Sorry everyone. I meant to have this up yesterday, but there were some technical difficulties with the blog site. So--without further delay. . . )
What are your impressions of Roger Chillingworth (aka Mr. Prynne, Hester's husband) and his decision not to reveal himself to the citizens of the town?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
16 comments:
I have a feeling he's going to be the main antagonist in the story. I mean, he has bad stuff written all over him! His (new) name, Roger Chillingworth, as in "chilling," doesn't sound like something good. And did you notice the way he smiles whenever Hester is put to further shame or the way he always has a coldness in his voice? Yeah, he's not bound to be one of the good guys...I have a feeling he's been doing more than hanging out with Indians all this time. He abandons his wife in some town of a forgein country, and then comes back with a smile on his face to see her on the pillary with a scarlet "A" and a new born baby. Obviously he's hiding something bad, or he doesn't want to get caught lieing to that townsman about not knowing his wife or leaving his wife to do such things. I don't know... -(>.<)-
I'm honestly not sure exactly what to think of him, but I do find it interesting how in chapter 3 he says 3 times "he will be known!" In this he was speaking of the father of the child born from Hester. I think he wants to protect Hester, in a way. At the end of chapter 4 he states that he will not allow her soul to be injured, but he leaves us hanging as to what he means by whose soul he may injure. He also states how it irks him to not see Hester's partner in sin put up in shame too. I think by hiding himself from the public as Hester's husband, he is protecting Hester from further humilation and disturbance from the public. I think he wants to find the man who had the child with Hester and make him regret it and so not allow Hester to be the only one being punished for both of their actions.
From previous descriptions of Roger given by Hester, the reader sees the man a misshapen but intelligent caring and a good judge of character. As we meet Roger, the reader finds that he is not nearly as caring or as perfect as Hester remembered him. For instance, he seems almost happy to let Hester suffer for the rest of his life. Furthermore, it appears that he plans to find the father of the baby and exact some sort of revenge upon him (this is what is seems like to me). Also, we find that he is obviously deeply hurt by the fact that his wife has been unfaithful. This is shown through is conference with Hester in the jail cell. In this conference, he expresses the sentiment that before he met Hester, his heart felt cold and empty and of course he feels that way again. As for the decision to keep their marriage a secret I do not quite understand. I say this because there should be no shame for Roger in the fact that his wife cheated on him
WOW! okay seriously i dont get it. i didnt realize until the last page in chapter 4 that he was her husband. i think i might have missed a clue or two in there. usually i like to go against the views of the rest of the class on these because its more fun and it starts some dialogue but i just cannot on this one i must fall in with the majority. Roger is a creep. its kind of weird that he was off out of the town running around with indians for a while. that sort of surprises me. he also seems to be the type of guy who tries to intimidate people. like in the end of chapter 4 he is smiling and making quick responses which all seems to be just a ploy to intimidate Hester. this makes Hester rather uncomfortable and i am not a fan of him because of that. i must side with andrew in that it dosent make much sense to try to keep the marriage a secret there is no need to be imbarrased if your wife was the one who has the issue and we cant really blame Hester if he was gone for so long running around with the indians. she had a need for companionship or maybe i have my time periods off a little. to conclude i firmly believe that Roger is just a creep and wants to control hester and whoever he can.
Roger Chillingworth seems to be a man with an agenda all his own. He appears to have his own motives, and it is likely that he keeps a very many secrets about his and Hester's past. I believe he wishes to protect Hester from the cruelty of the townspeople, but he also wishes to protect himself from shame (or so he says to Hester). By saying that he wants to find the father of Hester's child at all costs, he shows that he wishes to see the end of this matter, and, like all the other characters in this story, wishes to see who this man really is.
Knowing that this story uses a lot of symbol, the name Chillingworth makes me think that he probably won't be one of the good guys. He has the right to be mad, and to want to know who the man with his wife was, but his determination to find him against his wife’s will is kind of weird. I realize people married for reasons other than love back in those days, but I can't imagine having a spouse that would do anything in his power to do something that I was strongly against. It was nice of him to give the baby and Hester medicine, and he said he wasn't holding a grudge against Hester which makes him seem like a good guy but if he loved her I would think he'd be a little more upset with her. His decision not to let people know that they were married though was sad. Husbands and wives should support each other and stand by each others sides and he made her vow to not let people even know they were married. Maybe he just doesn’t want people to have pity on him and know him as the poor guy who's wife cheated on him.
as courtney already said, his name alone shows that he is not a warm person. it really bothered me that he acted like he had no idea who hester was. i guess it makes sense that he would be embarassed that she cheated on him. however why would he ask to have the entire story told to him? perhaps just to humiliate her even further?? also in chapter four chillingworth tries to give hester medicine and she thinks it is poison, which shows he isn't very trustworthy. he really just seems like a creepy guy!
At first I thought he was the one she committed adultery with because he kept on saying stuff like, I gave my heart to you. Like it was mentioned previously in others' entries, he does seem to have his own agenda. Also, like previously stated, he does have the makings of a bad guy or antagonist. I don't believe that he will be the antagonist, because after something like this, wouldn't you want to stay away from Hester? If he really didn't want everyone to know, mocking her isn't the best idea. Like Mr. Shiftlet, Roger Chillingworth's name does seem significant and cannot be ignored. I perceive him as a "chilling" fellow. I understand, kind of, that he didn't want the towns people to pity him or put him on a pedestal. I don't understand why they wouldn't even think about the husband.
Well, I would like to put it out there that I knew he was Hester's husband from the first time she saw him. It was kind of weird but I just knew I guess. I dont know that I see a problem with him wanting to keep his identity unknown to everyone. I mean it isnt like he kept his real name and said, "Oh no, she isnt my wife." I dont think I would want to go into a society with baggage of a past that I had nothing to do with. I think it is uderstandable. He is kind of creepy and wierd though. I dont like him...
I think there are a lot of different ways to view Roger Chillingworth. I agree that the name Chillingworth doesn’t sound particularly cheerful and he does seem a bit creepy. He also seems obsessive about finding out the identity of the child’s father, but that doesn’t seem unnatural to me. Anyone in this situation would want to know, and if they thought they could figure it out, they would probably be pretty persistent about it. He also handled the news pretty well. He tells Hester that he doesn’t want revenge and willingly puts some of the blame on himself, which would be painful to do if you had just been cheated on. As to him hiding the fact that he was Hester’s husband, there could be many reasons for that, although I doubt that it is because of shame. The book says that external matters are of little value to him, and I don’t think he would care what the townspeople thought. He might not want anyone to know because it would make it harder to find out who Hester’s lover was. If no one knows that he has a connection with Hester, they will have their guard down when he is trying to get information.
My first thought about Roger was that he has to be a loner. What kind of a person can go off without his wife and come back to find out she has been cheating on him and be okay with it? He doesnt even act like he cares much about Hester. I dont think there is any way that Roger will turn out to be a good guy. I think Roger will end up causing some conflict because of the way he talks about making sure the father of the child is known. I didnt see anything in Roger that i actually liked. He just seems weird.
I too agree with Sam in that my first opinion of Roger was that he was a bit of a loner. He confused me and baffled my mind. I personally feel that if you are to let a person into your heart and get married to them, you need to stick with that person literally till death do you part. And like Brock said, Roger is a creep, and like Courtney said it is kinda a bit weird when he smiles every time she shows a bit of shame. To me that is a man who is slightly deranged and maybe has spent just a little bit too much time with himself and his imignation. As another couple of people have stated, Chillingworth, that just screams to me CHILLING. From my impressions of the guy i would have to give him a 0 on my trust-o-meter, i mean he has a bad name and he just gives a person a....squirmy feeling. To end it all off I must agree with Sam, He is just WEIRD!!!
It seems to me that Mr. Chillingworth is going to be a huge pest to Hester throughout the story. He hasn't proven to me that he is going to be any help, even if he tells Hester something different. The deformed bookworm is not the man that Hester remembers. He is not as caring and as warm as Hester would like him to be. He enjoys Hester's suffering and shame. I think the only reason he wants to find Hester's counterpart is so that he can get revenge. I don't think that he wants to find him to benefit anybody but himself, because his wife has been so unfaithful. He does realize though that he was foolish to think that a deformed man like himself could always please a beautiful woman like Hester. I think he is smart not to reveal himself to the town. If he would, the townspeople would most likely chastize him for not keeping his wife under control. I doubt they would warmly accept him as part of the community.
I understand that he is feeling some kind of anger or pain maybe but i think it is dusgusting. When you marry whether you love them or not you are making a promise to stand by them through thick or thin. He didn't want people to know what happened because it would make him look bad, but what about how Hester feels. He abandons her when she needs him the most and he does not feel any guilt about it. He doesn't seem like to great of a guy so I Hester should not feel bad about losing him.
HMMMMM....Well looking at everyone elses' responses I feel like I missed something. I thought that Roger Chillingworth seemed like a nice guy. He helped Hester and the baby by giving them medicine. And he wanted to find the baby's father so that it wasn't just Hester suffering from her mistake. But I guess i was wrong :(
I think that he doesn't want people to know about their past marriage because he thinks it will somehow protect her or he just doesn't want to get caught up in all of it. I dont know. I like him. I think he seems like a good guy.
To be quite honest i'm pretty confused... I get mixed signals from him. He seems as though he wants to protect Hester, but at the in chapter three he does not want to be known as her husband. I agree with Courtney that he will be an antagonist in the story and we will be seeing a lot more of him. I think that he really did love Hester, and that is the reason he wants to find the man she had the baby with, so he can get revenge. However I do believe that he is playing his cards right when he doesnt want people to know he was married to Hester, because it is smart of him to not get caught up in all that mess.
Post a Comment