Similarities Between Chillingworth And Ahib

The Scarlet Letter is a classic American gothic novel that was published in1850, and was written by Nathaniel Hawthorne. It’s a novel that covers the story of Hester Prynne and her affair that leads to Roger Chillingworth’s, Hester Prynne’s husband, quest for revenge against his wife’s lover. This novel is a part of the collection of classic American Gothic novels that also include Moby Dick by Herman Melville published in 1851, and is a novel about a whaling boat and a captain named Ahab that is obsessed with his revenge against the white whale Moby Dick who had taken his leg on a previous voyage. Roger Chillingworth and Captain Ahab are two men trapped in their obsession of getting their revenge, however, even though they share similarities they have differences that set them apart from each other.
Roger Chillingworth is a man who married Hester Prynne, and after two years comes to Boston to be with his wife only to see her standing on the scaffold holding a baby later named Pearl. Even though she has betrayed him he still comes to help her and the child while she’s incarcerated showing the first major difference between Chillingworth and Ahab, Chillingworth still feels emotions towards other people. Throughout the story he shows emotion, he shows kindness, anger, shock, and more showing that his obsession hasn’t completely ripped away all parts of his humanity. His revenge is against Arthur Dimmesdale the true father of Pearl, and instead of letting Dimmesdale die Chillingworth uses his work as a physician to keep Dimmesdale alive so
that the guilt and weight of his sin can rip him apart. Chillingworth does nothing to harm Dimmesdale, but is there simply to keep him alive and let his own pain hurt him. Chillingworth’s acts of evil eventually do become deeper when Hester Prynne and Dimmesdale plan to leave Boston with Pearl to live happily together. Chillingworth soon destroys this plan when Prynne finds out that he’s boarding the same boat as Dimesdale and her, and she realizes that they’ll never have peace because Chillingworth with follow them. Chillingworth’s own plan is ruined when Dimmesdale confesses to the community his sin and dies in the arms of Hester Prynne. Chillingworth realizes that he now has nothing left to do with them and dies but not before his last act of compassion towards Pearl leaving her his wealth and land in England. The major differences that make Chillingworth different from Ahab is that he hasn’t lost his mind, he still feels and even shows compassion towards people, his acts of evil against Arthur never really hurt him but only allow Arthur to hurt himself, and these things is what makes him different from Moby Dick’s Captain Ahab. Ahab is the captain of the Pequod in Moby Dick, which also is the boat of the first voyage of Ishmael a new sailor who was actually a schoolteacher. On the voyage Ahab is distant from the crew often leaving all the work to the first, second, and third mates Starbuck, Stubb, and Flask. When he does make an appearance it’s revealed that he only has one leg and that on this trip he plans to take his revenge on the white whale Moby Dick. His odd behavior is seen early when he makes Starbuck, Stubb, Flask, and the harpooners make a blood oath with him that they will not return home until the death of the whale. His sociopathic ways seep through more when as the story continues showing no remorse towards a crew member's death, and has no concern about the crew’s wellbeing going as far as denying them to socialize with a passing ship. His cruelty all stems from his crazed obsession even taking morbid turns when Ahab denies a passing ship help to look for the Captain's son, is apathetic to a young boy named Pip’s loss at sea which later turns the young boy insane, and even goes as far as to threaten to kill his first mate Starbuck when he tries to convince the Captain to go home. Ahab’s humility seems to be nonexistent and his insanity increases as the trip goes on even getting crewmembers to become obsessed with killing Moby Dick. In the end the Captain's obsession leads to the death of all of his sailors the only one spared is Ishmael. Ahab is different from Chillingworth in the ways of he shows no emotion towards anything and feels no penitence for his actions and harm he has done to his crew. His acts of evil are simply torturing his crew into submission for his infatuation of Moby Dick. In the end, Ahab and Chillingworth’s evil were extremely different from each other. On one hand you have a crazed Captain that fuels himself off of his lust to kill Moby Dick, and on the other you have a man who wants to make his wife’s lover feel the pain and shame that he put on her when he stayed in the shadows for years.