How would one feel, if after being separated from one 's wife for years, she went and left her marriage vows for the arms of another man? Would one feel enraged, discouraged, or unworthy? Could it be possible to welcome her back with open arms? Or would the wounds run too deep, too wide, and too broad for any measure of forgiveness to ever overcome? This is the situation that readers see the old Mr. Chillingworth thrust into at the beginning of the Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorn; it is to the readers horror the extent of earthly torture that he takes for revenge throughout the story. As the antagonist, Chillingworth will not be sufficed until he has revenge for the wrong that was wrought on him. Rodger Chillingworth allows his wife 's decisions and his own anger to brood into a heated revenge that cannot be satisfied until his wife 's lover pays the ultimate price. Chillingworth did not merely wake up one morning and intend murder on his fellow man; but that is the extent that he allowed his hate to reach throughout the context of the story. Analysis of the text will reveal: his motives for such destruction, the actions he undertook to see his advisories misery complete, and the end result of his hatred. The German writer, Thomas Mann is quoted as having said: "People 's behavior makes sense if you think about it in terms of their goals, needs, and motives," it is important to begin with the motives that drove Rodger Chillingworth to the fullest extend of hate.
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Throughout the course of time, there has been an understood ideal that a wife belongs to her husband and vice versa. Rodger Chillingworth had the same marital claim to Hester Pryne as any other married man. In Anglican England and Puritan Massachusetts Bay, this belief would have come from the Judeo-Christian Bible passage Genesis 2:24 : “Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.” This would have been a clearly understood and well known chapter to both Chillingworth and Pryne in their first discourse in chapter four of the novel. In this discourse he reminds Hester that though they did not love each other, he is still her husband and she is still his wife. This is Chillingworth 's clearest motive for his actions in the rest of the story. As Hester 's husband, He has a right to see her fellow adulterer brought to justice, and will see it done by any earthly means. Though he begins with what even the purest puritan would declare to be "healthy" motives, the actions that Rodger Chillingworth derive from such motives are far from pure. "Old Roger Chillingworth, throughout life, had been... in all his relations with the world, a pure and upright man. He had begun an investigation, as he imagined, with the severe and equal integrity of a judge, desirous only of truth... instead of human passions, and wrongs inflicted on himself. But, as he proceeded, a terrible fascination, a kind of fierce, though still calm, necessity, seized the old man within its gripe, and never set him free again until he had done all its bidding. He now dug into the poor clergyman 's heart, like a miner searching for gold; or, rather, like a sexton delving into a grave, possibly in quest of a jewel that had been buried on the dead man 's bosom, but likely to find nothing save mortality and corruption,"(Hawthorn, pg.131) This portion from the text illustrates the extent to which Chillingworth was willing to go in order to get the information that he deserved. …show more content…
For seven years, he haunted Reverend Dimsdale 's every move, pretending to be his friend and companion. In reality, the supposed physician was digging deep into the ministers heart and soul to discover the truth he believed was hidden within: the identity of his wife 's lover. One can perceive that to this end, Mr Chillingworth gave the Reverend not medicine, but a form of light poison or an in-digest-ant intended to weaken the poor man to the point of absolute desperation. Thus, his righteous motives led to desperate actions, starting a revengeful cycle from which no good could follow. This combination of dire motives and revengeful
Throughout the course of time, there has been an understood ideal that a wife belongs to her husband and vice versa. Rodger Chillingworth had the same marital claim to Hester Pryne as any other married man. In Anglican England and Puritan Massachusetts Bay, this belief would have come from the Judeo-Christian Bible passage Genesis 2:24 : “Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.” This would have been a clearly understood and well known chapter to both Chillingworth and Pryne in their first discourse in chapter four of the novel. In this discourse he reminds Hester that though they did not love each other, he is still her husband and she is still his wife. This is Chillingworth 's clearest motive for his actions in the rest of the story. As Hester 's husband, He has a right to see her fellow adulterer brought to justice, and will see it done by any earthly means. Though he begins with what even the purest puritan would declare to be "healthy" motives, the actions that Rodger Chillingworth derive from such motives are far from pure. "Old Roger Chillingworth, throughout life, had been... in all his relations with the world, a pure and upright man. He had begun an investigation, as he imagined, with the severe and equal integrity of a judge, desirous only of truth... instead of human passions, and wrongs inflicted on himself. But, as he proceeded, a terrible fascination, a kind of fierce, though still calm, necessity, seized the old man within its gripe, and never set him free again until he had done all its bidding. He now dug into the poor clergyman 's heart, like a miner searching for gold; or, rather, like a sexton delving into a grave, possibly in quest of a jewel that had been buried on the dead man 's bosom, but likely to find nothing save mortality and corruption,"(Hawthorn, pg.131) This portion from the text illustrates the extent to which Chillingworth was willing to go in order to get the information that he deserved. …show more content…
For seven years, he haunted Reverend Dimsdale 's every move, pretending to be his friend and companion. In reality, the supposed physician was digging deep into the ministers heart and soul to discover the truth he believed was hidden within: the identity of his wife 's lover. One can perceive that to this end, Mr Chillingworth gave the Reverend not medicine, but a form of light poison or an in-digest-ant intended to weaken the poor man to the point of absolute desperation. Thus, his righteous motives led to desperate actions, starting a revengeful cycle from which no good could follow. This combination of dire motives and revengeful