Data Bases • Custom Term Papers • Free Term Papers • Free Research Papers • Free Essays • Free Book Reports • Plagiarism? Links • Top 100 Term Paper Sites • Top 25 Essay Sites • Top 50 Essay Sites • Search 97,000 Papers @ DirectEssays.com • Search 101,000 Papers @ ExampleEssays.com • Search 90,000 Papers @ MegaEssays.com Free Essays • Term Paper Sites • Chuck III's Free Essays • Free College Essays • TermPaperSites.com • Free Essays • My Term Papers • Essay World • Planet Papers	Search Lots of Essays Back to Subjects - English the Scarlet LetterThe weed that becomes uprooted the Scarlet LetterThe weed that becomes uprooted In The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Roger Chillingworth leeches on Arthur Dimmesdale in order to get retribution on him. He wants revenge on Dimmesdale because Dimmesdale and Hester, Roger's wife, had a child together. As he sucked the life out of Dimmesdale, Roger's physical characteristics are transformed to resemble a devil. Roger can also be compared to a weed because a weed is something annoying that lives off of other plants. Once Dimmesdale dies, Roger begins to wilt and die too because there is nothing left for him to nourish him. Roger chose Reverend Dimmesdale for his spiritual guide. Around this same time, Dimmesdale began to look pale. The townspeople thought it was because he was so devoted to his work. The reason why he began to look so sickly was because Roger had started to prey on Dimmesdale. After a short time Chillingworth and Dimmesdale began to live together. The townspeople observed about Roger, " Now, there was something ugly and evil in his face, which they had not previously noticed...."(117). The more time Roger spends with Dimmesdale the more pernicious he looks. Roger is preying on the evils that are inside Dimmesdale for committing a sin. In turn, Dimmesdale is getting sicker and sicker as he suffers from what he did. "He now dug into the poor clergyman's heart, like a miner searching for gold; or, rather, like a sexton delving into a grave, possibly in quest of a jewel that had been buried on the dead man's bosom, but likely to find nothing save mortality and corruption"(118-119). Roger began to investigate every facet of Dimmesdale's life. He is searching for evidence that Dimmesdale has committed a sin. Roger has dug into Dimmesdale's soul and found corruption inside. Roger is part of every aspect of the Reverend's life because Roger can not live without feeding the evil into him. Hester could tell " With her knowledge of a train of circumstances hidden from all others, she could readily infer that, besides the legitimate action of his own conscience, a terrible machinery had been brought to bear, and was still operating, on Mr. Dimmesdale's well being and repose.(146)" Hester realizes that Roger is no longer torturing Dimmesdale for retribution. Dimmesdale is now Roger's fascination. Roger "was still operating on Mr. Dimmesdale", which means he was still eating away at him. Nothing could stop Roger from sucking out Dimmesdale's life. If Roger stopped feeding off him, he would die. The more Roger takes out of Dimmesdale the uglier Roger begins to look and the sicker Dimmesdale becomes. Dimmesdale begins to look very pale and he always has his hand over his heart. Roger sucks the life out of Dimmesdale for revenge. Exacting retribution on a person can be healthy to a certain point. When it goes beyond that point and becomes a fixation, it is unhealthy; Roger is at the point of obsession. His whole body frame changes and he begins to look like Satan. "But with what a wild look of wonder, joy, and horror! With what a ghastly rapture, as it were, too mighty to be expressed only by the eye and features, and therefore bursting forth through the whole ugliness of his figure, and making itself even riotously manifest by the extravagant gestures with which he threw up his arms towards the ceiling, and stamped his foot upon the floor! Had a man seen old Roger Chillingworth at that moment of his ecstasy, he would have had no need to ask how Satan comports himself when a precious human soul is lost to heaven, and won into his kingdom.(127)" Roger finds a mark on Dimmesdale's chest proving he is Pearl's father. This was the one major fact that Roger had been looking for in his fascination with Reverend Dimmesdale. Roger gets very excited with this new irrefutable proof and his whole body forms like that of a devil. This mark is the most pernicious thing about Reverend Dimmesdale because it is the most obvious sign of his sin. Roger takes that evilness and uses it to transform himself into a fiend. Roger also takes the perverse ideas he sucked out of Dimmesdale to change him into a devil. This is another example of how Roger is incredibly obsessed with Dimmesdale's life. "-he knew that no friendly hand was pulling his heart strings, and that an eye was looking curiously into him which sought only evil, and found it. But he knew not that the eye and hand were mine! With the superstition common to his brotherhood, he fancied himself given over to a fiend, to be tortured with frightful dreams, and desperate thoughts, the sting of remorse and despair of pardon; as a foretaste of what awaits him at the grave. But in the constant shadow of my presence.(157)" This is another example of Roger's parasitic relationship with Dimmesdale. The author's words, "-he knew that no friendly hand was pulling is heart strings" manifests that Roger was inside of Dimmesdale where it was easier to suck the life out of him. His eye, which only sought evil, shows that Roger wanted revenge which turned into an obsession. The phrase, "in the constant shadow of my presence", proves Roger was always following Dimmesdale and that there was no hope for Reverend. " Nothing was more remarkable than the change which took place, almost immediately after Mr.Dimmesdale's death, in the appearance and demeanor of the old man known as Roger Chillingworth. All his strength and energy- all his vital and intellectual force- seemed at once to desert him; insomuch that he positively withered up, shriveled away, and almost vanished from mortal sight, like an uprooted weed that lies wilting in the sun.(236)" A parasite is seen as something disgusting and ugly, so when Roger leeches on Dimmesdale his figure changes into a fiend. Once Dimmesdale dies, Roger is no longer provided with the food he needs to survive. He is like an uprooted weed because an uprooted weed has no food source to maintain life and dies in a short period of time. Bibliography: Word Count: 1020
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