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Who Is Roger Chillingworth The Worst Sinner

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Roger Chillingworth is the “worst” sinner in the scarlet letter, because of his actions against Hester, Dimmesdale, and the rest of the community. Chillingworth’s goal in the book was to expose the father of Pearl, who was his wife, Hester Prynne’s baby. Chillingworth was blinded by revenge and went to extreme lengths to get that revenge. Throughout the entire book Chillingworth withholds the information of being Hester Prynne's wife . Chillingworth attempted to keep his true identity hidden from all in the community. At the beginning of the book Chillingworth is a well respected doctor and not is much known about him. More is figured about about Chillingworth as the book progresses, but most don’t truly know who his is or what he has done. …show more content…

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.” (107.) Roger Chillingworth spent his entire life attempting getting revenge on Dimsdale for what he did to his wife. Chillingworth didn’t just want to hurt Dimmesdale but destroy him emotionally. Chillingworth had spent years with revenge building up in his head and it had finally became so strong he believed the worst possible pain was meant for Dimmsdale. Sin is an extremely strong symbol in this book and Hester Prynne is the character that wears it and represents it. The A on Hesters chest shows the sin of adultery that she committed with Dimmsdale. Hester committed a major sin in her life, but she didn’t commit many. Hester spent her life attempting to make good of the bad that she created. For the rest of the book Hester worked hard and did nothing to hurt others, this makes Chillingworth a worse sinner than

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558 Words | 3 Pages

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.

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618 Words | 3 Pages

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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1091 Words | 5 Pages

Chillingworth is described as having been “calm in temperament, kindly... a pure and upright man” (88), throughout his life. However, while living in the Puritan town, he allows his quest for vengeance to consume him, and “he now [digs] into the poor clergyman’s heart, like a miner searching for gold; or rather, like a sexton [gravedigger] delving into a grave, possibly in quest of a jewel that had been buried on the dead man’s bosom” (88). Chillingworth is determined in his search for retribution, so much in fact

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816 Words | 4 Pages

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.

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475 Words | 2 Pages

“Paint It Black” written and preformed by The Rolling Stones is a rather direct reference to Chillingworth and his spiral into darkness during his unrelenting quest for revenge. Chillingworth is a deformed cruel older man who wants nothing but to seek vengeance on Hester and Dimmesdale for their crime. Chillingworth is seen as in relation with the “Black Man” by Pearl and is often seen as the representation of the Devil, or as doing the Devil’s work throughout the novel. The song begins with the line “I see a red door and I want it painted black.”

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475 Words | 2 Pages

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

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505 Words | 3 Pages

The Scarlet Letter In The Scarlet Letter by Daniel Hawthorne many villainous acts occur that contribute to the plot and direction of the text. One antagonist in the novel is Chillingworth, the “departed” husband of Hester Prynne. Chillingworth and his constant mission to gain his wife's love and to reveal the father with whom Hester's baby was conceived by leads him to take some villainous actions. Chillingworth took many actions to obtain his goals, examples of this are constantly exemplified throughout the novel, one example is Chillingworth’s unrelenting hatred towards Dimmesdale.

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685 Words | 3 Pages

He comes back to find out she has a child and is not telling anyone who the sinful man is. He swears to her that he will find the man and seek vengeance on him. Roger Chillingworth, once a man of happiness and content, is driven to become a malicious, vindictive man, due to his unquenchable desire to seek vengeance on Hester’s lover, Dimmesdale. Before Roger Chillingworth becomes a malicious man, he is happy and content with his life.

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210 Words | 1 Pages

Do you think Benedict Arnold is a hero or a traitor?Benedict Arnold is both hero and traitor. He betrayed the patriots to join the british. He was a hero because he helped the patriots win one of the battles. The patriots were happy with him because he helped them. Then he betrayed the patriots to join the british and so the patriots got mad at him.

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1270 Words | 6 Pages

Throughout The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne exposes the blindness of the Puritan people through the treatment of Hester, Chillingworth, and Dimmesdale’s external characters. Hester Prynne is labeled as an adulteress and mistreated by society because of their unwillingness to see her true character. Chillingworth, the husband of Hester, leads the town to believe he is an honorable man and skillful doctor, when his true intents root from his vindictive nature Finally, Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale, Hester’s lover and the father of her baby, acts as the perfect man therefore the town views him as an exemplar model, while he is truly a sinner. In the novel, Hawthorne portrays Hester as a strong, resilient woman, though the members of her community

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436 Words | 2 Pages

His “civilized and savage costume” shows how strange he looks from the beginning. He “could hardly be termed aged” (58), though he looks old. Chillingworth’s change starts to get revealed as he spends his time probing Dimmesdale to find his secret and make him confess. Chillingworth's friendliness starts to wear off as he converts his life to revolve around making Dimmesdale's life miserable.

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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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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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601 Words | 3 Pages

Hester Prynne, the Worst Sinner Three different people, all with different stories but all have something in common; they’re all sinners but the question is who is the biggest sinner? In The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, many characters are portrayed as sinners like Dimmesdale, Hester, and Chillingworth. But overall the biggest sinner in the story was Hester Prynne and there are many reasons for it. Obviously the reason for the scarlet letter, she was an adulteress. Hester caused many problems with people in the town including the most holy man Dimmesdale and a man that should've never been involved, Chillingworth.

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1146 Words | 5 Pages

The narrator portrays him as an intelligent but angry old man that does not have any interest in his wife any longer unless it is plotting revenge. One theme in this chapter is something that can slowly destroy people mentally, guilt. The irony that took place in this story is that Chillingworth is trying to find the father of his wife's child. The main theme in chapter three and four is obeying the law of the people and if failed to be done it will end in punishment. Journal Entry 3: Chapters 5-6 For the rest of Hester’s life she will be forced to wear a red embroidered “A” at all times on her clothes.

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