Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel HawthorneIn Nathaniel Hawthorne’s classic novel The Scarlet Letter, the lives of three people are deeply altered by a single act of passion. After Hester Prynne has an illegitimate child, Pearl, from an undisclosed father, Hester is isolated from the Puritan community she resides in and forced to wear a token of her sin on her bosom. Ironically, the well-loved and revered Reverend Dimmesdale is Pearl’s father and Hester’s partner in sin. Another twist occurs when Hester’s husband, presumed dead by the Puritan villagers, shows up while Hester is being publicly punished for adultery on the town scaffold. Throughout the novel Hester raises her child alone, Dimmesdale keeps his sin a secret from his parishioners, and Hester’s husband becomes known as a physician under the alias “Roger Chillingworth”. Both Hester and Dimmesdale have committed a grave sin in the eyes of the Puritan community, yet Hawthorne doesn’t convey either as the greatest sinner. Ghastly acts of revenge and attempts to take authority into his own hands, the evident deterioration of his soul, and the symbolism surrounding him makes it apparent that Roger Chillingworth commits the severest sin in The Scarlet Letter.
The sin Chillingworth commits is more immoral than that of Hester and Dimmesdale because his is methodically executed. Even Dimmesdale, a man tormented by guilt recognizes that “there is one worse than even the polluted priest! That old man’s revenge has been blacker than my sin. He has violated, in cold blood, the sanctity of a human heart. Thou and I, Hester, never did so!” Both Hester and Dimmesdale’s sin was made out of passion; they acted on the impulses of their heart. Chillingworth, on the other hand, uses meticulous planning and medicated steps that continually lead him to the devil. He wants revenge, so he concludes that matters must be taken into his own hands through the secret torture of the reverend. Chillingworth presents himself as a physician who cared for the well being of his patient, Dimmesdale. “Reverend Dimmesdale…was haunted either by Satan himself, or Satan’s emissary, in the guise of old Roger Chillingworth.” In reality, Chillingworth intentionally went out of his way to bring suffering and pain into Dimmesdale’s life. Chillingworth’s presence, as well as knowing comments, drove Dimmesdale deep into shame, causing him to commit heinous acts against himself. Chillingworth is assured that he is tormenting his wife’s lover and “at that moment of his ecstasy, he would have had no need to ask how Satan comports himself when a precious human soul is lost to heaven and won in his kingdom.” The jubilation demonstrated is equal to that of the devil. His soul has been overtaken and his only means of pleasure comes from torturing Dimmesdale. Chillingworth never exhibits a conscience or a sense of morals; he is too completely...
To view the complete essay, you be registered.