Tranformation in Roger Chillingworth

Roger Chillingworth changes his life forever when he decides to remain in the colony and search for the fellow that betrayed him. He is changed from a person looking to find his wife and be happy to a spiteful person who is consumed with the thought of revenge. Roger has been transformed from one extreme to the other without the conscious thought that this one decision would transform him so completely. Roger’s intuition tells him who it is, but he wants to have proof against the culprit.

When he first arrives in the colony he is expecting to find his wife innocent as the day he left her and live a happy life with her. Instead when he reaches the village he finds his wife on a scaffold being punished for adultery. He is furious but quickly masks his anger by sheer will. When Hester refuses to tell Roger who the other adulterer is Roger vows to find out who has betrayed him and seek revenge on this person. When he makes this decision he does not realize he is sacrificing his own sanity and health to find the adulterer.

Before Roger makes the decision he is best by this quote, “Old Roger Chillingworth, throughout life, had been calm in temperament, kindly, though not of warm affect

I think that by the drastic change in Roger Chillingworth Hawthorne is trying to show how two peoples decision can affect other people drastically. Hawthorne may also be trying to express how one decision can affect you so entirely it may be too late to fix the damage once they realize how much they have been changed. Roger is not aware when he makes the decision, but as soon as he makes the decision to find the man that betrayed him he changes. Hester asks him why he smiles at her so and if he has enticed her into a deal that will ruin her soul. Hawthorne writes in response, “Not thy soul,” he answers with a smile. “No, not thine!”(70;ch4), if he was still trying to be calm and a good puritan he would never have been so happy about someone’s damnation. This shows the transformation immediately. Roger transforms from a man with a dream of love to a man on the balance of insanity to being compare to Satan himself, “To sum up the matter, it grew to be a widely diffused opinion, that the Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale, like many other personages of especial sanctity, in all ages of the Christian world, was haunted either by Satan himself, or Satan’s emissary, in the guise of old roger Chillingworth.”(112;ch.9). Roger is th

Some topics in this essay:
Roger Chillingworth, Chillingworth Hawthorne, Boston Roger, Roger Dimmesdale, Arthur Dimmesdale, Chillingworth”112ch9 Roger, Satan Satan’s, makes decision, roger chillingworth, chapter twelve, decision affect, hawthorne trying, adulterer roger,