Profile Of Chillingworth

Profile of Chillingworth

In The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne begins his novel by describing it as a "tale of human frailty and sorrow," which accurately depicts the character of Roger Chillingworth. As his name suggests, Chillingworth is a man deficient in human warmth. As a result, his twisted, stooped, and deformed shoulders mirror his distorted soul. When he first arrives in Boston, the townspeople see him as an intelligent and mild-mannered man. However, after he witnesses Hester's public punishment at the scaffold and finds out about her affair with Dimmesdale, Chillingworth becomes torn between his responsibilities to them, as a doctor and husband, and his desire for revenge. Thus, during the seven years Chillingworth spends in Boston, he transforms from an admirable and kind physician to an evil and vengeful demon. Upon first meeting Dimmesdale, Chillingworth befriends him and vows to heal him, taking up the identity of a "leech." Though, Chillingworth begins to transform and intends on using his medical knowledge to torment Dimmesdale. In fact, his "black medicine", taught to him by the Indians, is on the verge of witchcraft and murder. Chillingworth's transformation to a demon truly shows through his torment of Dimmesdale and Hester for he seeks their deliberate destruction rather than a redress of wrongs. Unlike the sin of Hester and Dimmesdale, which was out of love, Chillingworth commits his sin of revenge purely out of hate. While harm from Hester and Dimmesdale's sin was completely unintentional, Chillingworth reaps for intentional harm. In the end, even townspeople who do not know Chillingworth notice the evil nature within his soul trying break away, proving that Chillingworth has transformed from a kind and intelligent man to a demon upon discovering of Hester and Dimmesdale's sin.