Chillingworth as Satan in The Scarlet Letter The Scarlet Letter is a novel packed with religious symbolism, and Hawthorne subtly assigns the role of the devil to Roger Chillingworth. Throughout the novel, there are many references and associations that confirm the fact that Chillingworth is representative of the ultimate evil. First, Hawthorne sets Chillingworth up as the antithesis of Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale, the obvious Christ-like symbol of the novel. Chillingworth avidly sets out to ruin Dimmesdale. As the narrative voice says when referring to Chillingworth's discovery of the Dimmesdale's secret, "All that guilty sorrow, hidden from the world, whose great heart would have pitied and forgiven, to be revealed to him, the Pitiless, to him, the Unforgiving!" (96). The capitalization of the words "Pitiless" and "Unforgiving" show that Chillingworth is the devil. Symbolically, on another more obvious note, Chillingworth steals one of Dimmesdale's gloves and drops it on the scaffold where sinners are shamed in front of the town. The sexton picks it up after recognizing it as Dimmesdale's and returns it to its owner saying, "Satan dropped it there" (108). This is a very obvious pointer to the fact that Chillingworth is the devil. Second, Hawthorne's use of imagery in describing Chillingworth points him out as the devil. Chillingworth is described as misshapen and hunched. He is compared to weeds and such. His profession is described as being much like witchcraft. For example, he grasps a "dark, flabby leaf found near a grave." All of this darkness denotes the presence of evil. Third, Pearl's reaction to Chillingworth shows his true face. When she sees him looking at her, she says, "Come away, or yonder old Black Man will catch you! He hath got hold of the Minister already" (93). This is another obvious statement. All in all, Chillingworth is Satan.
In the second part of Hawthornes four part structure of the Scarlet Letter, in Chapters 9-12, we see Chillingworth
When their journey began in 1846, the members of the Donner and Reed families had high hopes of reaching California, and they would settle at nothing less. Their dream of making a new life for themselves represented great determination. When their packed wagons rolled out of Springfield, Missouri, they thought of their future lives in California. The Reed family’s two-story wagon was actually called the “pioneer palace car”, because it was full of everything imaginable including an iron stove and cushioned seats and bunks for sleeping. They didn’t want to leave their materialistic way of life at home.
Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter is a study of the effects of sin on the hearts and minds of the main characters, Hester Prynne, Arthur Dimmesdale, Roger Chillingworth. Hester, Dimmesdale, and Chillingworth. Sin strengthens Hester, humanizes Dimmesdale, and turns Chillingworth into a demon.
The author conveys a message of forgiveness over revenge. Chillingworth dedicates his life to exacting revenge on Dimmesdale. At the conclusion of the novel, however, Hester and Dimmesdale recognize that Chillingworth’s sin is worse than their own. Hester and Dimmesdale perceive Chillingworth as the embodiment of Satan, as the evil and hateful revenge corrupted him and transformed him into a malicious entity.
...how horrible sin was and yet he couldn't bring himself to confess his sin. Chillingworth was a completely evil man. He professed to being a man of healing and learning and yet his entire goal is to extract revenge. He spends the entire book torturing Dimmsdale for his own sick form of retribution. Let's not forget the entire Puritan society. They judged and condemned Hester for committing one sin. The behaved as if they had never sinned. Yet they did sin, on a regular basis. Even though they acted as though they hated Hester, they still had no problem with buying their clothes from her for the sake of vanity. Nathanial Hawthorne clearly shows hypocrisy in The Scarlet Letter through Dimmsdale, Chillingworth, and above all, the entire Puritan society.
...seemed at once to desert him; in somuch that he positively withered up, shriveled away, and almost vanished from mortal sight, like an uprooted weed that lies wilting in the sun. This unhappy man had made the very principle of his life to consist in the pursuit and systemic exercise of revenge; and when by its completest triumph and consummation, that evil principle was left with no further material to support it, when in short, there was no more Devil’s work on earth for him to do, it only remained for the unhumanized mortal to betake himself wither his Master would find him tasks enough, and pay him his wages duly”. It is almost as if Hawthorne and wrote him to be a picture of the devil so that there would be some kind of antagonist in the story that knew the whole story between Hester and Dimmesdale. This is why Chillingworth is the greatest sinner in the story.
Chillingworth is the personification of purposeful sin rather than subconscious sin.As the book continues he conciously get wrapped up more and more in his prolific needs for knowing the father and exacting his judgement upon them regardless of the spiritual and actual consequences. A quote that illustrates his physical change-“A change had come over his features,—how much uglier they were,—how his dark complexion seemed to have grown duskier, and his figure more misshapen,—since the days when she had familiarly known him.”(Hawthorne 102) As stated, Chillingworth's appearance becomes more disheveled, dark and dirty from when Hester had known him-to appear more like the sin he embodies. A clear physical representation of the sin manifesting itself in and on him. His infamy in conscious sin is known by the townspeople and they avoid and speak ill of him accordingly. He is aware the he is sinning, yet it doesn't seem to change his mindset as he continues his goal of destroying the reverend."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. Thou and I, Hester, nev...
Have you ever met that one person who was so vile you considered that they might even be the devil himself? Hawthorne has a character much like this in his book, although chances are this character might be a bit worse than your own personal devil. Chillingworth, Hawthorne 's devil, is called "the black man" several times throughout the novel and Hawthorne uses several different way to show just how devil-like Chillingworth can actually be. Evidence to show that Chillingworth is worthy of being called "the black man" is seen, not only in his actions and words but also in his appearance and his reaction to loss.
In Nathanial Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, the deceptive Roger Chillingworth could most certainly be considered a morally ambiguous character. Throughout the novel, Roger Chillingworth everlastingly remains misleading as to whether he lies on the side of good or evil. Even at the end of The Scarlet Letter, the knowledge of Roger Chillingworth is extremely nebulous. The mysterious Roger Chillingworth, although ultimately emanating to be evil, attests to be a challenge when determining his morality. Roger Chillingworth attempts to beguile us by enacting the role of a physician, and ensconces his relationship with Hester Prynne. He lives with Arthur Dimmesdale, vindicating that he is serving Arthur Dimmesdale a helpful medicine, while he is actually depleting the very life from his bones. Roger Chillingworth, therefore, achieves his moral ambiguity through deception, cleverness, and an unknown history.
The book The Scarlet Letter was a difficult read. It was not my favorite book in the beginning, but toward the middle of the book, it got interesting. I have learned many things from this book such as we have a light and dark, a good and evil in all of us. Throughout the novel, Hawthorne uses the symbols of light and dark to depict the good and evil among the characters, Hester Prynne, Arthur Dimmesdale, and Roger Chillingworth.
The Scarlet Letter illustrates that the illumination of self-deception gapes open after one like the very jaws of hell. This is apparent through all the main characters of the novel. Although Hawthorne's work has several imperfect people as the main characters, including Hester Prynne, Arthur Dimmesdale, and Roger Chillingworth, the worst sinner is Roger Chillingworth. Chillingworth commits the greater sin because of his failure to forgive; he has an insatiable appetite for revenge; he receives extreme pleasure in torturing Dimmesdale. Hester Prynne, however, has committed sins of almost the same magnitude.
In Chapter 9, “The Leech,” Hawthorne uses many devices to reveal aspects of both Chillingworth and Dimmesdale’s character. For instance, even the title of the chapter hold significance in regards to Chillingworth’s character. Hawthorn used the old-fashioned term “leech” for “physician” because of its double meaning; while Chillingworth is acting as the minister’s doctor, he is also metaphorically sucking the life out of his as he seeks his revenge. Throughout the chapter Chillingworth’s evil nature is developed through the descriptions of his features. While before his expression had been “calm, meditative, scholar-like,” Hawthorne soon describes the change in his face to be “something ugly and evil” (Hawthorne 145). In addition, Hawthorne
As the novel progressed, Chillingworth fits the profile of ‘vengeance destroys the avenger’. When Roger Chillingworth is first introduced to the reader, we see a kind old man, who just has planted the seeds for revenge. Although he did speak of getting his revenge, when Hester first met her husband in her jail cell, she did not see any evil in him. Because Hester would not tell him who she had slept with, Chillingworth vowed that he would spend the rest of his life having his revenge and that he would eventually suck the soul out of the man, whom she had the affair with. “There is a sympathy that will make me conscious of him. I shall see him tremble. I shall feel myself shudder, suddenly and unawares” (Hawthorne, 101) As the novel develops, Roger Chillingworth has centered himself on Arthur Dimmesdale, but he cannot prove that he is the “one.” Chillingworth has become friends with Dimmesdale, because he has a “strange disease,” that needed to be cured; Chillingworth suspects something and begins to drill Dimmesdale. “… The disorder is a strange one…hath all the operation of this disorder been fairly laid open to me and recounted to me” (Hawthorne, 156).
...ing to us a character like Chillingworth, Hawthorn creates a villain that one has to think whether he/she hates Chillingworth or feels as though he's a victim of circumstance. Without directly telling us that others influence our lives in such a powerful way, Hawthorne conveys this idea through Chillingworth and Chillingworth's effect on those around him. Because of Chillingworth, the reader gets to see how a person who is not necessarily an evil man to begin with, can become so corrupt that even those around him view him as the Devil's worker. By putting a character like Chillingworth in his book, Hawthorne is able to show how religion had a big influence over the people during that time period. Even though Chillingworth harassed Hester and Dimmesdale, the two were more afraid of their fates after death, than Chillingworth during their lifetimes.
One of the many aspects to the complicated nature of sin is reveling in sin and allowing it to engulf one’s whole soul, as displayed through Roger Chillingworth throughout the novel. It is demonstrated again and again in The Scarlet Letter how Chillingworth undergoes a drastic change, what causes that transformation, and w...