Chillingworth: A Chilly Fiend

Chillingworth: A Chilly Fiend Logistically, in any literary piece, the need for an antagonistic presence is a key component for a successful text. In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, he displays antagonism through a vengeful persona called Roger Chillingworth. A wife to Hester Prynne, the main character of the text, of whom committed an act of adultery with the town minister Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale, Chillingworth (as he will be so forth mentioned) becomes the seeker of true revenge for the irrevocable act that has preceded the text as an antecedent action. Chillingworth thus establishes himself as a prime example of a compelling spiteful being by leeching off Dimmesdale for information, stopping Dimmesdale and Hester from exiling

Planning the ship exile, the situation’s reaction is expressed when “…at that instant [when Hester is informed of Chillingworth’s residency on the schooner], she beheld old…Chillingworth, himself, standing in the remotest corner of the market-place, and smiling on her, a smile which…conveyed secret and fearful meaning” (210-211). Chillingworth could have let exile be punishment enough, in his eyes, for the sinister actions that Hester and Dimmesdale partook in, he decides that the illegitimate couple should pay recompense for their actions by annihilating them in America, where he can do such in a facile manner. Chillingworth also joins the ship adherence in order to spawn consternation, specifically on Hester Prynne. When Hester becomes informed of a third entity being incorporated with the ship, she slyly states “‘What mean you?’ inquired Hester, startled more than she permitted to appear. ‘Have you another passenger?’” (210). Hester becomes alarmed by this revelation, therefore proving Chillingworth’s fearful glow by eliciting the bemused and perplexed concern of Hester, a reaction that displays extreme precaution in order to make sure Chillingworth does not slaughter Dimmesdale in his pursuit for