hearing this Dimmesdale felt uneasy and changed the subject. This act caused Chillingworth to become suspicious. A few days later, Chillingworth found Dimmesdale asleep in a chair. Chillingworth silently moved in on Dimmesdale. Once Chillingworth had reached Dimmesdale’s body, he swiftly removed Dimmesdale’s church robe and saw the scarlet letter on the chest before him, which ended Chillingworth’s search for the father of Pearl. Now that Chillingworth knew Hester and Dimmesdale’s secret, his change to evil was complete. Chillingworth had gone from a caring individual to a devil. Chillingworth acknowledges this; he says in a conversation with Hester, “Dost thou remember me? Was I not, though you might deem me cold, nevertheless a man thoughtful for others, craving little for himself, kind, true, just, and of constant, if not warm affections?….And what I am now?….I have already told thee what I am! A fiend! Who made me so?” (169) Chillingworth believes Dimmesdale made him into a “fiend”(169). To Chillingworth, Dimmesdale was weak and deserved what was coming to him. Hawthorne talks about Chillingworth’s death with no emotion, even though Chillingworth played a large role in the death of Dimmesdale. Chillingworth tortured Dimmesdale to his death. Chillingworth proclaimed, “Hadst thou sought the whole earth over there was no one place so secret--no high place nor lowly place where thou couldst have escaped me--save on this very scaffold!”(248-249) Dimmesdale was finally out of captivity. In addition, Dimmesdale asks God to forgive Chillingworth of his sin. Chillingworth could no longer bother Dimmesdale. In the last chapter of the book, Hawthorne tells of how Robert Chillingworth withered up and shriveled away. Hawthorne acquaints that the physician’s fate was the most horrible of the three because his sin was the darkest. In the beginning of The Scarlet Le...
