Character Analysis of Roger Chillingworth In The Scarlet Letter
Secrets In The Scarlet
Liars, hypocrites, frauds, cheaters, adulterers, imposters, sinners, and gossipers, no one would ever suspect these types of people live in the perfect Puritan town of Boston. At first glance Boston seems as if it’s a city set on a hill because everyone is so righteous and religious. It seems like everyone in the town is perfect besides Hester. She is criticized and looked down on because she has a scarlet letter “A” on her chest. Even though Hester is the only one with a visible scarlet letter, many other hypocritical citizens deserve scarlet letters on their chests for something or another. For example, Roger Chillingworth should have worn a letter “K” on his chest for kleptomaniac because he is constantly trying to steal Reverend Dimmesdale’s life away. He is so obsessed with ruining his life it seems like he has a mental disorder.
The first signs of Roger’s kleptomaniac behavior were first recognized when some citizens noticed something ugly and evil taking over his face. Roger is constantly with Reverend Dimmesdale wherever he goes; its like they are attached at the hip. First he tries to become friends with the Reverend and then he begins to pry into him like a bloodthirsty leech. Rogers pesters him all the time with questions about guilt and confession that eat away at Dimmesdale. Hawthorne says, for example, he digs into the poor clergyman’s heart, “like a miner searching for gold; or, rather, like a sexton delving into a grave”(Hawthorne 117). He is constantly trying to convince to Dimmesdale to confess and would dig to a dead man’s grave to find any information about him. Roger’s digging evolves into a “fierce and terrible fascination” as he becomes more and more obsessed with exposing his secret; it eventually takes over his life as well as the Reverend’s(117). The fact that Roger would go to such extremes to destroy Reverend Dimmesdale proves he is a true Kleptomaniac.
Roger’s Kleptomaniac tendencies are seen again when he was snooping around Dimmesdale’s reading area. The Reverend had fallen asleep reading when Roger came in and immediately laid his had on his bosom and thrust aside his robe. Roger turned around with a “wild look of wonder, joy, and horror”(Hawthorne 126). He was so overjoyed with what he found he jumped up and down with satanic joy, “throwing his arms toward the ceiling, and stamped his foot upon...