The Scarlet Letter Chillingworth's Perspective
The Scarlet Letter Chillingworth perspective essay
When Chillingworth comes to America and resides with Native Americans he has a very different outlook on life than when he sees Hester on the scaffold. Beforehand, he had a far more positive outlook to the future, due to the fact that he is unaware of his wife’s affair. Chillingworth had spent years of his life attempting to gain the love and affection of Hester, and planned on continuing that course once he reunited with her. Chillingworth had been making an effort to improve their marriage. He displays this by saying, “Hester, I drew thee into my heart, into its innermost chamber, and sought to warm thee by the warmth which thy presence made there.” (63). He perhaps even expected them to begin a happy, new life immediately upon his arrival in the New World. Chillingworth also tried to get Hester to love him by paying off all of her families’ debt. He may have …show more content…
thought that if he helped her family financially, he may get Hester to appreciate his generosity, and thus perhaps lull him into loving him. Overall, it is clear that Chillingworth was trying to appear to be the best husband he could be and impress Hester. After Chillingworth sees what Hester has done, he starts to reevaluate the past few years of his life that he has been married to Hester. He realizes that he should not have Weber 2/2 tried so hard to get Hester to love him, and admits that when he says, “It was my folly”(63).
However, as disappointed as he was that Hester committed adultery, he felt more anger against the person who lay down with Hester. This is possibly due to jealousy because the person who did this with Hester was able to get her to love him, while Chillingworth in all his attempts was not able to get her to love him. Chillingworth stated that he plans to find the man, and when he does, he does not want to report him to the authorities. The reason he gives for this is that if he tells on the man who committed adultery with Hester he says it would be, “to mine own loss, betray him to the gripe of human law.” In other words, the betrayer’s consequences would be at the hand of proper authorities, and not in the control of Chillingworth. This shows a very depressing, vengeful future for Chillingworth instead of the positive one that he had been hoping for. It is very plain to see that Chillingworth changes greatly after the finds Hester on the
scaffold.
When Chillingworth comes to America and resides with Native Americans he has a very different outlook on life than when he sees Hester on the scaffold. Beforehand, he had a far more positive outlook to the future, due to the fact that he is unaware of his wife’s affair. Chillingworth had spent years of his life attempting to gain the love and affection of Hester, and planned on continuing that course once he reunited with her. Chillingworth had been making an effort to improve their marriage. He displays this by saying, “Hester, I drew thee into my heart, into its innermost chamber, and sought to warm thee by the warmth which thy presence made there.” (63). He perhaps even expected them to begin a happy, new life immediately upon his arrival in the New World. Chillingworth also tried to get Hester to love him by paying off all of her families’ debt. He may have …show more content…
thought that if he helped her family financially, he may get Hester to appreciate his generosity, and thus perhaps lull him into loving him. Overall, it is clear that Chillingworth was trying to appear to be the best husband he could be and impress Hester. After Chillingworth sees what Hester has done, he starts to reevaluate the past few years of his life that he has been married to Hester. He realizes that he should not have Weber 2/2 tried so hard to get Hester to love him, and admits that when he says, “It was my folly”(63).
However, as disappointed as he was that Hester committed adultery, he felt more anger against the person who lay down with Hester. This is possibly due to jealousy because the person who did this with Hester was able to get her to love him, while Chillingworth in all his attempts was not able to get her to love him. Chillingworth stated that he plans to find the man, and when he does, he does not want to report him to the authorities. The reason he gives for this is that if he tells on the man who committed adultery with Hester he says it would be, “to mine own loss, betray him to the gripe of human law.” In other words, the betrayer’s consequences would be at the hand of proper authorities, and not in the control of Chillingworth. This shows a very depressing, vengeful future for Chillingworth instead of the positive one that he had been hoping for. It is very plain to see that Chillingworth changes greatly after the finds Hester on the
scaffold.