Where Did All the Money Go?

Hello again! It is interesting to see how far I have come as a writer as this blogging project has progressed. Not only have I grown and matured as a writer, but so have my fellow bloggers in The Scarlet Reader. Unfortunately the Scarlet Letter has ended, so this is going to be my final blog on any more chapters. I would like to examine the reasoning behind Chillingworth’s decision to leave all of his money to Pearl, a girl that he did not bear with Hester. There are many reasons behind the reasoning for this but luckily for us, Hawthorne saved the best for last.

Chillingworth throughout the entire story has been seen as the devil, or an evil that is beyond human belief. Although most of this is true, Chillingworth still has a side of him that has been hidden until the very end of the novel, and this is regret. I believe that Chillingworth realizes that he is close to death so he begins to contemplate on decisions that he has made in the past, which ties in to my second blog post, The Thoughts Before Death. I think that Chillingworth is finally feeling true guilt for what he has done not only to Dimmesdale, but also to Hester and Pearl. This guilt is centered around his years of torturing Dimmesdale, and the years that he spent torturing Hester as well for the acts of brutality towards Dimmesdale. The only way in his mind to get rid of this guilt and cast away all of the horrible things he has done, is to leave all of his money to the one thing that is the reason for all of this, Pearl.

Chillingworth is a wise man, and it is stated and well known by the reader that he is a smart man in the community, so it is no surprise that after all of these years, he is finally realizing the wrong that he has done. He says that he wants to find the man for committing the horrible sin of adultery with his wife, but once he steps back and looks at the larger picture, he sees that he has committed sin as well. Therefore, it is perhaps a combination of guilt, the fear for perishing in Hell, and the final realization that his deeds were, indeed, quite evil that motivates Chillingworth to leave all of his money and properties to Pearl. Chillingworth wants Pearl to prosper and to forget about what has happened in the past and what she and the letter “A” stood for, so by giving her the money, this allows her to try to pursue a better life. This act of kindness and giving is something that Chillingworth hasn’t done in a very long time, but he feels as though this is the only way to cleanse himself of his wrong doings and his sins.

Chillingworth throughout the novel played a very interesting role. At first he was just a man in the crowd, a leach in society, and then in the end he was again a man in the crowd, but was a man that had changed into something evil. At times in our lives, we sometimes forget about the feelings of others and how our words and actions can affect the overall happiness of their character. Sometimes we all need to step back and think about things before they come out of our mouths, because what we say and do in life ultimately defines us as a person. So would you rather be a man like Chillingworth who treated others horribly and then came to the realization that what he was doing was wrong, only because he was dying? Or would you rather live a guilt free, happy life because you are satisfied every day with the way you treat others and the way others treat you?

Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The Scarlet Letter. New York: Bantam, 1986. Print. Reissue 2003.