Past and Future In the novel The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Roger Chillingworth uses contrasting tones and diction while communicating his view of his past and future with his spouse Hester Prynne. As a secret cuckold in a puritan community, Chillingworth can not go about life with Hester as he did before, nor does he want to. At the same time, he acts understanding of Hester 's adultery and even takes part of the blame, but he insists on having vengeance on her lover. Chillingworth initially admits to his faults for ruining Hesters youth. He says, “... having given my best years to feed the hungry dream of knowledge-- what had I do with youth and beauty like thine own!” (1). By saying this, Chillingworth is admitting that he stole Hester’s younger years, and instead of treasuring and celebrating them, he took them for granted and spent his time enlightening himself. By attempting to intellectually advance himself, he disfigured Hester’s dreams and future. In this statement Chillingworth is attempting to speak to Hester’s heart. In this moment, Hester is experiencing a lot of guilt. Not only she is being shamed for getting pregnant with a man who is not her husband, but she just finds out that her husband who has not been seen in years is alive. It is clear that Hester is going through a whirlwind of emotions and is very vulnerable to an emotional appeal and this noticed by Chillingworth. By taking the blame, Chillingworth assumes no consequence because no one
Mr Chillingworth's unnecessary obsession with revenge takes him to a place that is very hard to get back from. Mr. Chillingworth grows more evil every chapter. His intent on torturing Mr. Dimmesdale causes him to become both physically and psychologically monstruous. “Hester Prynne looked at the man of skill, and even then, with her fate hanging in the balance, was startled to perceive what a change had come over his features,
Chillingworth came to Boston to dig up who impregnated Hester. He seemed to have very little interest in Hester, his main goal was to find out the truth about Pearl’s father. As he does this, he twists the mind of Reverend Dimmesdale and becomes toxic. He becomes obsessed with trying to get vengeance on Dimmesdale for impregnating Hester. As the years go on, even the physical
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
Hester wants to reveal the secret, but Chillingworth wants to keep it concealed in order to torture Dimmesdale even more (Hawthorne, 1994, pp. 118-119). This shows the devious aspect of his character. The association between Chillingworth and Hester transitions from a professional to personal relationship as the truth of Chillingworth’s real intentions comes to the
Hester finds community service, whereas the minister's sin-related repercussions cause him immense distress and a physical and emotional breakdown. Chillingworth steps in as the go-between to help Hester and Dimmesdale realize what they are going through. He evolves into someone even nastier than he was before. He devises a plan to undermine Hester's reputation, which was already in jeopardy. Tarnishing Hester’s reputation was Chillingworth’s way of getting back at Hester for the humiliation that she caused him.
Chillingworth knows that in his search for revenge he is getting closer to the Devil and is incorporating that, and this self reflection only serves to drive him farther into his goal. With Chillingworth interacting with the Devil and doing his work is thus isolated from the baseline society thus having no one to turn to but the Devil and his demons. This is dangerous because Chillingworth knows he has no one and will never give up his goal until it is completed, with the destruction of Hester and
In stories or real life, individuals are influenced by their life changing experiences whether it was huge or small. Nathaniel Hawthorne, the author of The Scarlet Letter, built and wrote the characters with positive and negative influences in the story. Throughout the story, Roger Chillingworth’s character reveals and changes because of the influences from revenge. Since he is Hester Prynne’s husband, Roger Chillingworth became the antagonist when he realizes his wife committed adultery. He decides to take revenge on the man who Hester loves.
He went into the town to see someone he knew very well up on a scaffold showing her sinful mistake to everyone who could see. The woman on the Scaffold was not only someone Chillingworth knows but his wife, Hester Prynn. Though she was on the scaffold she was not alone, in her arms lay a small baby, Hester's baby. A pain ran through Chillingworth's mind, or maybe is wasn't pain it was anger. Hester did not see the baby as bad news, Chillingworth did force her into marriage and left her for 2 years in a new town, Hester is a very attractive girl and because Roger was so old and gone for so long everyone assumed he had perished.
This very message is repeated all throughout the book with Chillingworth, he was once a good man, but transformed due to the guilt he has set upon himself from marrying Hester, although he doesn’t blame her, he is after the sinner who didn’t fess up to the deeds. Visually to Hester, she has witnessed the alterations of a man who
When Hester notices him from the scaffold she is publicly shamed from, she contemplates the “remarkable intelligence in his features, as of a person who had so cultivated his mental part that it could not fail to mould the physical to itself, and become manifest by unmistakable tokens” (Hawthorne 73). Chillingworth’s intelligence appears to be a very eminent aspect of his mien, as that is what Hester first notices after two years of not seeing her husband. Hawthorne further emphasizes the importance of Chillingworth’s intellect to his character by including that by noticing the “intelligence in his features”, it is clear to the eye that it has seen this character, proving that Chillingworth, at this early stage of the novel, is perceived as a
Have you ever thought, what would it be like to be on your own with a child and being shamed? Well, through the story The Scarlet Letter is a woman, named Hester who had went through that situation. It tells the story of how she had dealt with all of the situations that got thrown her way. The puritans point of view compared to today 's point of view of the the same situation. During the mid 17th century, it was not acceptable to have sex unless you were married, so having a child and not being married was extremely unacceptable to the puritans; whenever Hester stepped out of the prison and walked to the scaffold, were a majority of the town was to see her and criticize the book states that one of the women there to judge her had said “ If the hussy stood up for judgement before us five, that are now here in a knot together, would she come off with such a sentence as
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
Chapters 5-11 __________1. Hester chooses to stay in Boston even though she is permitted to leave. __________2. The cottage she moves into is located by the sea.
Now, in Chapter 12 after dealing with Chillingworth's remarks and hate towards Dimmesdale, he is evidently fed up with his presence. As he, Hester, and Pearl are on the scaffold and Pearl points towards Chillingsworth. He makes this remark toward Hester, “ ‘Who is that man, Hester?’...’I shiver at him! Dost thou know the man? I hate him, Hester!’
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.