Scarlet Letter

  The town believed that it was merely a heartfelt speech for the man who surely felt such guilt, but in reality it was a plea for himself, and for his own soul.   By making the town believe that he was pleading for the case of another sinner, Dimmesdale was able to ask Hester to tell everyone what he had done, by making her feel guilty for not doing so.   " but yet to teach her, as it were by the Creator's sacred pledge, that, if she bring the child to heaven, the child also will bring its parent thither!   Herein is the sinful mother happier than the sinful father" (p. 111).   So here we see that the Reverend knew of his sin, but little did he know that another, besides Hester, knew as well.
             What Roger Chillingworth saw in Dimmesdale was a dark and sacrilegious.   This glowing picture of perfection had a deep dark secret, and it was slowly eating away at Dimmesdale.   Hester Prynne and Roger Chillingworth both knew this secret, but would not reveal it to the town.   Hester knew that Dimmesdale had been the man with whom she had committed her infidelity, but she did not see it as a horrible sin, for she believed that what they had done had been an act of love that was unavoidable.   Chillingworth, however, knew of the sin and saw it as such, because he had been Hester's husband.   He saw Dimmesdale as a rival, a foe, and he treated him as such, but on a much deeper level than one may think. He did not openly hate the man, nor threaten him in any way.   He simply used what he knew was Dimmesdale's secret weakness "his guilt "to hurt him.     Hester kept the secret so as to remain true to her word and not let anyone know with whom she had committed her sin.   Chillingworth's role, however, was to make the abyss in Dimmesdale's soul larger and more painful, bit by bit.
             Roger Chillingworth seems to be, by far, the most evil character in the story. He personifies vengeance and bitterness.