Scarlett Letter-3 Reasons for Whyroger Chillingsworth Is the Most Sinful Character
Published in 1850, The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, is a book based on sin, guilt, and redemption. A woman, Hester Prynne, must bear the guilt of sin by wearing a scarlet “A” on her bosom. The reason she wears this letter is because she had a child by a man, Arthur Dimmesdale, who is not her husband, Roger Chillingworth. Although she has committed the sin of adultery with Dimmesdale, her husband is also guilty of being a sinner himself. According to the narrator in Chapter 14, “This unhappy person (Roger Chillingworth) had effected such a transformation by devoting himself for seven years to the constant analysis of a heart full of torture, and deriving his enjoyment thence, and adding fuel to those fiery tortures which he analysed and gloated over.” would convince anyone that Chillingworth is the most sinful character in The Scarlet Letter. Three reasons for why he is the most sinful character would be that he deceives the colony with his untrue identity, stays in Boston to get revenge on Reverend Dimmesdale, and posses worldly and sometimes prohibited forms of knowledge. Roger Chillingworth comes to Boston two years after sending his wife, Hester. When he gets in the town, there is a gathering at the scaffold. Upon the scaffold he sees Hester holding a baby, whom she calls Pearl, in her arms. Hester recognizes him in the crowd, yet he motions to her to not say anything. He first deceives the colony with his untrue identity Chapter 3 when he turns to a townsman and says, “I pray you, good Sir, who is this woman?--and wherefore is she here set up to public shame?” By Chillingworth asking who Hester was, he has not revealed that he does indeed know her; and knows her to be his wife. Another time that he admits he has not been true about his identity is when he converses with Hester in the forest. In Chapter 14, he says to her, “I have already told thee what I am! A fiend!” When he says this, he admits that his whole demeanor has changed throughout his