The Dagger Through the Heart

Posted on November 30, 2021 by 23theodosn

Confucious, a Chinese philosopher, once said, “before you embark on a journey of revenge, dig two graves.” This quote directly refers to Chillingworth in the book The Scarlet Letter by Nathanial Hawthorne because he was setting out revenge on Dimmesdale for committing adultery with his wife, Hester Prynne and it consumed Chillingworth’s life and ultimately ruined it along with Dimmesdale. It also ruined Dimmesdale’s life because he was constantly reminded of it because of Chillingworth. Chillingworth went on to find out when he saw his scarlet letter on his chest by seeing it while Dimmesdale was sleeping on the couch. Chillingworth chose to torture Dimmsdale and Hester when he could of simply revealed he was her huband because it would be easier to find out who Hester’s parter was if his true identity was revealed, he wanted to make Dimmsdale as guilty as possible, and ​​he does not want to encounter the disgraces of the husband of a faithless woman. 

If  Chillingwroth revealed he was Hester’s husband, it would have made his mission of revenge on finding out Hester’s partner. He lied about his identity from early on and according to the narrator, “… he chose instead to bury his old identity…” (Hawthorne 55). He says this very early in the story and he did it for a reason. He couldn’t forfeit his mission because it was way too important to him, since Hester was his “wife” but in reality, he really wasn’t.  They made one other promise that they didn’t want to reveal each other’s identity early on in the book when she needed medical assistance while in her prison cell. Chillingwoth couldn;t have cared less about what was being done to Hester, but he only cared about finding out who her partner and father of Hester’s child was. All Chillingworth wanted was justice for himself, which only ended up doing more hurt to himself and other people like Hester and especially Dimmsdale. Justice implies, to some people, that they will do whatever it takes to get justice for either themselves or other people, just like Chillingworth did, but it was for himself. He completely ruined Dimmsdale, especially mentally. 

Inside Boston's Looming Mental Health Crisis

Chillingworth made Dimmdale feel extremely guilty everyday and completely tore him apart mentaly and to some degree, physically. He was so sick and the townspeople thought he just going to die because of how he walked and carried himself as said by the narrator as, “While thus suffering under bodily disease, and gnawed and tortured by some black trouble of the soul, and given over to the machinations of his deadliest enemy, the Reverend Mr. Dimmesdale had achieved ”(Hawthorne 72). Dimmsdale obviously made himself feel like this, but Chillingworth gave him the constant reminder of the secret he was keeping. Chillingworth would just make it worse like when he would keep questioning what his deepest secret was and that if he told him, it would cure him. Dimmsdale never budged, but it made him feel that much more guilty about it to the point that it almost killed him. It didn’t almost kill Dimmesdale because it absolutely consumed Chillingworth’s life and became his obsession. Chillingworth’s obsession had to be kept a secret because he didn’t want anyone knowing his true identity as he was ashamed. 

Chillingworth would have encountered many disgraces to being Hester Prynne’s husband as humiliation, no life, and constant recognition of it. Back then, the Puritans would give very bad punishments to sinners, like the humiliation and giving the scarlet letter to Hester. Most likely, as it is not directly said in the book, Chillingworth would have been ridiculed extremely inadequate for being married to a wife who cheated on him. Chillingworth didn’t want to deal with all the shame that came with it. He and Hester promised not to reveal his identity and that they were married because she was afraid he would harm her baby, which petrified her when she said, “ ‘I will keep thy secret as I have this,’ said Hester. ‘Swear it! Rejoined he. And now she took the oath ”(Hawthorne 49).  She was already scared out of her mind about her public humiliation, and Chillingworth being there made it way worse for her. She fell out of love for him a long time ago and didn’t want anything to do with him anymore, but she had to promise out of fear. She thought of Chillingworth as evil and thought he would do anything to her to affect her, including hurting her baby. He also saved himself because no one could know that they were married because he was pretty selfish throughout the whole book. 

Justice is defined as, according to Collins Dictionary as, “the fairness in the way that people are treated.” That is Chillingworth’s mission to get justice by finding out who Hester’s partner was. That is all he ever focused on in this book and it completely devoured his life. Certain actions can turn a person evil, especially when it comes to justice. Evil existed in Chillingworth as soon as found out about Hester’s sin. Chillingworth was so embarrassed of her sin, so obsessed with Dimmesdale, and embarrassed with himself by being Hester Prynne’s husband. Even though he was obsessed with what happened, you can’t blame him for wanting revenge, but revenge ruins the person you want revenge for and it also ruins you, as we saw in Chillingworth. When Dimmesdale confessed, then died, Chillingworth felt like he had no purpose and felt empty. When something is all you care about for seven years years and it goes away, you have nothing just like Chillingworth. Revenge is a two way street.

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527 Responses to The Dagger Through the Heart

  1. 23theodosn says:
    December 2, 2021 at 9:17 pm

    One thing that I did that was well was how the paper is structured and makes sense as you read. One thing that could be better is a better choice of wording. If I were to right it again, I would use more interesting words.

  2. 23paderewskij says:
    May 19, 2022 at 7:13 pm

    I really like the paragraph about the punishment of sins.

  3. 23beauchesnel says:
    May 20, 2022 at 2:53 pm

    I like how you use the definition of justice and connect it in your last paragraph.

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