Roger Chillingworth: Overcome with Revenge?

Roger Chillingworth: Overcome with Revenge?

Can a person be so overcome with revenge that they lose all practical

knowledge and become a monster, seeking only their enemy’s destruction? Nathaniel Hawthorne creates this intriguing character in his novel entitled The Scarlet Letter. Throughout the book, the reader will be fascinated by

how quickly revenge can take control of a person's life. Roger Chillingworth first enters the story when he finds out that his wife has committed adultery while he was away. He puts all else aside and begins on finding his wife’s partner-in-sin and on having his revenge on him. Overcome with revenge, Roger Chillingworth changes from a kind and compassionate person to an evil-lurking monster.

As the reader reads through the book, he will see how great a change revenge can cause on a man. At the beginning of the book, the reader feels a little compassion for Chillingworth. After all, he comes home hoping to see his wife, Hester. Instead, he finds her on the scaffold facing judgment over committing adultery. He later asks her not to reveal him as her husband and to tell him who her partner-in-sin was. She does not tell him and he says, "few things are hidden from the man who devotes himself earnestly and unreservedly to the solution of a mystery...He bears no letter of infamy wrought into his garment, as thou dost; but I shall read it on his heart." (26) He finds his enemy in the form of Arthur Dimmesdale, a clergyman, and sets his mind on executing his revenge. Chillingworth starts torturing Dimmesdale and making his life a living hell without him having the faintest clue that his so called physician is actually a demon in human form. You can picture Chillingwoth's demonic smile and laughing eyes as he watches the life drain from Dimmesdale's life and the color of his skin become the color of death as his healthy body becomes a walking skeleton. The more Chillingworth sees Dimmesdale weaken the more he wants to break him. He says as much to his wife "'Has thou not tortured him enough?' said Hester...' Has he not paid thee all?' 'No!- no!- He has but increased his debt!'" (199)

The reader is astonished at the kind of person Chillingworth used to be. He asks his wife if she remembers who he used to be "but all my life had been made up of earnest, studious, thoughtful, quiet years ...No life had been more peaceful and innocent than mine.....Dost thou remember me?....Was I not all this? 'All this, and more, said Hester. 'And what am I now?' demanded he, looking into her face, and permitting the whole evil within him to be written on his features. 'I have already told thee what I am! A fiend!'" (199) Revenge is the only thing driving Chillingworth. As we find out when Dimmesdale confesses his sin Chillingworth shouts "thou hast escaped me". Meaning Chillingworth now has no way to further execute his revenge. No more having a cause to live Chillingworth dies shortly after.

So now you see what I mean when I say how powerful revenge is that it can take over someone's life and control them. The ending of this book shows just how much power revenge had over Chillingworth. Don't let revenge's next victim be you. Listen to the Bible when it tells us to forgive and not hold on to our grudges. Roger Chillinworth was just one of the characters in this novel read the whole book to see how Dimmesdale delt with Chillingworth, how Hester overcame her sin, and what happened to Pearl the small blessing that came in the midst of all the sin.