Chillingworth's Revenge Quotes

He is a man plagued by vengeance. In the novel, The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne describes how a woman named Hester Prynne fits into a Puritan society after committing an act of adultery and giving birth to another man’s child. Her husband, Roger Chillingworth, develops a bitter coldness and a vindictive obsession that impacts both Hester Prynne and her secret lover. Chillingworth was Hester Prynne’s husband before she was brought to jail. He is first seen as “a figure which irresistibly took possession of [Hester’s] thoughts” at the town square. His year of captivity with the Indians explains his “strange disarray of civilized and savage costume” (Hawthorne 56). Later on in the story, he meets with Hester in the prison to discuss
During the conversation between Hester and the physician, Chillingworth is aware of his continuing torture of Dimmesdale when he says “[Dimmesdale] has been conscious of me. He has felt an influence dwelling always upon him like a curse” (Hawthorne 155). This proves that he enjoys his obsession with the minister. He continues to cold-heartedly torment the frailing Dimmesdale. On the night that Chillingworth sees Dimmesdale’s chest, Chillingworth has a moment of “ecstasy” during which he understands “how Satan comports himself when a precious human soul is lost to heaven” (Hawthorne 126). Chillingworth begins to develop an understanding of the way the devil feels when he successfully tortures his victims in hell. His ability to empathize with Satan explains why Hester and the rest of the town views him as a psychopath. Throughout this section of the book, the ex-husband who was wronged now embodies
Even Pearl realizes this, calling him “The Black Man” and notes how the devil “hath got hold of the minister already” (Hawthorne 122). It starts to become very obvious that Chillingworth has lost it when a seven year old can connect the dots. During Hester and Chillingworth’s conversation, Hester exclaims to the physician about how his hatred “has transformed a wise and just man to a fiend! Wilt thou yet purge it out of thee, and be once more human?” (Hawthorne 157). Now, Hester and Pearl both realize the enemy Roger Chillingworth has become. It is almost as if he wears his obsession and hate like a sleeve on his arm, for all to