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How Does Roger Chillingworth Change Throughout The Novel

645 Words3 Pages

Prompt:
In a five-paragraph essay, trace the development of Roger Chillingworth in The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne AND explain how he is perceived by other characters in the story. In The Scarlet Letter, Roger Chillingworth is a flakey man that has a gradual but note-worthy change as the story progresses. At first Roger Chillingworth, as he comes back from his travels, seems (despite his unattractive appearance) like a friendly, approachable, and well-educated man. However, this character changes to a more sinister and deleterious one as the chapters move on. The other characters develop assorted opinions of Chillingworth, too. His development in the story will be traced as with the way others perceived him. In the first place, Roger Chillingworth arrives to Boston and is soon to be of medical assistance to Dimmsdale since he is almost deathly ill. At that time he is a respected and kind scholar. No one of the town thinks much of Chillingworth in terms of him being a man with a heart full of vengeance and bad deeds. His knowledge of medicine and herbs of medical use makes him useful …show more content…

Most of the townspeople saw him as a kind and helpful man, and later on some start to draw suspicion and have an unsettling feeling about him. To Dimmsdale, the person Chillingworth has had the most interaction with, Roger is considered practically a best friend to him. Despite the poisonous behaviour towards Dimmesdale, he keeps Chillingworth around but also sees him as a frightening man. Hester Prynne once saw him as an intelligent and admirable man. However, she sees the changes in Chillingworth, and notices how he’s become more evil and very manipulative in chapter 14 when they met in the forest. She sees the devil taking hold of him and doing his “dirty deeds.” All this shows the diverse perceptions the characters have about Roger

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Therefore, the role Chillingworth obtains influences the plot of the story more so than other characters. Chillingworth seems to be a nice and genuine person throughout the beginning of the novel. He becomes Dimmesdale’s friend and helps take care of him throughout his illness. However, while he is being this nice person on the outside, on the inside he plots revenge against Dimmesdale and Hester.

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When Chillingworth visits Hester in prison, he claims that “his [the adulterer] fame, his position, his life, will be in my hands” (53). Chillingworth makes a vow to Hester that he will find the man who enticed her and will destroy the individual’s life and soul. As the novel progresses, Chillingworth establishes himself as the town doctor and Dimmesdale develops a mysterious illness that perplexes and worries the townspeople. His illnesses leads to Roger Chillingworth becoming his medical advisor, “as not only the disease interested the physician, but he was strongly moved to look into the character and qualities of the patient, these two men...came gradually to spend much time together” (84). Chillingworth takes advantage of the fact that Dimmesdale needs medical attention and establishes himself as a friend, with the intention of finding out personal information about Dimmesdale.

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Throughout the novel, Chillingworth’s ugly look is combined with his altruistic, as well as revenge-seeking and malicious nature. Chillingworth’s ugliness is described to be “—a deformed old figure, with a face that haunted men’s memories longer than they liked” (166), and his contradictory behaviours are revealed when the author writes: Calm, gentle, passionless, as he appeared, there was yet, we fear, a quiet depth of malice, hitherto latent, but active now, in this unfortunate old man, which led him to imagine a more intimate revenge than any mortal had ever wreaked upon an

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Chillingworth knows that in his search for revenge he is getting closer to the Devil and is incorporating that, and this self reflection only serves to drive him farther into his goal. With Chillingworth interacting with the Devil and doing his work is thus isolated from the baseline society thus having no one to turn to but the Devil and his demons. This is dangerous because Chillingworth knows he has no one and will never give up his goal until it is completed, with the destruction of Hester and

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Roger Chillingworth is a character seen as a distorted human being, seemingly one without a soul. This is an effortless conclusion to make without proper analysis. Roger Chillingworth is not as twisted as is often thought, as he does many good things that are overlooked. He is open minded and gains knowledge for the good of others. He does evil deeds, but in a human way that makes him quite conflicting.

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The way Chillingworth “scrutinized his patient carefully, both as he saw him in his ordinary life….. and as he appeared when thrown amidst other moral scenery...might call out something new to the surface of his character. While “it was a physician that he presented himself, and such was cordially received”, many people still have their doubts about him. Since Chillingworth is curious about Dimmesdale’s problems, he made “an arrangement by which the two were lodged in the same house; so that every eeb and flow of the minister’s life-tide might pass under the eye of his anxious and attached physician.” He wants so deeply to know what Dimmesdale is hiding, that he convinces Dimmesdale’s friends to let them live together, even though Dimmesdale is not truly sick; maybe sick of himself, but

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Overcoming Oppression The Grapes of Wrath was written by John Steinbeck and is a story of overcoming oppression. When the dust bowl runs the Joad family off of their land in Oklahoma they are forced to leave with what they can fit into their truck and the little bit of money they have. The book puts you in the shoes of someone taking an unwanted journey to somewhere they are not welcome. The Grapes of Wrath shows how everyone is part of a bigger community, how religious people are seen as gullible, and how socialism unifies communities. The theme of community is consistently shown all throughout their journey.

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To me, Chillingworth is an example of being unable to erase who one really is. In the beginning of the book, Hester describes him as being a happy scholar and Master Prynne later admits that all he wanted to feel was passion and love and describes himself saying: But all my life had been made up of earnest, studious, thoughtful, quiet years, bestowed faithfully for the increase of mine own knowledge, and faithfully, too, though this latter object was but casual to the other--faithfully for the

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In 1964, Lawrence Kohlberg, a psychologist introduced the idea that humans evolved through different stages of morality. In the novel, The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne male characters exemplify a moral development as the story unfolds. In particular, Arthur Dimmesdale’s morality differs from the beginning of the novel to the ending of the novel. His morality undergoes continuity and change by constantly changing from selfishness, social order, and social contract. Dimmesdale undergoes the morality maintaining the social order and being considerate of others to eventually being selfish and only thinks about himself.

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Chillingworth becomes devoted to avenging his marriage, this blurred his thoughts, compelling him to commit sinful wrongdoings. Soon after discovering Dimmesdale was the man Chillingworth had been looking for, he abused his power as a physician to impose agony into Dimmesdale’s life. Chillingworth truly affirms that the dreadful acts he inflicts upon Dimmesdale are not immoral; his beliefs are shown when Hawthorne says, “‘What evil have I done the man?’ asked Roger Chillingworth.” (Hawthorne 268).

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1270 Words | 6 Pages

He moves in with Dimmesdale, and claims he will care for him, but the public cannot see that his intention is to torture Dimmesdale. Hawthorne explains, “The intellect of Roger Chillingworth had now a sufficiently plain path before it. It was not, indeed, precisely that which he had laid out for himself to tread. Calm, gentle, passionless, as he appeared, there was yet, we fear, a quiet depth of malice, hitherto latent, but active now, in this unfortunate old man, which led him to imagine a more intimate revenge than any mortal had ever wreaked upon an enemy” (126). He deliberately chooses to drive Chillingworth into insanity.

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436 Words | 2 Pages

Eventually, he comes aware of what he has done and leaves his property to Pearl and Hester. “Nothing was more remarkable than the change which took place, almost immediately after Mr. Dimmesdale’s death, in the appearance and demeanour of the old man known as Roger Chillingworth” (253). It is obvious that Chillingworth develops an understanding of his sins after Dimmesdale’s death which made Chillingworth’s life without a purpose. To conclude, revenge and sin are one of the most disturbing crimes a man can commit; therefore, symbolism, figurative language, and imagery were used to verify the awful character of

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550 Words | 3 Pages

Chillingworth shows no restraint in persecuting Dimmesdale to achieve his ends. When he arrives in the town he finds that a man has committed adultery with his wife, which “[leads] him to imagine a more intimate revenge than any mortal had ever wreaked upon an enemy.” From that moment, Chillingworth swears to exact his retribution. He forms a plan which will only satisfy his selfish desire to destroy the man that wronged him.

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1322 Words | 6 Pages

Chillingworth wants revenge towards Hester´s lover and he won´t rest until he finds him. Roger tells Hester not to tell anyone that he is her husband, he doesn´t want people to know that Hester is his wife because people would think of him as the betrayed husband and he would live in shame. Chillingworth pretends to be a doctor, that way he won´t drag too much attention since the town is small and the people living in it don´t have access to good

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639 Words | 3 Pages

The constant occurrences of Chillingworth, either in a positive or negative light, are significant because they amplify the plot, allow readers to choose whether they view him as a protagonist or antagonist, and affect the thoughts and

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