In Chapter VIII of Hawthorne's The Scarlet
Letter, Roger Chillingworth, who has now become physician to the Reverend
Dimmesdale, has been altered much in appearance. Even with her "fate hanging in the
balance" as the magistrates question little Pearl, Hester cannot help noticing Roger
Chillingworth who whispers something into the ear of the clergyman Dimmesdale. She is
startled as she discerns such a change in the man: His features have become uglier, his
complexion seems even darker, and his body misshapen since the days that she had been
married to him. For a moment, Hester meets his eyes, but must give her attention to the
mischievous Pearl.
The indications of the dark and ugly
changes in the appearance of Roger Chillingworth foreshadow the descent into evil that
his soul will take. Of note, too, is after he observes Dimmesdale's having given Pearl
a surreptitious kiss, Chillingworth mades an insidious
question,
Would it be beyond a philosopher's research,
think ye, gentlemen, to analyse that child's nature, and, from it make a mould, to give
a shrewd guess at the
father?
This question
indicates Chillingworth's purpose in becoming Dimmesdale's physician. He, of course,
wishes to expose Dimmesdale as the father of little Pearl.
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