This lack of true love in their marriage leads Chillingworth to seek revenge against Hester by the use of the scarlet A rather than seek reconciliation with Hester.
Chillingworth's relationship with Dimmesdale throughout the novel is complex and deceiving. The public, including Dimmesdale, perceives Chillingworth as a parishioner, medical advisor, and a friend to Dimmesdale. The townspeople think it is an act of Providence that Chillingworth came to the town to heal the ailing Dimmesdale. In the minds of the townspeople, Chillingworth should have Dimmesdale's best interests in mind. As Dimmesdale's doctor, Chillingworth should keep him as healthy as possible, and as a friend, Chillingworth should love and care for him. However, the reader knows the true motive behind Chillingworth's relationship with Dimmesdale. The reader knows that Chillingworth became close to Dimmesdale in order to discover if Dimmesdale was Hester's sexual partner. Chillingworth uses his relationship with Dimmesdale to further obtain the revenge he sought.
Roger Chillingworth becomes consumed by his passion for revenge. With Hester, Chillingworth allows the scarlet A and the public humiliation that comes with it to serve as her punishment. Chillingworth's real interest for revenge lies primarily with Dimmesdale, not Hester. Chillingworth is willing to sacrifice Dimmesdale's very life to satisfy his own selfish desires for revenge. He begins a long investigation into the conscience of Dimmesdale. Eventually he opens the shirt of Dimmesdale to reveal an unknown item that causes him to turn around "with what a wild look of wonder, joy and horror (135)!" Once Chillingworth knows the truth, he begins his ruthless torture of Dimmesdale, by tormenting him with comments geared to incite fear and agony in Dimmesdale's mind.
After seven years, Hester observed that, "Old Roger Chillingworth was a striking evidence of a man's faculty of transforming himself into a devil (163).