back. Chillingworth believed that his illness was that of a guilty conscience. He suspected that there was a relation between Dimmesdale and Hester, which proved to be correct. Chillingworth was there for only one reason, revenge against the other man. Now knowing who will be his victim, Hester begins to worry and informs Dimmesdale on Chillingworth’s movies.

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452 Words | 2 Pages

Chillingworth and Dimmesdale formed a close relationship because Chillingworth believed that it was necessary for him to do so in order for him to try to cure Mr. Dimmesdale. Chillingworth began to show unkind qualities and became a thief of the riches that belonged to Mr. Dimmesdale. When Chillingworth asked Mr. Dimmesdale to reveal the wound and trouble in his soul in order for him to be healed, he lashed out at him and stormed off. Ultimately, Chillingworth had found Mr. Dimmesdale to be in a deep sleep

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781 Words | 4 Pages

Chillingworth has a helpless victim, who doesn’t even realize who Chillingworth is yet, and he exercises his power over the minister with great enthusiasm. When Hester meets him in the forest, Chillingworth has a blackness in his visage and a red light showing out of his eyes, as if “the old man's soul were on fire, and kept on smoldering duskily within his breast.” (pg.153). In seeking vengeance, he has taken on the devil's job. His obsession with revenge is what makes him the worst sinner and, therefore, a pawn of the devil so, it’s ironic that Hester meets him in the dark forest, a place the Puritans see as the home of the Black

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1269 Words | 6 Pages

“Chillingworth, the Satan in this Garden of Eden—Hawthorne labels him literally as such and associates him both with snakes and savage Indians, is motivated only by revenge” (Fryer). Chillingworth is explained in this manner because all Chillingworth is wanting to do is seek out Dimmesdale. He is strongly motivated by the anger he is feeling of his wife betraying him. He feels this because Hester actually loves Dimmesdale and that makes Chillingworth jealous. “His restraint will eventually prove ironic, of course, for later he will deliberately if insidiously torment the hapless Arthur Dimmesdale, and by the end of the novel, he will seem an almost satanic figure in his malicious pursuit of revenge” (Evans).

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