Character Analysis
Roger Chillingworth
Roger Chillingworth in Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, a revolutionary man. His views on topics such as medicine are influenced by the natives which whom he lived with. These ideas, which are frowned upon by the Puritan society, begin to control his life. Chillingworth slowly progresses from an old, wise, physician, to a malevolent monster. Physically, he becomes more bent over while at the same time he also becomes more conniving in his thoughts. Chillingworth’s entire purpose for staying in town changes as he learns more about the father of Pearl. Chillingworth becomes contagious in a sense because the more time he spends with Arthur Dimmesdale, the more Dimmesdale begins to start to rot as well. The townspeople agree that Roger Chillingworth is no good, and that he is truly from the devil. Roger Chillingworth certainly changes and differs from the rest of society intellectually, mentally, and physically.
The reader's first image that they have of Chillingworth is with an Indian. Indians were considered savages and the Christians believed them to be from the devil because they connected themselves with nature. Coincidentally, Chillingworth uses many herbal ingredients in his remedies, including the ones which he gives Hester and Pearl when he goes to visit them in prison when he first arrives in town. "My old studies in alchemy, and my sojourn, for above a year past, among a people well versed in kindly properties of simples, have made a better physician of me than many that claim the medical degree," (67), he told Hester. Chillingworth and his medical ideas are certainly different than the typical thoughts of the townspeople. Not only did Chillingworth exemplify a differentiation in his medical beliefs by collecting herbs and ingredients from the earth, but also in his theory of genetics. When Hester and Pearl were brought to Governor Bellingham's place, Chillingworth suggests the theory of genetics as a way to determine the father. "Would it be beyond a philosopher's research to analyze that the child's nature, and, from its make and mold, to give a shrewd guess at the father?" (106), he asked. But this idea was considered ludicrous. "Nay; it would be sinful, in such a question, to follow the clew of profane philosophy," (106), Mr. Wilson replied to this idea. It is a bit ironic how Hawthorne placed the word ' sinful' in the response because it exemplifies completely different worlds of...