seems not to really
feel any guilt for pursuing the soul of his wife's one-time lover and the father of her child,
the Reverend Mr. . He feels that he is perfectly justified in punishing the man who has wronged
bothand himself. However, the more Chillingworth focuses on his plot for revenge, the more his
outer appearance begins to change, indicating the degeneration of his inner self as well. Of
Chillingworth, the narrator says that
At first, his
expression had been calm, meditative, scholar-like. Now, there was something ugly and evil in
his face, which they had not previously noticed, and which grew still the more obvious to sight,
the oftener they looked upon him. According to the vulgar idea, the fire in his laboratory had
been brought from the lower regions, and was fed with infernal fuel; and so, as might be
expected, his visage was getting sooty with the smoke.
In
other words, the people in town begin to associate Chillingworth with hell, some even believing
that he is the Devil himselfor at least an emissary of the Deviland they fear that their
minister is being haunted and hunted by him.
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