Roger Chillingworth's Role In Scarlet Letter

Throughout the novel, The Scarlet Letter, the author, Nathaniel Hawthorne, gives each of the important characters a specific role. These characters include, Hester Prynne, Roger Chillingworth, Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale, and Pearl. Each character develops throughout the novel, but their role is always quite clear. Hester Prynne, the main character in the novel, starts out by being publicly shamed for being an adulterer. Her punishment is to be publicly shamed for three hours by the town members and to wear the letter “A” upon her bosom for the rest of her life. Although Hester has committed the sin of adultery, she decides to look past it and focus on the better things., like helping others. Hester’s role is a guardian angel. Even though she

When he is first mentioned in the novel, he motions to Hester to keep quiet about his identity, and pretends that he does not know who Hester is. He tells Hester in the prison, “Recognize me not, by word, by sign, by look! Breathe not the secret, above all, to the man thou wottest of” (pg. 63). His villain role, also, comes out when he talks about finding the man Hester had an affair with, “I shall seek this man, as I have sought truth in books; as I have sought gold in alchemy. There is a sympathy that will make me conscious of him. I shall see him tremble. I shall feel him shudder, suddenly and unawares. Sooner or later, he must needs be mine!” (pg. 62). In most of the novel, Chillingworth is only worried about getting his revenge on Hester’s lover. Only worrying about revenge makes Chillingworth go crazy. He takes an opportunity to give medical attention to Dimmesdale, who has become ill. Dimmesdale and Chillingworth become friends, but Chillingworth tries to go into Dimmesdale’s head to get out the truth about Hester and her secret lover. After Chillingworth finds out the true identity of Hester’s lover, he acts like he does not know it is Dimmesdale. When Chillingworth finds out that Hester, Dimmesdale, and Pearl are going to Europe, he decides to tell the captain of the ship that he must go on the ship because they need a doctor and that he is a part of Hester’s party. By doing this, he is ruining any