The end of chapter 13 and the beginning of chapter 14 both
reveal one of the biggest reasons the marriage would have never worked well: age. Chillingworth
says:
"Dost thou
remember me, Hester, as I was nine years agone? Even then, I was in the autumn of my days, nor
was it the early autumn."
Yes, some
say love is timeless, but how often really do we see people marry who are 20 years apart. This
separation made it difficult for Hester to ever have found Chillingworth
attractive.
Another reason is perhaps the fact that Chillingworth
was a terrible old devil:
Old Roger Cillingworth was a striking evidence of a 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 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.
Okay, so he wasn't a literal
devil, but the point is that if Chillingworth acted this way never exposing his identity just to
be able to torture Hester, imagine what he would have been like as a true husband. He would have
found reasons to be mad about the simplest things and then played games. No one wants that
relationship.
Another possible reason that their relationship may
have never worked is the fact that Chillingworth was very devoted to his work. He references
himself being quite the scholar and beneficiary of being able to help so many
people.
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