Hawthorn Uses revenge to illustrate Chillingworth's decline of death. Roger Chillingworth has one main reason to get revenge and that reason is Dimmsdale, the Minister who stole his wife. Roger Chillingworth has spent 7 years of his life he will never get back just to get revenge on Dimmesdale who at the moment could care less as long as he is innocent in all of this. Chillingworth is wanting revenge more than anything in the world, His face has become as terrible looking as his soul just trying to get revenge, revenge is aging him very quickly and had caused Roger to look like a demon. Roger Chillingworth is doing everything is his power to try to get Dimmsdale to tell his big secret but Dimmesdale is doing everything is his power to keep …show more content…
He went into the town to see someone he knew very well up on a scaffold showing her sinful mistake to everyone who could see. The woman on the Scaffold was not only someone Chillingworth knows but his wife, Hester Prynn. Though she was on the scaffold she was not alone, in her arms lay a small baby, Hester's baby. A pain ran through Chillingworth's mind, or maybe is wasn't pain it was anger. Hester did not see the baby as bad news, Chillingworth did force her into marriage and left her for 2 years in a new town, Hester is a very attractive girl and because Roger was so old and gone for so long everyone assumed he had perished. So on one note who could really blame Hester for having an affair. Until Roger came back into town she did not know is was an affair because she assumed her husband Roger Chillingworth had died. After some time Chillingworth connected the dots and he knew who the father was to Hester's young child, Pearl. When Chillingworth first came back he became Dimmesdale's Physician because he suspected it was Dimmsdale the Minister of the town. When he saw pearl put his hand on her cheek it made him suspicious and tried to get the council to investigate Dimmsdale further, But the council said no because they don't want to be
Mr Chillingworth's unnecessary obsession with revenge takes him to a place that is very hard to get back from. Mr. Chillingworth grows more evil every chapter. His intent on torturing Mr. Dimmesdale causes him to become both physically and psychologically monstruous. “Hester Prynne looked at the man of skill, and even then, with her fate hanging in the balance, was startled to perceive what a change had come over his features,
Chillingworth came to Boston to dig up who impregnated Hester. He seemed to have very little interest in Hester, his main goal was to find out the truth about Pearl’s father. As he does this, he twists the mind of Reverend Dimmesdale and becomes toxic. He becomes obsessed with trying to get vengeance on Dimmesdale for impregnating Hester. As the years go on, even the physical
(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
Within a work of literature there may exists a pair of characters that rely on each other to express their traits in full. They are called foil and Arthur Dimmesdale and Robert Chillingworth are an example of this. Although the story centers around Hester there exists struggle between other individuals. Hawthorne wonderfully alludes to the doctrine of Satan accusing the sinner using these two characters and bring forth a suspenseful conflict. This is also called a juxtapose since they wonderfully contrast showing the extremes of character.
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
When Hester and Pearl are walking they notice Chillingworth with Dimmesdale. After Pearl throws a prickly burr at Dimmesdale she yells “Come away, Mother! Come away, or yonder old Black Man will catch you! He hath got hold of the minister already. Come away, Mother, or he will catch you!
Following Dimmesdale’s death, “all [of Chillingworth 's] strength and energy… and intellectual force seemed at once to desert him… and almost vanished from mortal sight” (Hawthorne 212), as his own death quickly proceeds within a year. When the source of evil that he leeches off of disappears, Chillingworth’s life begins to disintegrate, as he lacks further purpose to survive due to his loss of humanity. His obsession with obtaining revenge eventually forces him to lose control of his own fate, as it becomes dependent on Dimmesdale’s actions. Since Chillingworth devoted his life to seeking revenge on Dimmesdale, without a mortal target, his existence becomes meaningless. In an effort to assert control and prolong his own life, Chillingworth tries to terminate Dimmesdale’s public confession.
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
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.
Scarlett Letter Quote Response Chapters 6-11 “Speak thou for me!” cried she. “Thou wast my pastor, and hadst charge of my soul, and knowest me better than these men can. I will not lose the child! Look to it!
Therefore, Chillingworth cannot grow as a person until he gives up on his revenge plans. Since he does not do this until Dimmesdale dies at the end of the story, Hawthorne holds Chillingworth in a negative light. The only time Chillingworth is viewed somewhat positively is when he leaves money for Pearl after he dies - which, interestingly, is the only moment when Chillingworth seemed to put aside his revenge after Dimmesdale had passed
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
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.
He puts Hester in a no-win situation by questioning her like this. If she exposes him, he loses everything and becomes a social outcast but is released from his moral burden. Staying silent, however, keeps Dimmesdale in his position of power but also prolongs his suffering and misery. His selfish attitude towards his atonement is at odds with his otherwise cool and collected countenance, showcasing a very scared and vulnerable individual.
Chillingworth came back into town and learned his wife had conceived a child with someone. He then made up his mind to find the other adulterer and seek revenge on him. When Chillingworth learned that Dimmesdale was the other adulterer, he did everything he could to make Dimmesdale feel worse. This crime was directed at causing pain and suffering to another, making this a terrible sin (“Who”). Chillingworth and Dimmesdale committed two completely different sins.