P5+SStratton

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In Nathaniel Hawthornes well-known novel, The Scarlet Letter, characters going through a cycle of transgression shame, repentance, and acceptance, help portray the nations national identity in the area of science. Writing the book just after the Enlightenment, Hawthorne uses his characters to describe the science of the time period and to depict the cycle of a sinner. Hester Pyrnne commits adultery with the popular Reverend Dimmesdale, who then becomes the main focus during Roger Chillingworths path of revenge.

The Enlightenment, or an “intellectual movement” was introduced as “the new thing” as Hawthorne began to write his book. People of the Enlightenment believed that human reason was the answer to problems in religion, government, politics, and science. The Enlightenment opened the world up to new ideas and gave many people different perspectives on life; it was introduced with the intent of having a better world where society dominated and was allowed separate, individual beliefs. Science during Hawthorne’s time was all about new discoveries and the benefit to humanity. The Enlightenment allowed new, different research to be made by independent thinkers who were in charge of their own ideas.

In the book, the main scientific character, Roger Chillingworth carves a path for himself, one made entirely of evil thoughts and wishes of revenge. Roger Chillingworth made his first mistake when he married Hester Pyrnne, for he knew they would never last together. He then committed his first sin when he vowed to himself to taking out all his anger and getting revenge on Reverend Dimmesdale, who Hester had an affair with. Instead of informing Dimmesdale of his knowledge, he kept up a sick little game, torturing Dimmesdale to no end. “He now dug into the poor clergyman’s heart, like a miner searching for gold; or, rather, like a sexton, delving into a grave…” (page 117). Roger was putting more and more misery into the life of Dimmesdale; he liked to watch him suffer. Roger Chillingworth suffered from very little shame, for he never saw his revenge as something wrong, and he didn’t see the need to stop. “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.” (page 126). Chillingworth is like the Devil, stealing someone’s soul and feeling no guilt from it. After Dimmesdale dies from a guilt overdose, Chillingworth finds that there is nothing more to live for, “All his strength and energy—all his vital and intellectual force—seemed at once to desert him…almost vanished from mortal sight…”(page 232), and he realized that he should have been giving good to the society. With that recognition, he gave everything to Pearl, the daughter Hester had because of the affair. Chillingworth, accepting his sin and wrong-doings, just closed himself off from the world, and he vanished from society.

During Hawthorne’s time, science was viewed as something that benefits society and I for the better of everyone. But in his novel, the scientific character focused more on the good of himself. Roger Chillingworth was supposed to be the “Enlightenment man”, but instead ended up being a greedy, evil man. He continuously tried to heal Dimmesdale, physicals, just so he could continue torturing him and make him sicker, mentally. Chillingworth focused on himself in the story; he got revenge on Dimmesdale to make himself feel better. While science was supposed to be profiteering and about the good of humanity, Roger Chillingworth focused his science on the destruction of society and how he would benefit himself. “This unhappy man had made the very principle of his life to consist in the pursuit and systematic exercise of revenge…” (Page 232)

Hawthorne was writing during a time of profiteering and the coming about of new thoughts and discoveries, but in his boo, he wrote about the flaws in society and the destruction taken by scientific sources on important figured of society. The cycle of Roger Chillingworth shows his focus on revenge and the desire to ruin a life for his own personal reasons; when his main focus if gone, he too loses himself and vanishes into thin air, no longer able to profit or help society.