Chillingworth's Guilt Quotes

The Scarlet Letter, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, uses the relentless character, Mr. Roger Chillingworth, to describe the result of being resentful and unforgiving to his wife’s secret lover, Reverend Dimmesdale. Chillingworth is the character who represents the definition of evil in the novel. The Scarlet Letter also vividly describes how Chillingworth became self-absorbed with vengeance and how vengeance changed him for the worst. Throughout the novel, The Scarlet Letter gives evidence of a clear picture of a life consumed by vengeance resulting in obsession over committing evil acts which leads to Chillingworth self-destruction. In the Scarlet Letter the definition of vengeance based off of Chillingworth’s character is the act of recovering

Literature has been around for many ages. There are many different types of literature fro. many different times. The way people write has changed throughout the years. American literature is commonly talk about because it is well liked, although sometimes it can be hard to understand if you are currently a student. There is nothing quite like the stories that were written in this time. The Devil and Tom Walker, The devil and Daniel Webster, The Man in the Black Suit, and The Scarlet Letter all things in common because they all describe the devil in a special way along with authors of the stories were all men.

Roger Chillingworth is speaking to Hester in this quote about how much her cheating affected him. Since the author did not give very much information about Roger before he returned to Boston, it was difficult to measure exactly how he had changed since learning of the scarlet letter. Through his previous words and actions regarding Hester and especially Reverend Dimmesdale, Roger depicts himself as a man filled with hatred and focussed on revenge. Before mentioning his old self, Roger Chillingworth told Hester about Reverend Dimmesdale’s suffering since he had become somewhat of his personal physician. Roger says that the reverend sensed “an eye was looking curiously into him,” which, undoubtedly, represents the presence of Roger Chillingworth,

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. Other examples of Chillingworth's villainous acts consist of his hidden identity, his guilt trip use towards Hester, and overall his relentless pursuit for revenge. In the actions taken by Chillingworth he swayed the outcome of the novel.

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

Chillingworth’s gravitation towards evil stimulates his lost of humanity, ultimately forcing his fate to become dependent on Dimmesdale’s public confession. When he arrives in the Puritan society in Boston, Chillingworth encounters his wife, Hester, enduring the consequences of public humiliation for an adulterous crime. Due to Hester’s defiant nature and her desire to conceal her partner’s name, Chillingworth was compelled to privately seek the identity of Hester’s partner. During his mission, Chillingworth earns the trust of Reverend Dimmesdale, whom he later identifies as Hester’s partner after discovering marks on the clergyman’s chest that closely resembles the shameful scarlet letter that Hester bears as punishment. Upon his discovery,

Fatal flaws have been shown in works of literature throughout the centuries, causing the destruction of many characters. In the novel, The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, three of the main characters each have a fatal flaw. The novel, set in Puritan Boston between 1642-1679, tells the story of Hester Prynne through third person narrative. Hester begins her journey in the novel when she is brought from jail for her punishment in having an affair with someone in the town, resulting in her pregnancy. Her husband, Roger Chillingworth, who she believed dead, sought out revenge against the unknown father of Hester’s child. It is later revealed in the novel that the father of Hester’s child is the revered Reverend Dimmesdale. These characters each possess a fatal flaw that ultimately leads to their own distinctive downfall. Hester Prynne’s persistent attempt to make reparations for her sin leads to her losing her unique personality, Dimmesdale’s incapability to forgive his own guilt causes his mentality and health to crumble, and Roger Chillingworth’s desire for revenge overcomes his soul.

Often when people make a mistake, they try to mask the truth to elude the corollary. The Puritans had a very demanding society. Which all sins were greeted with grim punishment. In The Scarlet letter Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale commit a sin amongst the Puritan society; adultery, but only half of the truth is revealed. The Puritan society only knows about Hester’s sin; all the while, Dimmesdale’s half of the "shared sin" remains concealed. However, by concealing his sin, Dimmesdale suffers much more than Hester does.

The Puritan definition of truth was the word of God or every verse contained in the scripture, and the truth is believed to be “the self-expression of God”. Puritans took the word of God very serious and depended on it for their life lessons. In The Scarlet Letter Roger Chillingworth identifies Mr. Dimmesdale’s faults and want to uncover the secret that’s destroying him inside. Chillingworth makes it his purpose to find the truth. Chillingworth has an opportunity to do so while Dimmesdale is asleep from the drugs that Chillingworth gave him. During this time when Chillingworth is searching for the truth, he exposes Dimmesdale’s chest and founds exactly what he was looking for the scarlet letter imprinted on his chest.

Chillingworth is the greatest sinner because of his Sloth early on in the book, and his wrath throughout it all. Chillingworth commits sloth before the novel even begins. After getting captured by Native Americans, he still waits over two years before going up to see Hester. This is Sloth, he made a commitment of marriage, and did not seek any method of communication. “Thou knowest,” said Hester—for, depressed as she was, she could not endure this last quiet stab at the token of her shame—”thou knowest that I was frank with thee. I felt no love, nor feigned any.” Chillingworth knew that Hester was not in love with him, that the marriage was forced against her will, and he made no effort to repay her or to even commit. There was no reason

Chillingworth is the embodiment of everything wicked. Hawthorne uses anything possible to show him in that light. For example, his chosen name, Chillingworth, paints him from the beginning as an unlovable character. The first time he appears in the book we learn that “one of this man’s shoulders rose higher than the other,” giving him a “slight deformity” (42). With his malicious nature and devilish appearance, Chillingworth very clearly represents the Black Man. He is the reason that Dimmesdale is so tormented; he preys on him just as the devil would a potential sinner. Hester herself even regards Chillingworth as the Black Man on one occasion: “‘Why dost thou smile so at me?’ inquired Hester, troubled at the expression of his eyes. ‘Art thou like the Black Man that haunts the forest round about us?’” (53). Chapters later, Pearl does as well: “Come away, mother! Come away, or yonder old Black Man will catch you! He hath got hold of the minister already…” (92).

In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel The Scarlet Letter, Dimmesdale struggles to repent from his sin of adultery. Heater Prynne, the woman that he committed adultery with, hides him from being humiliated by the townspeople. However, Arthur Dimmesdale’s guilt begins to take over him, which leads to him having some physical, emotional, and mental pain. When Dimmesdale finally reveals his guilt on the scaffold he dies. In the New England Journal of Medicine, Dr. Jamshed Khan wrote an article that claims Roger Chillingworth killed Arthur Dimmesdale through the use of atropine poisoning. Chillingworth is a physician that studied various drugs and was also knowledgeable about the medical roots and herbs (Hawthorne 95). Even though Khan’s article was well written, with accurate facts to support his concept, is does not prove that Dimmesdale’s death was a result of him

Roger Chillingworth from The Scarlet Letter is a character who knew himself “so well,” infact too well. According to the Who Am I? article, “To know yourself so well,” like Chillingworth did, “leaves no room for growth. Even more, it suggests a deep vulnerability that is being defended against - as if it were too dangerous to take a closer look” (Schwartz). This sense of self affected Roger because “No man, for any considerable period, can wear one face to himself and another to the multitude, without finally getting bewildered as to which may be the true” (Hawthorne). Therefore he was affected emotionally, mentally, and physically, as by the end of the novel, when Dimmesdale dies, Chillingworth no longer has any sense of self. He ends up dying because his identity became so dependent on

Roger Chillingworth and Arthur Dimmesdale were two of the main sinners in The Scarlet Letter. Both characters kept their sins secrete throughout the story. These sins included adultery, revenge, and even murder. Out of the two sinners, Chillingworth was the worst, because he never felt guilt for the terrible things he was doing. Dimmesdale spent his entire life in guilt and remorse for the sins he had committed (“Who”).

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.