In The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Roger Chillingworth is one of the principal antagonists. His spite triggers him to pursue vengeance. He is a despicable character. He goes through drastic character changes throughout the novel. He develops from a kind scholar to a symbol of evil. When Chillingworth first appears in chapter three, he is seen as an oddly dressed man with deformed shoulders. The people feel really bad for him as his wife had committed a crime against him. Hawthorne writes, “There was a remarkable intelligence in his features, as of a person who had so cultivated his mental part that it could not fail to mould the physical to itself, and become manifest by unmistakable tokens.” This shows to us that Chillingworth is seen as a good man. Hawthorne gives us signs early that Chillingworth is evil by placing him with indians who are seen as being wild. …show more content…
In chapter four, Chillingworth characterizes himself as “a man already in decay.” In chapter nine, Hawthorne describes Chilling worth as "a man, elderly, travel-worn, who, just emerging from the perilous wilderness, beheld the woman, in whom he hoped to find embodied the warmth and cheerfulness of home, set up as a type of sin before the people." Chillingworth holds all of his feelings in and uses them on the journey to identify Hester's lover. Chillingworth is the town's doctor so he is in charge of taking care of Arthur Dimmesdale. While Dimmesdale is under Chillingworth's care, Chillingworth discovers Dimmesdale's secret. After that Chillingworth has his mind set on getting back at dimmesdale.. Chillingworth only lives to harm Dimmesdale. When Hester is telling Chillingworth that he is a fiend, she says in chapter Fourteen, "You search his thoughts. You burrow and rankle in his heart! Your clutch is on his life, and you cause him to die daily a living