Chillingworth: Friend or Fiend? Some people, seek vengeance when they suffer a wrong. In the novel The Scarlet Letter, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, the character Roger Chillingworth is no exception, but the burden of his revenge becomes so heavy that it leads to a transformation of character that is unprecedented. Though at first a humble physician, Roger Chillingworth, slowly, through acts of his seeking revenge on his wife’s lover, Arthur Dimmesdale, he transforms into a parasitic leech, which eventually leads to his downfall. In the beginning of the novel, Roger Chillingworth is a humble, old physician. For example, on the night after Hester’s shame on the scaffold. Roger Chillingworth is called to treat Hester and her baby as he acts as he acts as her physician. [Chillingworth] ‘Prithee, friend leave me alone with my patients […] my old studies and alchemy observed he, and my sojourn for above a year past, among a people well versed in the kindly propertied of simples have made a better physician of me then many that claim the medical degree […] What should ail me, to harm this misbegotten and miserable babe? The medicine potent for good as it were my child […] I could do no better’ (Hawthorne 66-67). Chillingworth’s humble beginning is also depicted when he is introduced by Hawthorne as the physician that he is, and telling about the great knowledge of the herbs that he beholds. The only surgeon was one who combined the occasional exercise of that noble art with the daily and habitual flourish of a razor. To such a professional body Roger Chillingworth was a brilliant inquisitor. He soon manifested his familiarity with the ponderous and imposing machinery of antique physique; in which every remedy contained in multitude a far fetched and heterogeneous ingredients […] He had gained much knowledge of the properties of native herbs and roots(Hawthorne 108-109). Roger Chillingworth’s reputation as a good doctor becomes more evident when the townspeople see him as a savior to Arthur Dimmesdale, and encourage both of them to live together. Why in such rank of the learned world whose sphere is great cities, be seeking in the wilderness? In answer to this query a rumor gained grown, and however absurd, was entertained by some very sensible people.
Roger Chillingworth’s suffering arose from a domino effect that he had no control of. Roger was merely a casualty of a sin that he had no partake in, but it turned his life upside down for the worse. The big punch that started Roger’s suffering was the affair between Hester and Dimmesdale. His suffering from this event was unlike the suffering it caused Hester and Dimmesdale as they suffered for their own sin, but Roger Chillingworth did not suffer from his own sin. Roger’s suffering comes directly from his own wife having a child with another man, an event he had no say or action in: “his young wife, you see, was left to mislead herself” (Hawthorne 97). Left all by herself Roger’s wife, Hester, mislead herself as no one was there to watch
Roger Chillingworth’s main internal conflict was his personal revenge towards Arthur Dimmesdale. Roger is a dynamic character who changes from being a caring and mindful doctor to a dark creature enveloped in retaliation. His character possesses a clear example of the result when a person chooses sin by letting his vengeance get the better of him. For example, Roger constantly asks Hester to tell him who has caused her punishment. As Roger visits Hester at the prison, he is determined to find out who Hester’s lover was, “...few things hidden from the man, who devotes himself earnestly and unreservedly to the solution of mystery” (64).
As a respected physician, Chillingworth was “a man of skill in all Christian modes of physical science, and li... ... middle of paper ... ... powerful grip over him, dies peacefully, and Chillingworth dies soon after. To plot revenge in any situation is harmful. Chillingworth’s plot of revenge brings the downfall of Dimmesdale, as well as his own.
The audience experiences Roger Chillingworth in a dramatic yet critical way to justify change and retribution in one character as the consequence of cloaking deep sin and secrets. When first introduced in the story, the narrator refers to Chillingworth as “known as a man of skill” (97) through the point of view of the people in the Puritan town of Salem. He is brought into the story when the town was in a time of need of a physician to help the sickly Reverend Dimmesdale; his arrival is described as an “opportune arrival” because God sent a “providential hand” to save the Reverend. Society views Chillingworth as though as “heaven had wrought an absolute miracle” (97). The narrator feels when Chillingworth arrives in Salem he is good and has no intention of harm of others. Perhaps if the crime of the story had not been committed he would have less sin and fewer devils like features. Although this view of Chillingworth changes quickly, it presents the thought of how Chillingworth is before sin destroys him. Quickly after Chillingworth discovers Dimmesdale’s secret, his features and his character begin to change. The narrator’s attitude changes drastically towards the character from altering his ideas of the kind and intelligent persona to an evil being by using phrases such as “haunted by Satan himself” (101). The narrator portrays the people of the town believing Chillingworth is taking over the ministers soul in the statement “the gloom and terror in the depths of the poor minister’s eyes” (102). Throughout the book, Chillingworth ages exceedingly and rapidly. At the very end of the story, the narrator reveals another change in Chillingworth’s character; he searches for redemption by leaving Pearl a fortune a “very considerable amount of property” (203). By doing this, it shows
Roger Chillingworth is first described as a quiet peaceful man who adores nature. Therefore, whenever he was mentioned, the novel took a peaceful even estranged tone. As the story progresses, his character takes a dark turn and has “grown to exist only by perpetual poison of the direst revenge” (124). Hester is described as a beautiful women with a truly good heart despite her flaw. With her character, there is a hopeful and righteous tone and that does not change until her death when her mentioning brings a grieving tone in addition to hopeful. As for Arthur Dimmesdale, there is a regretful tone in the narration. He is described as an emaciating man who brings solemnity to the story. His purpose as a character is to attract a feeling of sympathy which, in turn, adds to Roger’s distasteful character. Waggoner says that each character and a piece of nature are related (Waggoner). In effect, the relation between characters, symbols, and tone are more closely brought together. So with this in mind, it can be seen that each character allows Hawthorne to dynamically change and incorporate the story’s tone through each of
As said by Yale professor of psychology and cognitive science, "Religion and science will always clash." Science and religion are both avenues to explain how life came into existence. However, science uses evidence collected by people to explain the phenomenon while religion is usually based off a belief in a greater power which is responsible for the creation of life. The characters Arthur Dimmesdale and Roger Chillingworth in Nathaniel Hawthorne 's novel, The Scarlet Letter, represent religion and science, respectively, compared to the real world debate between science and religion. Roger Chillingworth is a physician who is associated with science. (ch. 9; page 107) "...made [Roger Chillingworth] extensively acquainted with the medical science of the day... Skillful men, of the medical and chirurgical profession, were of rare occurrence in the colony...They seldom... partook of the religious zeal that brought other emigrants across the Atlantic." The people of the Puritan community traveled across the Atlantic for religious reasons, and because men affiliated with medical science did not tend to practice religion, they rarely inhabited this community. Chillingworth, falling under the category of "skillful men of the medical and chirurgical profession," would not be expected to reside in this community. The narrator through emphasizes this with his rhetorical questioning, "Why, with such a rank in the learned world, had he come hither? What could he, whose sphere was in great cities, be seeking in the wilderness?" These questions demonstrate that it was so strange for Chillingworth to appear in this community because of his association with science. Perhaps, the phrase "with such rank in the learned world" could yield the narra...
Arthur is surprised by Roger’s kindness and states this, “Doust thou know me so little… then to give the medicine against all harm” (Hawthorne 68). Arthur knows Chillingworth so little that he is surprised at how kind he has been to him, and is very grateful at the fact. It was probably hard for Chillingworth to do such a thing for Arthur because of the hatred he has for him. Roger had a lot more darkness in him than he did light. Hawthorne describes Roger’s purpose in life leaving him by stating, “Old Roger Chillingworth knelt down beside him with a blank dull countenance, out of which the life seemed to have departed” (232). This example describes how his sole purpose in life seizes to exist, the revenge that he lived for was taken at that exact moment and he had no other reason to live. Roger Chillingworth is the most troubled character in the book; He wanted to be light but revenge slowly ate him alive until he was a dark person.
Villains come in all forms of malevolence throughout all types of literature. They help to drive the plot of the story and influence the themes and purposes as desired by the author. In The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, the character assigned the appellation of Roger Chillingworth is the main antagonist. He is first seen attending the public humiliation of Hester Prynne, who is the protagonist of the book. Chillingworth is established as a physician whom Hester had previously cheated on. Throughout the novel, Chillingworth is seen as being controlling over Arthur Dimmesdale, who testifies to one of the book’s main themes of guilt. Nathaniel Hawthorne’s historical drama The Scarlet Letter renders Roger Chillingworth as the villain who
position later in the book. His back is deformed, and one shoulder is higher than the other, giving him a hunchbacked appearance. Chillingworth is not physically attractive and very slender. His eyes have a 'strong, penetrating power,'; (Chpt. 10, p. 157) and he is a loner. 'Old Roger Chillingworth, throughout life, had been calm in temperament, kindly, though not of warm affections, but ever, and in all his relations with the world, a pure and upright man.'; (p. 157, Chpt. 10) He enjoys studying and the pursuit of knowledge.
Nathaniel Hawthorne created themes in The Scarlet Letter just as significant as the obvious ideas pertaining to sin and Puritan society. Roger Chillingworth is a character through which one of these themes resonates, and a character that is often underplayed in analysis. His weakness and path of destruction of himself and others are summed up in one of Chillingworth's last sentences in the novel, to Arthur Dimmesdale: "Hadst thou sought the whole earth over... there were no place so secret, no high place nor lowly place, where thou couldst have escaped me, save on this very scaffold!" (171).
Obsession and hatred are such corrupt concepts that if one lets it consume them, it can make them inhuman. In the novel, The Scarlet Letter, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, the character Roger Chillingworth is a walking symbol for how allowing revenge to become an obsession can change you into something horrible. As the story progresses, Chillingworth changes into a monster as his need for revenge and hatred grows stronger, causing him to sin by endlessly torturing Dimmesdale. Chillingworth grows into a more menacing person as he becomes a puppet to his own hatred, sin, and obsession.
Roger Chillingworth utilizes his deceptiveness in a number of occasions throughout the novel. For example, in chapter three, Roger Chillingworth innocently approaches Hester Prynne, acting as if he has never once seen her. Roger Chillingworth even interrogates a local townsman about Hester Prynne and her committed sins. This shows that Roger Chillingworth purposely intends to concept a deceptive knowledge of his character in order to disconcert one who may read The Scarlet Letter. Although Roger Chllingworth is the foremost antagonist of the novel, his deceptiveness empowers him to withhold an excessive amount of moral ambiguity. With this moral ambiguity, Roger Chillingworth is able to surreptitiously accomplish a various amount of things, including the death of Arthur Dimmesdale himself.
In Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, the reader is able to observe how one sin devastates three lives. Hester, Dimmesdale, and Chillingworth are all guilty of succumbing to temptation, anger, and desire, causing all to fit the definition of a sinner. Yet, Chillingworth's iniquities raise him up above Hester and Dimmesdale on the level of diabolic acts.
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).
5. Vivian Nutton, "Murders and Miracles: Lay Attitudes Towards Medicine in Classical Antiquity." In Roy Porter (ed), Patients and Practitioners: Lay Perceptions of Medicine in Pre-Industrial Society (Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Pr., 1985), pp. 23-53.