scarlet letter essay :: essays research papers

What is the cuase for an extreme obsession? Why is it that occasionally, someone will become so obsessed with an object lens or idea that it corrupts their personality? In the novel The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne illustrates a character by the name of Chillingworth who shares in that same type of obsession. After his wife, hester, has an single-valued function with a minister, Aurther Dimmesdale, he poledges to have vengeance . despite his wifes unwillingness to rreveal her partner, He Chillingworths corruptive obsession is also the cause for the metamorphose in his physical coming into court. Throughout the novel Chillingworths physical appearance fluctuates dramatically. At the beginning of the novel he is portrayed as a lovely man and the reader often felt sympathy for him due to his wifes affair. As time progresses, Hawthorne shows a remarkable change in his appearance due to the overwhelming time and energy in conducting the ultimate devise to bring evil upon Dimme sdale. At this point, Chillingworths obsession has surpassed the norm. His constant thoughts of revenge raise the evil into his heart to a point where it consumes and alters his personality. He is no longer the man who was very religious and innocent. He now is corrupt and has nothing else on his mind other that to spread evil. His face grows uglier by the day as his fixation engulfs him, how much uglier they were,-how his dark complexion seemed to have grown duskier , and his figure much misshapen. (Hawthorne77). Chillingworths face has changed due to the evil that has now grown inside him. He has held these feelings too long and it is now beginning to alter his appearance. He blames Dimmesdale for what he has now become because the once handsome and loving man he once was is now corrupted by the power or evil that fills his head. Chillingworths change in appearance was from the source of wickedness that had buried itself into his soul. When his life hangs only by this obsession, his fate is suspended by the man whom he feels it towards.Chillingworths ultimate plans for revenge are ruined when Dimmesdale finally confesses the sin which he kept mystery for so many years. Chilligworth wants nothing less than for Dimmesdale to suffer with his secret until he dies. The only way that Dimmesdale could have escaped out of the unbreakable grip of Chillingworths claws was through the scaffold.