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What Is Chillingworth's Role In The Scarlet Letter

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Throughout the story Roger Chillingworth is increasing growing into an eviler version of himself. Since his wife cheated in him and had a child with someone else his only reason for living now is to get revenge on the man that hurt him. Therefore, Chillingworth is becoming the devilish version of himself and plays a specific role in the story, he is more degenerate than Hester and her lover, and at the end of the story he tries to redeem himself by leaving Pearl his fortune. Initially, Chillingworth plays the role of an antagonist. As the story goes on Chillingworth is trying to find the man the bestowed Hester with a child and when he does he digs so deep into Dimmesdale’s heart continuously harming him. Hawthorne states, “old Roger Chillingworth was a striking evidence of man's faculty of transforming himself into a devil.” His quest for revenge worsened each day and “This unhappy person had effected such a transformation by devoting himself for seven years to the constant analysis of a heart full of torture, and deriving his enjoyment thence.” To finalize, Chillingworth is making himself the evilest version pf himself and opposes Dimmesdale’s, therefore, he is an antagonist. Secondly, Chillingworth has …show more content…

Chillingworth dug at the minister’s heart years upon years with what Dimmesdale thought was to help him, but in the end he was only prolonging his suffering. In addition, the continuous years of torture he bestowed upon Dimmesdale was too great of a crime for him to redeem himself. He spent all of his years in the town “devoting himself for seven years to the constant analysis of a heart full of torture, and deriving his enjoyment thence, and adding fuel to those fiery tortures which he analyzed and gloated over.” To further, his soul purpose for several years was torture, so leaving his small fortune to Pearl was not good enough to redeem

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