Sunday, February 8, 2015

Entry three: chapters 11-17 characterization

                                                              Rodger Chillingworth 

         "I will not encounter the dishonor that besmirches the husband of a faithless woman. It may be for other reasons. Enough, it is my purpose to live and die unknown. Let, therefore, thy husband be to the world as one already dead, and of whom no tidings shall ever come. Recognize me not, by word, by sign, by look! Breathe not the secret, above all, to the man thou wottest of. Shouldst thou fail me in this, beware! His fame, his position, his life, will be in my hands. Beware!”    ( 53 ,Nathaniel Hawthorne). 
         At first all Chillingworth wanted to do was find out who the man was that Hester had an affair with so he could share the blame with her. He also wanted to save face and keep his identity a secret. He wanted to avenge Hester, he wanted to find out who this man was that had does this sin with her. He wanted to know his name, his job, everything about him.


"It mattered little, for his object, whether celestial, or from what other region. By its aid, in all the subsequent relations betwixt him and Mr. Dimmesdale, not merely the external presence, but the very inmost soul of the latter seemed to be brought out before his eyes, so that he could see and comprehend its every movement. He became, thenceforth, not a spectator only, but a chief actor, in the poor minister’s interior world. He could play upon him as he chose. Would he arouse him with a throb of agony?" ( 96, Nathaniel Hawthorne). 
       Chillingworth becomes more sinister is his revenge. He is using the minister, he suspects that the minister is the man that had an affair with Hester and he is extremeley upset. He manipulates the mnister, he is causing the minister agony by playing mind games with his. Chillingworth is becoming more evil. 


"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" ( 116, Nathaniel Hawthorne).


              Chillingworth is so caught up in getting revenge that he is turning himself into the devil. He no longer looks like a scholor, but like the devil. He is turning into the epitome of evil. He spet seven years only trying to get revenge on the man the had an affair with Hester. Not only is his mind full of evil, he now looks like he is evil on the outside. 

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