Compare And Contrast Dimmesdale And Chillingworth
In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, Reverend Dimmesdale and Roger Chillingworth are two men that have three main differences in character. The first trait is Chillingworth and Dimmesdale’s difference in their internal struggle. Chillingworth is a man who is on fire with his want of revenge. At the beginning of the novel he makes a vow to find the man Hester had an affair with. “He will be known!” is the statement that defines Chillingworth’s life (57). Dimmesdale is a man who is being crushed by guilt over his affair with Hester. “This very burden it was, that gave him sympathies so intimate with the sinful brotherhood of mankind; so that his heat vibrated in unison with them” (128). The second is intelligence. Chillingworth was very
well-versed in science. “He described him as a man of skill in all Christian modes of physical science, and likewise familiar with whatever the savage people could teach” (63). Dimmesdale is intelligent in a different way. “Dimmesdale... had come from one of the great English universities, bringing all the learning of the age to our wild forest land” (59). “The last trait is physical appearance. Physical appearance is the trait that differs the most between the reverend and the physician. Chillingworth is described as “the deformed... old physician”(127). Dimmesdale was a “young clergyman... with a white, lofty, and impending brow, and large, brown, melancholy eyes” (59). Hawthorne has made these men so different so the reader can contrast the two men in Hester Prynne’s romantic life. Altogether, Dimmesdale and Chillingworth are different in three ways.
well-versed in science. “He described him as a man of skill in all Christian modes of physical science, and likewise familiar with whatever the savage people could teach” (63). Dimmesdale is intelligent in a different way. “Dimmesdale... had come from one of the great English universities, bringing all the learning of the age to our wild forest land” (59). “The last trait is physical appearance. Physical appearance is the trait that differs the most between the reverend and the physician. Chillingworth is described as “the deformed... old physician”(127). Dimmesdale was a “young clergyman... with a white, lofty, and impending brow, and large, brown, melancholy eyes” (59). Hawthorne has made these men so different so the reader can contrast the two men in Hester Prynne’s romantic life. Altogether, Dimmesdale and Chillingworth are different in three ways.