Who Is Roger Chillingworth The Worst Sinner

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.

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