Monday, August 26, 2013
Roger Chillingworth
In The Scarlet Letter, Roger Chillingworth is described as an antagonist in the story and an evil, malicious person for trying to discover Mr. Dimmesdale's darkest secret, "But with what a wild look of wonder, joy, and horror! With what a vastly rapture, as it were, too mighty to be expressed only by the eye and features, and therefore bursting forth through the ugliness of his figure, and making itself ever riotously manifest.." However, is Chillingworth really a villianous person? During the seventeenth century in Boston, the need for religion an American colony causes the belief of Puritanism to increase amongst society. This in an age where science and religion do not intermix with each other and Puritans do not applaud the use of science. During this time, Chillingworth is belittled in the environment because he practices medicine which is focused on science. Now, Chillingworth is after the man who took on Hester's sin. I believe the physician just wishes to be accepted in society and not considered as an outcast for his choice in career and in order to make that happen, he has to be the hero for the town and uncover who Hester had an affair with. Overall, I do not think the old physician is such a bad guy, he just wants to be a part of a movement because he has always been alone and abused for his special medicines to cure others. What do you guys think?
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I don't understand your line of thinking with this. In regards to Chillingworth wanting to be respected as a physician after years of abuse, he's not actually a physician. He was a scholar, and is pretending to be a physician as part of his disguise. Also, where has it been shown that he is outcast for his "career" as a physician? Maybe I missed something, and you can clear this up for me.
ReplyDeleteWell as Anna said Chillingworth was a scholar and he had to leave or was taken (im not quite sure) to fix Indian affairs and he spent a lit of time there. When he came back he changed his identity from scholar to physician.
ReplyDeleteI just realized who Chillingworth really was lol. Although, I still believe Chillingworth wanted to be the hero for himself to find out who betrayed him by sleeping with his wife and making that man miserable and shameful.
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