FREE ESSAY ON SCARLET LETTER

SCARLET LETTER

Revenge is the act of retaliating in order to get even with someone for the wrongs they
have done. In the novel "The Scarlet Letter," the author, Nathaniel Hawthorne, uses Roger
Chillingworth to reap revenge on Arthur Dimmesdale for his affair with his wife, Hester
Prynne. Chillingworth becomes so devoted to revenge that is all his life revolves around.
Chillingworth then devotes the rest of his life to taking revenge on Dimmesdale. As the
novel progressed, Chillingworth fits the profile of vengeance destroys the avenger.
When Roger Chillingworth is first introduced to the reader, we see a kind old man, who
just has planted the seeds for revenge. Although he did speak of getting his revenge,
when Hester first met her husband in her jail cell, she did not see any evil in him.
Because Hester would not tell him, who she had slept with, Chillingworth vowed that he
would spend the rest of his life having his revenge and that he would eventually suck the
soul out of the man, whom she had the affair with. "There is a sympathy that will make me
conscious of him. I shall see him tremble. I shall feel myself shudder, suddenly and
unawares" (Hawthorne, 101)
As the novel develops, Roger Chillingworth has centered himself on Arthur Dimmesdale, but
he cannot prove that he is the "one." Chillingworth has become friends with Dimmesdale,
because he has a "strange disease," that needed to be cured; Chillingworth suspects
something and begins to drill Dimmesdale. "... The disorder is a strange one...hath all
the operation of this disorder been fairly laid open to me and recounted to me"
(Hawthorne, 156). As Chillingworth continues to drill Dimmesdale, he strikes a nerve.
"You deal not, I take it, in medicine for the soul! ... With a frantic gesture, he rushed
out of the room" (Hawthorne, 157). 
As Chillingworth continued to harp on Dimmesdale, he has become the devil, who has found
out that he is the one who had sinned against him. He,(Dimmesdale), is "a rare case...I
must search this matter to the bottom" (Hawthorne, 158). When Chillingworth overheard
Dimmesdale having a bad dream, he entered his quarters and "laid his hand upon his bosom,
and thrust aside the vestment, that, ... had always covered it even from the professional
eye" (Hawthorne, 159). What Chillingworth had saw there, no one knows, but we know that
he saw Dimmesdale's sin on his chest. "... With a wild look of wonder, joy, and horror
... (with) the extravagant gestures with which he threw up his arms towards the ceiling,
and stamped his foot upon the floor" (Hawthorne, 159).
When Chillingworth becomes the Devil, he is doing many strange things. Chillingworth is
keeping himself secluded, and is seen lurking around town in a creepy manner. Roger
secluded himself from everyday life to keep his plot for revenge focused. His plot is
working too, Dimmesdale's "... soul shivers ... at the sight of the man" (Hawthorne,
240). Chillingworth is also spending a great deal of time in the "forest trees ...
searching for roots and twigs, for his strange medicines" (Hawthorne, 145).
The townspeople even see that Roger Chillingworth is pure evil. When the town first meets
Chillingworth, they think he is a kind old doctor that would not harm a soul. " At first,
his expression had been meditative, scholar like" (Hawthorne, 149). While Chillingworth
was acting out his revenge plan, the public view of him changed. "Now there was something
ugly and evil in his face, which they had not previously noticed, and which still grew
the more obvious to sight, the oftener they looked upon him. According to vulgar idea,
the fire in his laboratory had been brought from the lower regions, and was fed with
internal fuel; and so, as might be expected, his visage was getting sooty with the
smoke.
Hester Prynne, Roger Chillingworth's wife, sees that Roger Chillingworth is not the man
whom she once knew; he has now become a fiend. " ... There came a red glare out of his
eyes; as the man's soul were on fire, and kept smoldering duskily within his breast"
(Hawthorne, 187). "And thee, answered Hester Prynne, for the hatred that has transformed
a wise and just man to a fiend! Wilt thou yet purge it out of thee, and once more be
human" (Hawthorne, 191). In addition, Chillingworth said in reply, "... I (am) fiend
like, who have snatched a fiend's office from his hands. It is our fate. Let the black
flower blossom as it may! Now go thy ways, and deal as thou wilt with yonder man"
(Hawthorne, 192).
Chillingworth's plan for revenge is based on Dimmesdale not confessing to his crime. When
Dimmesdale confessed to the crowd on Election Day, Chillingworth pleaded with him not to
tell. "Old Roger Chillingworth knelt down beside him, with a blank, dull countenance, out
of which life seemed to have departed. Thou hast escaped me...thou hast escaped me! He
repeated more than once." (Hawthorne, 268). Once Dimmesdale had confessed and died,
Chillingworth had nothing to live for. "At old Roger Chillingworth's decrease (which took
place within the year)." (Hawthorne, 272). 
Revenge destroys the avenger, fits the life of Roger Chillingworth. He devoted his entire
life to revenge, and what happiness did he have to show for it? Had Chillingworth not
been so jealous, he maybe might have had a better life to live.