Chillingworth has devoted his life to seeking revenge
against Arthur Dimmesdale. In doing so, he has become as evil as his desire to harm
another.
In
a word, old Roger Chillingworth was a striking evidence of man's faculty of transforming
himself into a devil, if he will only, for a reasonable space of time, undertake a
devil's office. This unhappy person had effected such a transformation by devoting
himself, for seven years, to the constant analysis of a heart full of torture, and
deriving his enjoyment thence, and adding fuel to those fiery tortures which he analyzed
and gloated
over.
Chillingworth is
obsessed with the idea of Dimmesdale's suffering; his life is devoted to it. There is
nothing about which he is more passionate; he is excited and invigorated by the though
of Dimmesdale enduring the torture inflicted upon him. Chillingworth has even become so
transformed by his devotion to revenge that, upon reflection on the person he has
become, he refers to himself as "A fiend!" He is no longer
the
earnest,
studious, thoughtful, quiet...thoughtful for others, craving little for himself--kind,
true, just and of constant if not warm
affection
man he once
was.
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