Gifts Of Evil
In the book The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne there are many characters who have committed sins. In Puritan community they followed the word of god and banned all sins. These sins in The Scarlet Letter were look as The Black Mans work meaning satans work. The sins committed were harmful and hurtful to people and their souls. Hester and Mr. Dimmesdale committed adultery with bearing a child named Pearl. But Roger Chillingworth committed the worst sin by using his gifts for evil.
Hester Prynne was the main character in the Scarlet Letter. Hester sin was committing adultery with minister Arthur Dimmsdale. Birthing a child named Pearl of pure sin. By committing her sin they punished her. “‘If thou feelest it to be for thy soul's peace, and that thy earthly punishment will thereby be made more effectual to salvation, I charge thee to speak out the name of thy fellow-sinner and fellow-sufferer!" (98 ) The community made her stand on the scaffold for public humiliation. Wearing the letter “A” on her garments meaning Adultery as another punishment. The community shunned Hester and Pearl looking at them as satans work. Hester believes that she should remain in Boston since that were her crime of adultery was committed making it as a reminder to herself what shes have done. Also staying to protect Dimmesdale from Chillingworth.
Reverend Dimmesdale was the puritan minister in Boston. Dimmesdale's sin was committing adultery with Hester creating a child named Pearl. Dimmesdale kept his sin a secret protecting himself. “‘Be not silent from any mistaken pity and tenderness for him; for, believe me, Hester, though he were to step down from a high place, and stand there beside thee, on thy pedestal...
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...o confess during his lifetime.(191)
Chillingworth found weeds in the graveyard making Dimmesdale memory reflect upon him about his secret. By Chillingworth going to graveyard it shows him doing satan's work picking weeds off the graves.
Roger Chillingworth committed the worst sin by using his gifts for evil. Roger Chillingworth was a doctor treating Mr. Dimmesdale. By him using his knowledge and skills he kept him alive to watch him suffer because he knew Dimmesdale and Hester sin. Keeping Dimmesdale alive also made Pearl suffer because Dimmesdale never claimed her and she didn't know who her father was . I believe that he was worst sinner because he lept Dimmesdale alive making him suffer but also making everyone suffer around him by his consequences.
Work Cited
IBooks: Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The Scarlet Letter. Leipzig: List, 1954. Print.
...d making his condition even worse by not confessing his sin. It was his own choice to keep his sin a secret when he should have confessed it a long time ago. Also, it was his own choice to torture himself. Dimmesdale believed that he should be the one punishing himself because his sin was a secret so therefore he had to deal with it and punish his sin on his own, minus the torturing from Chillingworth. Therefore, Hawthorne describes sinning as being better if the sin is a public sin and not a private sin and he also believed that one chooses to become evil. Dimmesdale and Chillingworth are tremendous examples of Hawthorne’s definition of sin and evil.
When talking to Hester about her sin, Chillingworth says, “Yea woman, thou sayest truly!’ cried Roger Chillingworth, letting the lurid fire of his heart blaze out before her eyes” (Hawthorne 141). The author also describes Chillingworth as, "At first his expression had been calm, meditative, scholar-like. Now there was something ugly and evil in his face, which they had not previously noticed, and which still grew more obvious to sight the oftener they looked upon him" (Hawthorne 117). This evil is slowly progressing in not only his appearance, but also in his attitude. When Hester and Chillingworth are in the woods talking about Dimmesdale Hester says to him, “You burrow and rankle in his heart! Your clutch is on his life, and you cause him to die daily a living death” (Hawthorne 107 ). Hester is saying that Chillingworth causes Dimmesdale to be the way that he is because of how he treats him. Hawthorne’s use of this shows how Chillingworth’s tone changes throughout the
Hester Prynne, from Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel, the Scarlet Letter, faces a crucible. She commits adultery with Reverend Dimmesdale and becomes pregnant with a daughter, Pearl. She is isolated from the community and the general public except for when she must stand upon the scaffold for three hours as part of her punishment for her sin. She must also wear a scarlet letter “A” for adultery on her breast. The town looks at her differently because of her sin but Hester stays true to her personality. Hester fairs her life by honoring her punishment and her mistakes, as well as taking care of Pearl and teaching her to be kind.
...rth's crimes against the Lord are more malevolent than those committed by Hester and Reverend Dimmesdale. Chillingworth's quest for revenge and truth leads him down a path of sin, and in the Puritan perspective, down the path to Hell.
Hester Prynne, the protagonist in the book The Scarlet Letter, has committed the sin of adultery, but learned to use that mistake as a form of strength. Hester’s husband, Roger Chillingworth, sent her to America and was supposed to follow her, but never arrived in Boston. While Hester was waiting on Chillingworth, she had an affair with the town minister, Dimmesdale. As a result, Hester gave birth to a beautiful daughter and was forced to wear the scarlet
Throughout the progression of the story, Chillingworth was a character whom the author characterized negatively. The author wrote Chillingworth as a man with “slight deformity of figure” (Hawthorne 57), implying that there were flaws within the character. Moreover, Chillingworth was noted as a character that “violated, in cold blood, the sanctity of a human heart” (Hawthorne 185). Overall, Chillingworth was depicted as an ominous figure, thus further suggesting that he is the principal villain of the book. However, it is also crucial to understand that Dimmesdale is as much of an antagonist as Chillingworth. Hawthorne provides subtle implications to reinforce the claim that Dimmesdale is the predominant villain. Throughout the story, Chillingworth did not contribute much to the plot other than to seek revenge. On the other hand, Dimmesdale embedded the five main themes of alienation, guilt, individual versus society, consequences of sin, and initiation to the story. Furthermore, Chillingworth was not a villain by choice, rather, he inevitably became a villain due to the actions of Dimmesdale. Prior to Dimmesdale’s influence, Chillingworth was a man who cared about the welfare of others. It was only after Dimmesdale’s affair with his wife that shifted Chillingworth’s motive for the worse. The juxtaposition between the past and present motives of Chillingworth manifests the idea that Dimmesdale held the utmost importance in the story: without Dimmesdale, Chillingworth would not be a
And he really was a terrible guy, once Chillingworth decides to pursue Hester's lover and enact revenge, he pursues this purpose the techniques of the intellectual man he is. Moving in with Dimmesdale he pokes and prods. His theory is that corruption of the body leads to corruption of the soul. "Wherever there is a heart and an intellect, the diseases of the physical frame are tinged with the peculiarities of these"(Hawthorne 86). Chillingworth makes it his life goal to torment Dimmesdale to death. As a representation of The Devil, Chillingworth is in no way a good person that is simply misunderstood. The fact that he is a man of science, and practices the healing ways that the Indians taught him, mad him, in Puritan society, a pawn of the devil and an nonconformist to society, linking him even further with satan
The Puritans, a religious group in New England in the early 1600’s, interpreted the Bible form a fundamentalist perspective and strove to attain a sinless society. Of course, people are human and sins are inevitable so the Puritans sinned and their perfect society was never achieved. Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter develops the themes of sin, alienation, and love to provide valuable insights into the traditional beliefs of the Puritans and provide valuable and timeless moral insigts.
“At old Roger Chillingworth’s decease (which took place within the year), and by his last will and testament, of which Governor Bellingham and the Reverend Mr.Wilson were executors, he bequeathed a very considerable amount of property, both here [Boston] and in England, to little Pearl, the daughter of Hester Prynne”(Hawthorne 247). As a fairy tale with the heroes purpose to complete his goal and finish the story. Once dead, he leaves a good amount of money and land to little Pearl. Assuring a good future to her. By doing so he redeems himself in a sort of way with his final act. Expressing that he might act as the “devil” himself but still has some goodness within him. If he was not, he would not have done what he did before dying. He could have died and not given it to anyone, but instead he did not. As he had discovered punishment for his presumption when he decided to pursue his own revenge against Dimmesdale. When Dimmesdale escapes his grasps going to the scaffold to confess his sin. Chillingworth is inflicted as this happens. He already knows that evil has consumed him, and torturing Dimmesdale is his only reason for living. “At this instant, old Roger Chillingworth thrust himself through the crowd-or,perhaps so dark, disturbed and evil, was his look, he rose up out of some nether region-to snatch back his victim from what he sought to
The Reverend Dimmesdale was another character that demonstrated the effects of sin. He committed the same offense that Hester committed, adultery. The difference between Dimmesdale and Hester was that Dimmesdale was not publicly punished for his crime while Hester was. Because of this, Dimmesdale felt extremely guilty. This feeling of guilt was so atrocious that it mentally and physically withered Dimmesdale, as he felt a very strong need to repent and cleanse his soul.
During this puritan time in the 1600s. Nathaniel Hawthorne who is an anti-transcendentalist speaks about sin. But not just any sin, secret sin in this novel “The Scarlet Letter.” Hawthorne expresses many themes and symbols in many strange and mysterious ways. Hawthorne is a very dark and devious man. The scarlet letter A that is embroidered on Hester’s bosom symbolizes adultery. Adultery is the sin that she has committed. Hester had a whole husband and made a baby with a man that wasn’t the husband. In his novel, The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne uses the symbolism of Hester’s Cabin, Leeches, and Dimmesdale to contribute to the overall theme of Good Vs. Evil.
Hester Prynne’s sin was adultery. This sin was regarded very seriously by the Puritans, and was often punished by death. Hester’s punishment was to endure a public shaming on a scaffold for three hours and wear a scarlet letter "A" on her chest for the rest of her life in the town. Although Hawthorne does not pardon Hester’s sin, he considers it less serious than those of Dimmesdale and Chillingworth. Hester’s sin was a sin of passion. This sin was openly acknowledged as she wore the "A" on her chest. Hester did not commit the greatest sin of the novel. She did not deliberately mean to commit her sin or mean to hurt others.
In a town full of Puritan believers, three sinners arose: Hester Prynne, Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale, and Roger Chillingworth (Prynne). The three all defied the Puritan God, and lived to face their consequences. Hester and Dimmesdale’s sins were closely tied, but Chillingworth 's was of a vastly different nature. Hester 's sin was adultery, as she had cheated on her husband Chillingworth. Likewise, Dimmesdale 's sin was sexual immorality. He knowingly had relations with Hester, a married woman. Generally, their sins are more tame in nature, as it was a consensual relationship, and did no harm. Dimmesdale also sinned against his God. He hid and lied by omission while publicly preaching about the dangers of lying. His sin of hypocrisy did no harm to others, but created distrust in his
...Now go thy ways, and deal as thou wilt with yonder man” (Hawthorne, 192). Chillingworth’s plan for revenge is based on Dimmesdale not confessing to his crime.
Throughout all the sinful things Hester Prynne has done, she still managed to obtain good qualities. Hester was an adulterer from the book The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Hester was looked down upon by the citizens of Boston because of the sin she and another person committed, but no one knew who her partner in crime was because she refused to release his name. Towards the very end of the story Hester’s accomplice confessed and left Hester and Pearl feeling joyous, because now they didn’t have to keep in a secret. Hester is a trustworthy, helpful, and brave woman throughout The Scarlet Letter.