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Scarlet Letter: Symbolism Of Roger Chillingworth Essay, Scarlet Letter: Symbolism Of Roger Chillingworth Throughout the novel The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne uses symbolism in order to deliver his anti-transcendental message. One of the more dominant symbols is the antagonist, Roger Chillingworth. Chillingworth s main purpose in the novel is to torment Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale, who had an affair with Chillingworth s wife. With Dimmesdale unaware, Roger Chillingworth acts like a leech that slowly torments the reverend. However, in the end, Dimmesdale triumphed over Roger Chillingworth efforts and Chillingworth was defeated. Roger Chillingworth is used by Nathaniel Hawthorne to symbolize evil, revenge, hate, and even the devil.
Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale was haunted either by Satan himself, or Satan s emissary, in the guise of old Roger Chillingworth to burrow into the clergyman s intimacy and plot against his soul (Hawthorne 124). Hawthorne makes a great deal of references to Chillingworth and the Devil. Old Roger Chillingworth was a striking evidence of a man s faculty of transforming himself into a devil (Hawthorne 166). However Roger Chillingworth was not always evil. The news of his wife s adultery with the reverend and the change of name caused hate to fill Chillingworth s heart.
I shall seek this man as I have sought truth in books I shall see him tremble (Hawthorne 73). Through the use of subtle signals and of Roger Chillingworth's position as a physician, Chillingworth does not inflict physical pain, but emotional and mental pain causing Dimmesdale s spirit and character weaken. the presence of Roger Chillingworth-the secret potion of his malignity, infecting all the air about him (Hawthorne 189). Roger Chillingworth also brings suffering to Hester Prynne and her illegitimate child, Pearl. Art thou like the Black Man that haunts the forest round about us? Hast thou enticed me into a bond that will prove the ruin of my soul? (Hawthorne 74).
After learning of Hester and the reverend s plan to leave the Puritan town to start a new life, Chillingworth decided to follow them and cause them more misery. Why, know u not that this physicians here-Chillingworth tells me he is of your party, and a close friend to the gentleman you spoke of (Hawthorne 230) As Roger Chillingworth s friendship with Arthur Dimmesdale grew, so did his hatred. Chillingworth showed pleasure every time Dimmesdale put his hand over his heart. Had a man seen old Roger Chillingworth, at that moment of ecstasy but what distinguished the physician s ecstasy from Satan s was the trait of wonder in it (Hawthorne 74). Once Dimmesdale died, Chillingworth had no reason to live and his body and spirit weakened drastically. This unhappy man had made the very principle of his life to consist in the pursuit and systematic exercise of revenge there was no more Devil s work on earth for him to do (Hawthorne 254 - 255).
Hawthorne s use of Roger Chillingworth to symbolize evil and hate adds to the anti-transcendentalist theme of the book showing that everything does not end in a happy ending. Chillingworth s attempt to make Dimmesdale suffer ends in an ironic fashion. The evil that Chillingworth brings upon the reverend falls back on him. A wicked man who tries to harm a good man is like a person who looks up and spits at heaven. The spit doesn t reach heaven, but falls back on the spitter.
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Research essay sample on Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale Roger Chillingworth
