The Scarlet Letter, Chillingworth Analysis

754 Words4 Pages
Chillingworth: Cold Name, Cold Soul Throughout the novel "The Scarlet Letter" by Nathaniel Hawthorne, he makes countless use of an extremely wide array of rhetorical devices, each of them enchanting in its own way. One of my consistent personal favorites, however, was his profuse usage of physical appearances of characters, as a type of portal into their soul, a way to reflect their character, and using their individual idiosyncrasies to mirror their outward appearance as well. Every case of this type of depiction was deeply enthralling, but the one I found to be most prominent was that of one Roger Chillingworth. As taking notice of his name would indicate, Chillingworth is a man scarce of common human compassion. Hawthorne describes this man's appalling physical display as one of very few beautiful qualities. His hunched, distorted shoulders mirror the man's twisted, dark soul. As Hawthorne narrates, he spins a tale early on of Chillingworth's marriage to Hester Prynne, the novel's main character, and how difficult of a husband he was. Chillingworth ignored his wife for the majority of their time together, yet expected a double standard, wanting her tow always nourish his damned soul. When he would finally decide to spend the short spurts of time with her that he did, he expected nothing but unconditional affection on her part, while he was to show no emotion whatsoever. After their original split, Chillingworth makes a shocking crash-landing style appearance back into Hester's life, with an abrupt arrival into puritan Boston, completely unbeknownst to anyone else; "When he found the eyes of Hester Prynne fastened on his own, and saw that she appeared to recognize him, he slowly and calmly raised his finger, made a gesture with it in the air, and laid it on his lips." (57) Once making his epic reemergence in Hester's life, he decides to stick around, under

More about The Scarlet Letter, Chillingworth Analysis

Open Document