Jarrod Cook

Block 1

The Scarlet Letter Character Sketch

Mrs. Rifenberick

September 27, 2002

Roger Chillingworth is a secretive man who attempts to root out the accomplice in Hester’s crime. He is a man of mystery and his interior motives are deeply hidden from the rest of the puritan society. He devotes his whole life to finding the man who his wife cheated on him with. He gives in to sin and evil and his crime becomes worse than Hester’s and Reverend Dimmesdale’s. The story of his journey starts out with him being a good respected person but after his wife cheats on him he loses it and forgets about the rest of his life except about the man who has committed this sin against him and his wife.

Roger Chillingworth was a well-respected man and physician who was growing old. His original name was not Roger Chillingworth it was changed to keep himself from the humiliation that would be caused by his wife’s sin. He married Hester Prynne, who had been a lot younger than him, and then he left for a long time. While he was away with the Indians his wife gave into temptation and cheated on him. Roger returned to the town to find himself watching his wife standing on the scaffold, baby in arms, facing punishment. Later that day he visited the jail cell to administer medicine to Hester and her child. At that time he renounced all claims to Hester and said that from this day forward he would be known as Roger Chillingworth. He also vowed, “I shall seek this man as I have sought truth in books, as I have sought gold in alchemy.”(70)

Reverend Dimmesdale falling into a great sickness was urged to accept medical attention from the new physician in town, Roger Chillingworth. He replied, “I need no medicine,”(115) but soon turned to the physician for help. The reverend did not know of Chillingworth’s interior motives and of the trap he was falling into. The leech became the constant companion of Reverend Dimmesdale and dug deep into the heart of the minister. Roger now forgot all else in his life and had given into a sin even greater and deeper than that of the Reverend’s and Hester’s. The physician was keeping the reverend alive but not for a good reason for he devoted his life to digging into the ministers heart and draining the life out of him.

Hester had met one time in the forest with the doctor attempting to stop him from harming the minister. Chillingworth replied, “What evil have I done the man?” “That he now breathes, and creeps about on the earth, is owing all to me!”(164) The reverend soon died directly after he had revealed to the town the sin he had committed with Hester. Soon after the death of the reverend Roger himself also faded away and died. After the death of the minister there was no longer a purpose for Roger Chillingworth’s search and therefore no need for the doctor himself. It was as though he had been infested with a demon taking over his body and utilizing it to dig out the reverend’s secret. After this feat had been accomplished the demon no longer needed Chillingworth’s body and he died. Roger Chillingworth did not leave much of a legacy behind him; his entire fortune was left to Pearl, the daughter of Hester.

Roger Chillingworth was a good, honest, well-respected man who, after his wife’s sin was revealed to him, became evil, despicable and conniving. He opened his heart to sin and devoted his life to evil, and finding the person who had been his wife’s accomplice in sin. He made this evil the only purpose in his life and after this was accomplished he was no longer required and soon died.