Scarlet Letter Roger Chillingworth
In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, sin is a widely used element. Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale both commit a great sin, but it was from this sin which sprung Roger Chillingworth’s own, and much more hostile and deadly sin. Upon reaching America, Roger Chillingworth, at first, seems to be a man capable of doing no wrong, but because of the offences against him, Roger becomes a man capable of committing the worst sin in the novel. The first, and less severe, sin committed by Roger was perpetrated back in England, but is not revealed until later in the story. When Roger tells Hester that “[his] was the first wrong, when [he] betrayed [Hester] into a false and unnatural relation with [his] decay” (69).