Roger Chillingworth In The Scarlet Letter

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In The Scarlet Letter one of the main characters, Roger Chillingworth, is seen to have a deceiving personality and traits that end up in turmoil for several other characters in the novel. In another American gothic novel, Moby Dick, Captain Ahab shows very similar traits just not as direct to other characters. However, both characters are seen to make questionable choices and come out on the other side in the red, if at all.

In the beginning of The Scarlet Letter, Roger Chillingworth is seen as a demure guy and, more importantly, Hester Prynne’s husband. However, once he finds the scarlet “A” burned into Reverend Dimmesdale’s chest and finds out he is the father of Pearl, the perceived devil child, he became increasingly more senile and sought …show more content…
The main person who was neglected of this was Dimmesdale himself. He almost made himself sick and killed himself on his own from the grief he had. If Chillingworth would have stopped and observed the situation fully he might have realized this. He also neglected Hester Prynne’s feelings. Even though technically and legally she was married to Chillingworth, she must of had even the slightest bit of care for Dimmesdale to commit the sin in the first place. All throughout the story she was forced to watch him become worse and worse and was forced to retain the information from anyone else in the community. In a sense, Chillingworth was also inconsiderate of Pearl’s feelings as well. Although she may not of fully understood the situation, Dimmesdale was her father and she would eventually know him. By torturing him not only did Chillingworth take away her biological father, he also took away any chance of his own to be in her life. In Moby Dick Captain Ahab’s inconsideration to others was more fatal. In this story, Ahab’s obsession with Moby Dick became so strong he no longer cared about anything except that one whale, even his crew’s safety. He went to extreme lengths to just fail in the end. He sailed into a gargantuan storm in the night and took the ship into frozen waters and they almost became stuck. The final straw was at the end
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