Roger Chillingsworth

Roger Chillingsworth is actually Hester's husband in disguise. When he sends her to America, while he ties up some loose ends in Europe he is captured by native Americans. He finally arrives in Boston, only to discover Hester being displayed on a scaffold with her illegitamate child. He then decideds to go in disguise, using the name Roger Chillingsworth as his alias. He is a very smart man and uses his abilites to find and destroy Hester's mysterious lover. Throughout the book he is set on revenge and the cause of pain, emotionally and physically.


That old man's revenge has been blacker than my ... sin. He has violated, in cold blood, the sanctity of a human heart. Thou and I, Hester, never did so!" (17.21)

Hester Prynne

Hester Prynne is the leading lady or main character of The Scarlet Letter. Prynne has an affair with a puritan minister while waiting for her husband to arrive in America. When Prynne became pregnant the townspeople knew something was wrong because Prynne had not seen her husband in two years. The people of the town conclude that Prynne has committed adultery. Authority threw Prynne in jail and force her to wear a a red piece of cloth shaped like an “A” pinned to her dress, hence the name “scarlet letter”. Prynne delivers a baby girl named Pearl in jail. Soon after Pearl’s birth, authority parade Prynne in the streets for all to see her transgressions. Prynne goes through public persecution while the father of her baby remains anonymous. In the end, the father goes public and both him and her husband die and Hester and Pearl move to England. Years later Hester returned to Boston. Prynne was a great example of a strong and courageous woman

"'No, my little Pearl!' said her mother. 'Thou must gather thine own sunshine. I have none to give thee!'

Bibliography

Works Cited

Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The Scarlet Letter. New York: Bantam, 1986. Print
Liukkonen, Petri. "Nathaniel Hawthorne." Www.kirjasto.sci.fi. 2008. Web. 05 Apr. 2010. .
"Scarlet Letter Quotes." Docstoc? Documents, Templates, Forms, Ebooks, Papers & Presentations. Docstoc, 2010. Web. 5 Apr. 2010. .
"The Scarlet Letter." Shmoop: Study Guides & Teacher Resources. Shmoop University, Inc., 2010. Web. 05 Apr. 2010. .
"SparkNotes: The Scarlet Letter: Character List." SparkNotes: Today's Most Popular Study Guides. SparkNotes LLC, 2010. Web. 05 Apr. 2010. .
YouTube - Broadcast Yourself. 21 Sept. 2009. Web. 05 Apr. 2010. .
"Zeitgeist." Dictionary.com Unabridged. Random House, Inc. 05 Apr. 2010.

Plot Summary

The book, The Scarlet Letter, is based around the character of Hester Prynne. It takes place in 17th century Boston. Hester's husband Roger Chillingworth goes away for two years. During that time, Hester commits adultery with Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale and gives birth to her daughter, pearls. Pearl is born while Hester is still in prison. When Hester is taken out of jail, she is taken to the town scaffold, where she is publically shamed. Hester is then forced to wear a scarlet "A" on her clothes. Even though Hester is shunned by the town, she is still generous and helps the people of the town.
Chillingworth tells Hester to not tell anyone that he is in town so that he is able to go out and seek revenge on her lover. Dimmesdale feels a lot of guilt and beats himself to punish himself for the sin. Dimmesdale's identity as Pearl's father remains a secret until to the people of the town until the end of the book, where he reveals it to them at the scaffold by ripping off his shirt and a scarlet letter carved into his chest is exposed. After the death of both Dimmesdale and Chillingworth, Hester and Pearl spend several years in England, but finally go back to Boston.

Scaffold Scene in the movie The Scarlet Letter (1979)

Link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-Ka74rfGzw

Literary Elements

Nathaniel Hawthorne's tone in The Scarlet Letter is reflective during the introduction. The custom house surveyor discusses his life and his reasons for deciding to write. The body of the book is somewhat ironic at parts. For example, Pearl is the youngest main character and yet the most wise. Hawthorne's voice encompasses his reflective and ironic tone, plus diction which is typical of the 1850's. His purpose in writing this book is to entertain.
The major conflict of the novel is Hester being forced to wear the scarlet "A" as punishment of her sin. She is initally judged because of the scarlet letter. When Chillingsworth finds out about Hester's unfaithfulness, Dimmesdale becomes the object of his revenge. This leads to more conflict between the protagonist, Hester, and the antagonist, Chillingsworth. Possible moods of the novel are resentful and fearful. I resented Dimmesdale for not being honest about fathering Pearl, but I also feared that Chillingsworth would harm him.

Dimmesdale

Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale is an intelligent man with a strong conscience. After cheating with Hester, he feels enormous guilt concerning his actions. The guilt he feels helps him to create powerful sermons on sin which he preaches to the townspeople. Dimmesdale's congregation sees him as a nearly perfect person, which drives Dimmesdale's feelings of guilt even further. Since he was not punished by society, as Hester was, he punishes himself instead. Dimmesdale uses whips, fasting, and holding vigils as forms of inflicting punishment on himself. After Dimmesdale publicly confesses his sin, Pearl kisses him and he dies.

"Come up hither, Hester, thou and little Pearl...Ye have both been here before, but I was not with you. Come up hither once again, and we will stand all three together!"

Pearl Character Sketch

Pearl is the daughter of Hester Prynne. Her father is Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale. Pearl was born in prison while her mother was there. She is a very high spirited and gregarious person. She is also very intuitive, and can sense things about other people. The scarlet letter that her mother wears, gives her comfort, and does not like when Hester does not wear it. Pearl always supports and loves her mom.

"After testing both smiles and frowns, and proving that neither mode of treatment possessed any calculable influence, Hester was ultimately compelled to stand aside, and permit the child to be swayed by her own impulses. Physical compulsion or restraint was effectual, of course, while it lasted. As to any other kind of discipline, whether addressed to her mind or heart, little Pearl might or might no be within her reach, in accordance with the caprice that ruled the moment."

Scarlet Vocabulary

Antiquarian: Pg. 30, With business pertaining to his office seems to have devoted some of his many leisure hours to researches as a local antiquarian. Definition: dealing in, or interested in old or rare books.
Bestirred: Pg. 34, I bestirred myself to seek that invigorating charm of nature. Definition: rouse to action
Torpid: Pg. 34, The almost torpid creatures of my own fancy twitted me with imbecility. Defenition: inactive or sluggish.
Ignominy: Pg. 153, Abased by sin, and half maddened by they ignominy, that was still new, when they had talked together in the prison-chamber. Definition: shameful or dishonorable quality or conduct or an instance of this.
Lurid: Pg.157, Letting the lurid fire of his heart blaze out before her eyes. Definition: gruesome; horrible; revolting
Propinquity: Pg. 157, But it was the constant shadow of my presence! - the closest propinquity of the man whom he had most vilely wronged! Definition: nearness in place; proximity.
Animadversion: Pg. 213, It excited neither surprise nor animadversion when so reputable a citizen as old Roger Chillingsworth. Definition: an unfavorable or censorious comment
Clarion: Pg. 215, Yet attaining the great object for which the harmony of the drum and clarion addresses itself to the multitude. Definition: an ancient trumpet with a curved shape
Apotheosized: Pg. 228, So etherealized by spirit as he was, and so apotheosized by worshipping admirers. Definition: to deify; glorify.
Nugatory: Pg. 235, By yielding up his breath in the arms of that fallen women to express to the world how utterly nugatory is the choicest of man’s own righteousness. Definition: of no real value; trifling; worthless.

Historical Context

Published in 1850, the story of the scarlet letter was one that spanned two hundred years. The story is told to the reader from the perspecive of an anonymous customs surveyor in the 19th century. This customs surveyor came across the story by finding a manuscript that a previous customs surveryor, Jonathon Pue, had written. The reader is told that the actual events, however, had occurred in the 1600’s, a century earlier than Pue had written the manuscript.
Although the early Puritan settlers, which the book is focused on, came to America to escape religious persecution, they were somewhat discriminatory in nature themselves. They believed religion should play a large part in their government, as seen by Hester’s imprisonment because of her adultry. Puritans valued education, prayer, and reading the Bible. These people were called Puritans because they wished to purify the Church of England.

Theme: Punishment

In The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, one of the major themes is punishment. Throughout the book Hester Prynne is punished for having commited adultery, which she did. She is ostracized by everyone around her for having given birth to an illegitimate child with her illicit lover, Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale, and forced to wear a scarlet letter “A” on her chest. Dimmesdale’s identity as Hester’s lover is kept a secret by Hester so that he will not have to go through the same things she did. He, however, feels guilt inside. He punishes himself by secretly practicing self-flagellation (beating himself). He believes that it is better to punish himself than to be punished by the people around him. These two characters, Hester Prynne and Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale, are both punished in the book, but by different ways. Hester’s punishment is public, and seen by everyone, while Dimmesdale’s is more of an internal punishment since he is punishing himself because of the guilt he feels, which makes one of the main themes of the book punishment.

A modern day "Scarlet Letter"

Recent media exposure has taken Tiger Woods’ flawless life and shown the true Woods. Early this year a lady came out saying she had an affair with Tiger Woods. Soon women from all over started saying the same and claimed to be Woods’ mistresses. Due to the media Woods has become a modern day Hester Prynne from The Scarlet Letter. Woods has been publically ostracized for his behavior just as Prynne was in the book. A mistake like adultery is a private matter that tears families apart; the public does not to need to know about it. Woods does not literally have to wear a “scarlet letter”, but he might as well. Every where Woods goes he is publically humiliated and it is not easy on the family either. I guess Woods is just our generations’ Hester Prynne.

About The Author

Nathaniel Hawthorne
1804-1865

Hawthorne was born in Salem, Massachusetts. Hawthorne’s father was a sea captain and a descendant of one of the judges from the Salem Witchcraft Trials. Nathaniel’s father died when Nathaniel was only four years old. His mother lived a very secluded lifestyle. The Hawthorne family moved from Salem to Maine, where Nathaniel attended Bowdoin College. From 1825-1836 Hawthorne was a writer and contributor to periodicals. The first book that Hawthorne wrote he burned after the book was turned down by a publishing company.
In 1842 Hawthorne married Sophia Peabody. Hawthorne and his wife started a family together in Concord but after building up a surmountable amount of debt they moved back to Salem. In 1846, Hawthorne decided to get another job because writing was not helping support his family. He was appointed surveyor of the Port of Salem. Hawthorne kept that job for three years until he was fired. Hawthorne went back to his writing. Hawthorne was truly the first American author to use allegory. Through his life, Hawthorne was friend with some of the best American authors. Hawthorne, like his good friend Edger Allan Poe, wrote of a dark view of human nature.


"Not to be deficient in this particular, the author has provided himself with a moral - the truth, namely, that the wrongdoing of one generation lives into the successive ones." (from The House of the Seven Gables)