The Sin of Chillingworth: Out of Good Comes Bad
The Sin of Chillingworth: Out of Good Comes Bad In the Columbine shootings last April, kids brought weapons to school, and killed many innocent lives. These kids destroyed lives because of revenge. Getting back at others was all that mattered to them. In Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, sin and revenge are main ideas. Chillingworth's character is similer to those of the kids at Columbine who killed others, because Chillingworth was also seeking revenge. "Chillingworth"is a pseudonym, which is assumed by Hester Prynne's aged scholar-husband, who in return of this sin of adultery against him, seeks revenge against the minister, or Dimmesdale. The greatest sinner of The Scarlet Letter is Roger Chillingworth. Hester sins when she commits adultery against her husband, Chillingworth. After having sent Hester ahead of him to Boston, Roger Chillingworth suffered captivity by Indians in his attempt to join her. Two years later, he arrives in Boston only to see his wife standing on the scaffold of shame holding in her hands a baby that was not his. "You must needs be a stranger in this region, friend," said the townsman, "
"Calm, gentle, passionless, as he appeared, there was yet, we fear, a quiet depth of malice, hitherto latent, but active now, in this unfortunate old man"(128). Chillingworth has taken their place by seeking vengeance against the Reverend. He has violated the sanctity of a human heart. This means that because he does not belong to the town, Chillingworth doesn't know what Hester has done, so his first day back is surprising when he finds out his wife has committed adultery against him. We never did so!"(179) Dimmesdale and Hester are no longer the worst sinners. In the beginning of this novel, Chillingworth was a caring, concerned man, and, near the middle, he transforms into an evil fiend that dies shortly after the death of Dimmesdale. Also, since someone has done something wrong to them, they turn it around and they do something worse back to the person. Chillingworth must assume the responsibility for having destroyed himself. "This sad man had made the very principle of his life to consist in the pursuit of revenge; the evil principle was left with no further material to support it, when there was no more Devil's work for him to do"(236). On the other hand, Chillingworth is guilty the first time by marrying Hester, even when he knew that she did not love him and he was not the kind of man to make her a proper husband. Chillingworth sacrifices his faith to satisfy his own selfish interests. He watches as Dimmesdale climbs the scaffold, declaring that with God's will, he will escape the power of the physician. Just like Chillingworth, the kids of Columbine became evil after seeking revenge. else you would surely have heard of Mistress Hester Prynne, and her evil doings"(57).
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