The Evil Within the Soul

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There are many evil people in this world. They are evil because that is how we view them. The country that is being attacked by a terrorist views the terrorist as evil, whereas the country that the terrorist is from views the terrorist as a hero. There are few people that are truly evil. To be truly evil everyone must agree that the person is evil. In the novel, The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Roger Chillingworth is truly evil.

Hester is the only person who knows that Chillingworth is evil, taking into account of the things he is doing to her. Chillingworth is old when he marries Hester. He thinks she makes a good home for him and doesn’t think about how this will affect her. He doesn’t think that Hester will have an affair when he isn’t there. .Hester is alone in the new world and thinks Chillingworth is dead. Shortly after their marriage, Hester has an affair; however, he tells her it is his fault. Chillingworth says “ ‘I [betray] thy budding youth into a false and unnatural relation with my decay.’ ” (66) He realizes that he wrongs her when marries her because she is young, but they are even because she had an affair. He unknowingly gives her the opportunity to find out that he is evil.

Chillingworth does not want to suffer with Hester, but he wants to see her suffer. “He [resolves] not be pilloried beside [Hester] on her pedestal of shame.” (105) Chillingworth enjoys seeing the problems that Hester must deal with, as a result of her sin. He is not willing to speak up to say that he is her husband, because he would miss out on the pleasure that he gets when he sees her alone or when he hears people talking about her. Chillingworth likes seeing the bad things happen to Hester because she has a child w...

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...end Chillingworth spends his whole life seeking revenge. He dies and never gets the family he yearns for. He gives all his money to Pearl for the reason that she never hurts him, and she is the family he could have had. He doesn’t give any money to Hester because she wrongs him, and he still holds a grudge.

In the Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Chillingworth is baleful. He spends the last years of his life trying to get revenge. Revenge doesn’t do anyone any good. It can cause serious problems for both parties. The person that is seeking revenge can end up getting hurt, but the individual shouldn’t want to hurt someone else in the first place. By seeking revenge on someone that has done something evil, a person becomes evil themselves. People need to kill each other with kindness and try making amends with others, so in the end there will be no evil.

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