The Scarlet Letter

In The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne Roger Chillingworth is a man who changes greatly throughout this novel. In the beginning of the novel Hawthorne tells the reader that Chillingworth sends his wife to America, to the Puritan colony of Massachusetts, with instructions to live quietly until he arrives. Due to "grievous mishaps by sea and land," and over a year's captivity by Indians, his intended arrival was delayed. He finally arrives to discover his …

…a man capable of love, into a devil who is capable only of revenge. He commits two sins in the story; the result of his first sin leads to the second: Marrying a spouse with a great disproportion in age causes his wife to suffer; her suffering results in adultery; her adultery causes Chillingworth to suffer, and during this suffering he transforms into a devil; and he then violates the saintliness of a human heart.