Revenge in Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter Literature Essay Example

Everyone is guilty of yearning for revenge at some point. Whether it was because of betrayal or even as a result of something petty. We all have felt that animosity. Some people take it too far and find themselves caught up in their anger. In The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne skillfully acknowledges the idea that the desire for revenge changes people and can lead to having dark souls and eventually drives them to their death. In order to convey this theory, Hawthrone skillfully utilizes characterization, which thoroughly enriches the reader’s understanding of this idea.

Revenge changes people to become hateful, which will eventually lead to them knocking on death’s door. In The Scarlet Letter, Chillingworth, an antagonist, was plotting revenge against the man that committed adultery with his wife. When he found out the one he was living with was that man, Chillingworth sought out revenge. He tortured Dimmesdale until the day he died. All of that want for hate changed Chillingworth and he became a bitter man, This can be seen when Hawthorne describes,  “he looked doubtfully, fearfully,- even, at times, with horror and the bitterness of hatred,- at the deformed figure of the old physician” (Hawthorne 112). Chillingworth was changed by all the sorrow he felt. He once used to be a calm and eager man but started becoming wicked. At one point, revenge was his only purpose of living. When Dimsdale died, Chillingworth had no purpose of living anymore, Hawthrone describes,” This unhappy man had made the very principle of his life to consist in the pursuit and systematic exercise of revenge;... --- when, in short, there was no more devil’s work on earth for him to do, it only remained for the unhumanized mortal to betake himself…”(Hawthrone 202) This particular passage of the book specifically highlights how Chillingworth only lived his gloomy and dark life just for the misery of Dimmesdale. He revolved his whole world around the idea that he's going to ruin Dimsdale’s life so when the day finally came, he o longer had anything to live for. Thus supporting the theme that revenge drives people to become insane and takes their will to live. 

Hawthorne artfully employs characterization in order to emphasize the idea that only misery and death can be a result of vengeful tendencies. It's not just Chillingworth's soul that changes when he tries to torture Dimmesdale, it's also his appearance. Chillingworth starts looking ugly and  disfigured which can be seen when Hawntone describes, “ at this instant of Roger Chillingworth thrust himself through the crowd, -or perhaps, so dark, disturbed, and evil was his look, he rose up out of some nether region,-- to snatch back his victim from what he sought to do!” (Hawthorne 196) Chillingworth started looking more evil which matched what he felt deep on the inside. His internal suffering started shining through on the outside. Instead of living freely, Chillingworth dedicated his life dispising and ruining Dimsdale which can be inferred when Hawthorne exclaim, “All his strength and energy-- all his vital and intellectual force--seemed to once desert him; insomuch that her positively withered up, shriveled away, and almost vanished from mortal sights, like an uprooted weed that lies wilting in the sun”(Hawthorne 202). The sad lonely man had no one and nothing. He got to the point where all he could do was resent other people for the way they live and torture them. Hawthorne's use of characterization enriches the reader’s ability to recognize that misery and death are the only things that come for revenge because Chillingworth, a man who was once a kind soul changed completely internally and externally all because he wanted vengeance.