There are many complex emotions displayed in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter. A prominent one is shown in the character of Roger Chillingworth. He is the long-lost husband of Hester Prynne: a woman charged with adultery and forced to wear a scarlet letter “A” on her chest for the rest of her life. Prynne believed that Chillingworth had died years earlier and soon began her adulterous relationship with Arthur Dimmesdale, a beloved minister in the town. When a child was born (Pearl) and no “father” came forward to claim it, Prynne was sentenced to her penalty. Chillingworth is first introduced in the story just as Prynne is carrying out the first part of her sentence: standing on a scaffold for three hours, in front of
In the beginning of the story, Chillingworth is described as a man “well stricken in years, a pale, thin, scholar-like visage, with eyes dim and bleared by the lamplight that had served them to pore over many ponderous books.” He was an intellectual. However, when the rage of jealousy and anger seeped into him, he no longer used his common sense. He had one goal: to destroy Dimmesdale. He became enslaved by his ambition.
At the end of the story, Dimmesdale reveals his secret (that he was indeed the father of Pearl) and therefore Chillingworth has no target for his mania. He cries out “Thou hast escaped me!” which signaled his defeat in this conflict. His one focus on Dimmesdale’s destruction expended all of his energy, so after Dimmesdale’s escape he had no reaso
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