How Is Chillingworth Presented In The Scarlet Letter

In The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne uses a variety of descriptions to undermine the true character of Roger Chillingworth. "..he was originally the only character without a problem or a sin, he became the one who performed the worst sins of all.” Chillingworth comes into the story conveyed as the partner who had been wronged, although throughout the book steadily becomes symbolically evil. Hawthorne introduces Chillingworth in chapter three when Hester is serving her punishment on the scaffold. He was not quick to assume Hester's cause of punishment, but when he is told the reason, we start seeing the change in him. From that point on, Chillingworth is plotting revenge against Hester's accomplice in adultery. Chillingworth becomes more than just the jealous husband, he becomes evi …show more content…
“Although, by a seemingly careless arrangement of his heterogeneous garb, he had endeavored to conceal or abate the peculiarity, it was sufficiently evident to Hester Prynne, that one of this man’s shoulders rose higher than the other. Again, at the first instant of perceiving that thin visage, and the slight deformity of the figure, she pressed her infant to her bosom, with so convulsive a force that the poor babe uttered another cry of pain. But the mother did not seem to hear it.” Hester is overcome with fear at the sight of her husband, although neither speaks a word. Later, Roger Chillingworth identifies himself as a doctor and nurses both Hester and Pearl. He presses Hester on the issue of who the father of Pearl is, but she refuses once again. "I will seek this man as I have sought truth in books, as I have sought gold in alchemy. We share a connection that will reveal this man to me. When he trembles, I will feel it. Sooner or later, he will be mine.” Chillingworth pledges vengeance against who we now know is