Essay On The Relationship Between Chillingworth And Dimmesdale In The Scarlet Letter

The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, tells the story of Hester Prynne, a strong-willed, young woman living in a Puritan village during the seventeenth-century. After she gives birth to an illegitimate child, Hester is forced to don the shameful scarlet letter “A” on her breast as a sign of her sin and to live as a warning to other young maidens. Roger Chillingworth, the aged husband of Hester, arrives in Boston in time to view his wife in “ignominious exposure” (Hawthorne 117). He decides to remain in the village under the guise of a doctor with the sole purpose of taking revenge on Hester’s unnamed lover. Closely tied to Hester, Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale is a young pastor in failing health who is esteemed by the whole village to be

Dimmesdale, driven by impulse, confesses publicly to his sin and falls dead on the scaffold. Chillingworth, left without a purpose for living, dies a year later. The passage in chapter 9 is start of the relationship between Chillingworth and Dimmesdale. The dramatic irony found in the passage is due to the false identities that Chillingworth and Dimmesdale adopt and their interactions foreshadow their future relations.
In the passage, the difference between the villagers’ perceptions of Roger Chillingworth and his true character results in dramatic irony. Dramatic irony occurs when the readers know more information than the characters do. Roger Chillingworth is a “learned man who…sent his wife before him, remaining himself to look after some necessary affairs” (68). Around two years later, when he finally arrives after having been through much hardship, he finds his wife, Hester, “set up as a type of sin before the people” (117). Consumed by wrath, he become obsessed with a dark “new purpose” – to revenge his wife’s lover (118). To the oblivious villagers, however, the sudden arrival of the skilled physician Chillingworth “had

Dimmesdale is not aware Hester’s husband is alive and seeking revenge on him. Chillingworth does not realize that the man he is searching for is the pastor. Thus, Dimmesdale is occupying a very precarious position, even though he is not aware of it. Revealing himself to be Hester’s partner would undoubtedly incite the wrath of Chillingworth on himself, but his condition is so serious and his strength so weak that he may not be able to live much longer either. Chillingworth’s intellect and skill suggests that he will be a dangerous influence for Dimmesdale once he finds out the pastor’s secret. The reader knows of their volatile situation and the potential consequences of them discovering the other’s secret, but does not know when or the extent of the consequences. However, as indicated by the difference in their personalities, the result will likely be the demise of Dimmesdale. This uncertainty of what is to come as a result of the dramatic irony in the situation between Dimmesdale and Chillingworth creates