Kim VandenBos
A.P. English
Mr. Forcelle
9/22/14
The Demise of Roger Chillingworth
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, Chillingworth, slowly, through acts of his seeking revenge on his wife’s lover, the minister Arthur Dimmesdale, he transforms into a parasitic leech not only representing the evil of the story, but the idea of human frailty. In the beginning of the novel, Roger Chillingworth is a modest, old physician. For example, on the night after Hester’s shame on the scaffold. Roger Chillingworth is called to treat Hester and her baby he acts as her physician. “Prithee, friend leave me alone with my patients” Here Chillingworth seems to be a caring helpful man who only wants the best for his patients, later on we learn this is not so true. 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. Chillingworth appears to want nothing but good and for the situation to resolve itself quietly, but as the story goes on we see that this is not quite so. Roger Chillingworth’s reputation as a good doctor becomes more evident when the townspeople see him as a savior to Dimmesdale, and encourage both of them to live together. “That heaven had wrought an absolute miracle, bodily through the air, and setting him down at the door of Mr. Dimmesdale’s study” (Hawthorne 110). With the towns’ people pushing for the two men to live together; we begin to see Chillingworth’s real intentions. No longer are we lead to believe that he is only trying to help the minister in his ill state. Due to these facts, it is clear that before the consumption of Chillingworth’s soul he was a humble physician. As the book progresses Roger Chillingworth starts to become morbidly obsessed with extracting revenge of his wife’s secret lover. This obsession is first represented when he had just treated Hester and her baby, and begins to interrogate Hester on the name of her secret love. “We have wronged each other,’ answered he. “Mine was the first wrong, when I betrayed thy budding youth! […] I seek no vengeance, plot no evil against thee. Between thee and me, the scales hang fairly balanced. But Hester, the man lives who has wronged us both! Who is he?” In this statement, it appears that Chillingworth is a forgiving man and only wants the truth. Nothing more. “I shall see him tremble” “Sooner or later he must needs be mine!” (Hawthorne 70). In this passage we see a side of him that is not totally reserved and as he was before.
The fact that Roger Chillingworth becomes consumed by revenge is clearly evident when he begins to conduct his investigation of the dark secrets of Hester and he unknown lover. He had began an investigation. “As he proceeded, a terrible fascination, a kind of fierce though still calm, necessity ceased the old man within its grip and never setting him free again until he had done all his biddings”(Hawthorne 117). This obsession is depicted for the third time when Hester happens across the once humble physician and a retired part of the peninsula, and Chillingworth confesses his wrong doings toward the preacher. “Oh I could reveal a godly secret! But enough! What art can do, I have exhausted on him. That he now breathed, and creeps about on earth is owning all to me” (Hawthorne 155). Here we learn of Chilliingworth’s true intentions. To not
