Chillingworth's Loss Of Knowledge In 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. 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.

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. Both characters affect others and their own lives good and bad because of the secrets they keep.

From the beginning of the book, Dimmesdale is a hypocrite. Although it is implied that he preaches against premarital sex as a Puritan pastor, Dimmesdale commits adultery with Hester. After getting Hester pregnant, he avoids visiting Hester and his daughter for seven years. For seven years, Dimmesdale pretends he is innocent of adultery and gets praises for his faux act. Dimmesdale even says so himself that he feels extremely guilty and would rather share his crime than to keep it in secret. He obviously does not prefer sharing his crime with the public because he waits seven long years to do so. He was too obsessed with what others think and gossip about him.

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. Ironically, his desire to punish Hester’s partner ultimately leads to his self destruction as a result of his obsession with seeking revenge to protect his pride. In a sense, Chillingworth’s fated downfall is used to highlight Hester’s strength and courage through their dramatic

People say, “revenge is a dish best served cold.” Chillingworth took that expression to heart by, over a long period of time, torturing Dimmesdale emotionally for the crime he had committed. In the beginning, Hester kept the secret from Chillingworth, but he vowed to find out who the father was, saying “‘Never, sayest thou’… with a

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.

It is as intertwined as yin and yang. Chillingworth and Dimmesdale need each other almost. Chillingworth makes him or the alleged father of Pearl his life 's ambition. He goes as far as to change his name and pose as a friendly doctor. He uses this to get close to Dimmesdale and now he cannot think of anything else. He neglects his wife and doesnt even care for her. He just wants the man to be shamed as well. He mentally tortures the Reverend and all with glee. It is clearly made known that after he completes his deed he will have no

He was the last person that people would think as a sinner. Dimmesdale was sin when he was committed adultery with Hester. He broke the law of church, but he was afraid to face the punishment and indifferent attitude from he masses. As a faithful follower, Dimmesdale also afraid the punishment of God, so he flog himself with a whip. The physical and spiral torture and the control of Chillingworth stranded him in a world that he cannot contact with others. As the moving of story, the “side effect” of the hidden sin has reveal. Dimmesdale become more sick and powerless. As the end of the story, Dimmesdale concede the sin and died as the winner of the fight with hidden sin. Dimmesdale as a combination of saint and sinner, his sin is not committed adultery, but it is that he cannot face the sin and admit it. He wanted to be all perfect in the eyes of the masses, but destroyed his perfectly in the eyes of God. In our life, lots of people were trying to get all perfect, but eventually make it was worse. Dimmesdale elucidate the consequence of the hidden

Chillingworth and Dimmesdale are made clear contrasting characters early on in the novel through their blatantly conflicting physical descriptions. Dimmesdale is introduced early on in the third chapter and is described as “ A person of very striking aspect with a white, lofty, and impending brow, large, brown, melancholy eyes, and mouth… expressing both nervous sensibility and a vast power of self restraint”

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! But he cannot catch little Pearl!” (p 115). In this quote Pearl can sense what an evil man Chillingworth really is. She knows where his true intentions lie, and what he really wants with Dimmesdale. Pearl knows that Chillingworth isn’t there to help him. He has a hold over Dimmesdale already, but he cannot catch her because she is the only one aware that he is out for revenge. She warns her mother to stay away, because she is blind to Chillingworth. For Chillingworth, Pearl is almost the reason as to why he wants to seek revenge on Dimmesdale. Whenever he looks at her, he knows that her father, the same man that committed adultery with his wife, is still out

Guilt is in everyone. Guilt is often to be seen within everybody, for it is a force that does not fail to capture even the mightiest of people. Guilt behaves as a reminder to let one know privately that he/she has committed a bad deed, after awhile people begin to give in and confess. However, there are those who refuse to accept the actions they have previously taken and hide it. Similarly, the act of act of concealed guilt apparent in the supposed antagonist, Roger Chillingworth, of The Scarlet Letter. Furthermore, in the story of The Scarlet Letter, Hester, has a child with the town’s minister Arthur Dimmesdale, however, Chillingworth, the actual husband of Hester gets wind of this news and immediately sets out to find out who committed

After the discovery Chillingworth comes about at the end of Chapter 10, his relationship with the minister changes. Chillingworth seeks revenge but doesn't quite know how to go about it. The minister feels something negative is coming his way, but does not suspect it to come from a trusted colleague.

Every story with a protagonist must have an antagonist. In The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, The character of Chillingworth portrays the stereotypical villain. He exuberates the proper qualities that a typical villain would have. Chillingworth unsightly appearance and actions reflect how the world sees him. as well Chillingsworth traits that make him a villain include  vengeful, chilling, and vindictive. These traits both directly and indirectly affect the protagonists in The Scarlet Letter. Chillingsworth actions contribute to the scarlet letters theme of “suffering in silence” because of his relentless and vengeful attacks that promote despair.

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 form of revenge is effective. As a scientific investigator, he cold-heartedly and intellectually pursues his lab specimen, whether it be plants or living, breathing humans. From the beginning, Chillingworth makes it known that “few secrets can escape an investigator, who has opportunity and license to undertake such a quest and skill to follow it up.” Every conversation that takes place between Dimmesdale and the revenge-driven physician reveals another clue to solve Chillingworth’s puzzle. The comments that he makes when talking to Dimmesdale make the priest feel the pain for the sin he committed. The doctor even goes on as to ask rhetorically “why shouldn’t the guilty ones enjoy this unspeakable relief sooner?” Even though