er.
The themes of sin, evil, and redemption pervade The Scarlet Letter. Hester and Dimmesdale have sinned and both will pay penance for their sins. However, Hester and Dimmesdale find salvation because their sin was committed out of passion and based on love. In contrast, Chillingworth does not find salvation for his sinful actions are evil and based totally on revenge. The Scarlet Letter seems to suggest that evil stems from the close relationship between love and hate. There is no evil in Hester and DimmesdaleÆs making love or even in the misguided actions of the ignorant Puritan town fathers. However, the carefully plotted and precisely directed revenge of Chillingworth is evil. While Hester and DimmesdaleÆs actions are accountable to earthly authority, the revenge of Chillingworth is unaccountable to earthly authority because of it remains evil in nature.
The lovemaking of Hester and Dimmesdale creates enormous suffering for both Hester and Dimmesdale. Hester remains willing to bear the burden of her sin, refusing to be repentant of a love she considers God sent. Dimmesdale suffers horribly from his conscience, knowing that he is acting hypocritically to preach to others when he is full of sin. Because of these two perspectives, both will eventually find redemption and salvation. Chillingworth, in contrast, dissolves his humanity by being focused only on revenge and refusing to acknowledge the hatred that propels him. In this manner, evil stems from the relationship between love and hate in the novel but hatred alone cannot admit redemption. ChillingworthÆs wounded pride makes him take vengeance into his own hands. When Chillingworth confronts Hester she admits he was true to his word when he married her. However, as he confesses, ôAnd what am I now?...I have already told thee what I am! A fiend! Who made me so?ö (Hawthorne 1961, 189).
The pathological mentality of Chillingworth, as the wronged...