, 's
husband, is the chief villain who orchestrates the largest amount of trouble for the main :
Hester and .
Chillingworth arrives in Boston after a long absence (he was
gone so long that Hester thought he was killed by Indians) the day Hester is sentenced to wear
the scarlet letter as punishment for the crime of adultery. He decides not to reveal his
identity as her spouse, as he doesn't want to be involved in her shame. However, this does not
keep him from secretly plotting revenge.
Chillingworth's deformed nature (or
soul) is reflected in his deformed body: he is a hunchback. Almost as soon as he sees Hester, he
is likened to a snake, a symbol of Satanic evil, for we learn that a "writhing
horror...like a snake gliding swiftly" twisted his features.
Seeing
Dimmesdale's illness and suspecting it has to do with an uneasy conscience, Chillingworth
intuits that Dimmesdale may be the man who slept with his wife. Under the guise of helping him,
Chillingworth gets very close to Dimmesdale, and the two end up living together. The townspeople
note Chillingsworth's transformation to evil:
Roger
Chillingworth's aspect had undergone a remarkable change while he had dwelt in town, and
especially since his abode with Mr. Dimmesdale. At first, his expression had been calm,
meditative, scholar-like. Now, there was something ugly and evil in his face.
The townspeople come to understand Chillingworth as a Satanic
figure sent to test and torment the faithful Dimmesdale, and they are not wrong in this
assessment.
When Chillingworth creeps up on the sleeping Dimmesdale and sees
the scarlet letter that has either erupted or been tattooed by Dimmesdale on his chest,
Chillingworth realizes he has his man and decides to psychologically torture his victim to the
utmost:
In a word, old Roger Chillingworth was a striking
evidence of man's faculty of transforming himself into a devil, if he will only, for a
reasonable space of time, undertake a devil's office. This unhappy person had effected such a
transformation, by devoting himself, for seven years, to the constant analysis of a heart full
of torture, and deriving his enjoyment thence, and adding fuel to those fiery tortures which he
analyzed and gloated over.
When Hester realizes that
Chillingworth is keeping Dimmesdale alive to torment him and feed his guilt, she breaks her
promise to keep Chillingsworth's relationship to her a secret and tells Dimmesdale he is her
spouse. Dimmesdale and Hester plan to run off together, but even that plan is thwarted by
Chillingworth, who realizes what is going on and plans to go with them: they know they will
never be free of him.
Chillingworth is the character who is identified by the
narrator as evil; he makes life the most difficult for Hester and Dimmesdale. Dimmesdale is able
to vanquish him at the end by publicly confessing his adultery, but not until after
Chillingworth has tormented him for seven years.
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