Redemption of a Man and his Free Will
In Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, Puritan society plagues its citizens with a sense of self-righteousness and scrutinizing judgment in an attempt to enforce God's law and to reach a state of purity. Inevitably, this society injects itself into Roger Chillingworth's Calvinist and scientific beliefs, and his docile nature becomes corrupted, leading him to become more manipulative, and to strive to enforce a self-righteous form of Puritanical justice while avoiding the goal of self-improvement. However, through the help of Hester and the death of Dimmesdale, he learns to accept responsibility for his actions, accept his free-will, and finally choose a course of action that would bring good. Initially, …show more content…
As he becomes accustomed to this society, he begins to develop a religious zeal which, while still Calvinist in belief, cultivates a self-gratifying inclination to judge while caring for their ill dear minister. Because society so actively wishes for Chillingworth to grow intimate with Dimmesdale for Dimmesdale's own good, this only assists Chillingworth in harboring suspicions towards Dimmesdale, and this contributes to his desire to analyze Dimmesdale's pain and nature. Because of their misguided religious dedication, Puritan society draws Chillingworth to violate Dimmesdale's privacy for their own religious sake, while also subtly priming Chillingworth with a selfish, scrutinizing judgment. As a result of Puritan society's view that pain was a form of divine punishment/judgment, Chillingworth began to view his judgment and torment of Dimmesdale as the work of God, and he began to relinquish self-improvement. Subsequently, Chillingworth begins to derive pleasure from tormenting Dimmesdale, dedicating himself to a destructive cause. As a result of further allocations given by the Puritans to help Dimmesdale, Chillingworth instead begins to "for a season, burrow into the clergyman's intimacy, discover his nature, and plot against his soul." (88) After becoming more intimate with the minister, he becomes to even became " not a spectator only, but a chief actor, in the poor minister's world, letting him play upon Dimmesdale as he chose." (96) Ultimately, the Puritans only promoted his involvement within Dimmesdale's life, and he transformed his passive inward thinking as a pure and upright man into a passion to discover how to torment another. With the Puritan's help, he had begun "to dig into the poor clergyman's heart, like a miner searching for gold, but likely to find nothing save mortality and corruption, all for the
In Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, Puritan society plagues its citizens with a sense of self-righteousness and scrutinizing judgment in an attempt to enforce God's law and to reach a state of purity. Inevitably, this society injects itself into Roger Chillingworth's Calvinist and scientific beliefs, and his docile nature becomes corrupted, leading him to become more manipulative, and to strive to enforce a self-righteous form of Puritanical justice while avoiding the goal of self-improvement. However, through the help of Hester and the death of Dimmesdale, he learns to accept responsibility for his actions, accept his free-will, and finally choose a course of action that would bring good. Initially, …show more content…
As he becomes accustomed to this society, he begins to develop a religious zeal which, while still Calvinist in belief, cultivates a self-gratifying inclination to judge while caring for their ill dear minister. Because society so actively wishes for Chillingworth to grow intimate with Dimmesdale for Dimmesdale's own good, this only assists Chillingworth in harboring suspicions towards Dimmesdale, and this contributes to his desire to analyze Dimmesdale's pain and nature. Because of their misguided religious dedication, Puritan society draws Chillingworth to violate Dimmesdale's privacy for their own religious sake, while also subtly priming Chillingworth with a selfish, scrutinizing judgment. As a result of Puritan society's view that pain was a form of divine punishment/judgment, Chillingworth began to view his judgment and torment of Dimmesdale as the work of God, and he began to relinquish self-improvement. Subsequently, Chillingworth begins to derive pleasure from tormenting Dimmesdale, dedicating himself to a destructive cause. As a result of further allocations given by the Puritans to help Dimmesdale, Chillingworth instead begins to "for a season, burrow into the clergyman's intimacy, discover his nature, and plot against his soul." (88) After becoming more intimate with the minister, he becomes to even became " not a spectator only, but a chief actor, in the poor minister's world, letting him play upon Dimmesdale as he chose." (96) Ultimately, the Puritans only promoted his involvement within Dimmesdale's life, and he transformed his passive inward thinking as a pure and upright man into a passion to discover how to torment another. With the Puritan's help, he had begun "to dig into the poor clergyman's heart, like a miner searching for gold, but likely to find nothing save mortality and corruption, all for the