Chillingworth: A Sinful Man From the beginning of Nathaniel Hawthorne s novel The Scarlet Letter, Roger Chillingworth is a man that is capable of love, and slowly emerges into a man that is capable of evil. Chillingworth s first initial sin is marrying Hester who was a generation younger than him. His second sin is betraying Minister Dimmesdale. In this case of Roger Chillingworth, two sins control his destiny. Chillingworth s first sin causes Hester to be unhappy. Her unhappiness was due to the mismatched matrimony.
Chillingworth then says: I ask not wherefore, no how, thou hast fallen into the pit, or say, rather, thou hast ascended to the pedestal of infamy on which I found thee. The reason is not far to seek. It was my folly, and thy weakness (78).
He is trying to say that he does not blame her for committing the sins. He blames himself because he never gave her affection and he was the one that caused her to commit adultery. I think it was Hester s fault for committing her sin, because she is responsible for her own actions.
Chillingworth represses his inborn emotional response to the situation. He seeks revenge. Chillingworth is disappointed that his hope of gaining his wife s affection upon arrival was destroyed. The person he despises the most (Dimmesdale) is the one who gave Hester the affection she needed. Chillingworth suspects that Dimmesdale is the one who committed adultery with Hester. He starts to suspect this when Hester is put under trial.
The Term Paper on Scarlet Letter Hester Sin Dimmesdale
A Reflection on Sin and Repentance Yin Hua Nathaniel Hawthorne is certainly at his best when writing about sin, the supernatural and the New England past. Among all his works dealing with sin, The Scarlet Letter is unanimously considered to be his most successful attempt. In this nineteenth-century American classic, the author is predominantly concerned with the moral, emotional and psychological ...
Dimmesdale says For Hester Prynne s sake, then, and no less for the poor child s sake, let us leave them as Providence hath seen fit to place them! (114) In this case, he is trying to defend Hester, and to just leave them be. Chillingworth responds, You speak, my friend, with a strange earnestness. (144) A this point Chillingworth is wondering why Dimmesdale is defending Hester all of a sudden; and says in the quote that he is being quite peculiar, and that s when his suspicion begins. Chillingworth s quest to find out of his suspicion is, in fact, reality, he wants to become closer to Dimmesdale. He finds a new special interest in Dimmesdale and becomes his leech (doctor).
The leech wants to delve deep into his patients bosom, delving among his principles, prying into his recollections, and probing everything with a cautious touch, like a treasure-seeker in a dark cavern.
(122) Meaning that, he wants to go deep into the very core of Dimmesdale s heart and ruin it, just like he ruined his. Chillingworth s torment toward Dimmesdale increases when he finds out his relation to Pearl. Chillingworth s degeneration is now transformed into Evil. He makes Dimmesdale s health deteriorate through physiological stress.
Chillingworth commits his second sin; which Hawthorne portrays, through Dimmesdale s words, that it is the worst sin of all in the novel: Violating the sanctity of the human heart. The sins that Roger commits causes major damages to the people whom he was suppose to be devoted to. The effect of his first sin leads Hester to be unhappy. It causes her to commit adultery; and to wear the scarlet letter for all eternity. The narrator tries to explain her embarrassment by saying haughty as her demeanor was, she perchance underwent an agony from every footstep of those that thronged to see her, as if her heart had been flung into the street for them all to spurn and trample upon. (62) Which Hester is trying to say that everytime someone makes a mockery of her, her heart feels like it has been trampled on.
I think this is a good quote because it helps to understand how hurt she became when someone ridiculed her. The effect of his second sin causes Dimmesdale to become out of control like the Black man in the forest. Then he goes around and teaches little children execrations and tortures himself. He doesn t gain back his control until after he makes his confession to the town. Although he gained back control, it is too late for him to gain back his health. Chillingworth s second sin causes death to Dimmesdale.
The Essay on Dimmesdale Vs Chillingworth One Hester Minister
Dimmesdale vs. Chillingworth Near the end of the novel, Arthur Dimmesdale tells the following to his fellow adulteress Hester concerning Roger Chillingworth: "We are not, Hester, the worst sinners in the world. There is one worse than even the polluted priest! That old man's revenge has been blacker than my sin. He has violated, in cold blood, the sanctity of a human heart." He is referring to ...
Roger Chillingworth evolves from a man that is capable of love, into a devil who is only capable of revenge. He commits two sins; the result of his first sin leads to the second; marrying a spouse with a great age difference causes his wife to suffer; her suffering results in adultery; her adultery causes Chillingworth to suffer and during his suffering he appears to be Satan himself, or Satan s emissary; he then violates the sanctity of a human heart. Which proves to believe suffering results from sin, and sin results from suffering.
