The Scarlet Letter: RevengeRevenge is the act of retaliation to get back at someone for wrongs they have committed. In the novel “The Scarlet Letter,” the author, Nathaniel Hawthorne, uses Roger Chillingworth to get revenge on Arthur Dimmesdale for his affair with his wife, Hester Prynne. Chillingworth becomes so devoted to revenge that his whole life revolves around it. Chillingworth then dedicates the rest of his life to taking revenge on Dimmesdale. As the novel progresses, Chillingworth fits the profile of “vengeance destroys the avenger.” When Roger Chillingworth is first introduced to the reader, we see a kindly old man, who has just planted the seeds of revenge. Even though he talked about getting revenge, when Hester first met her husband in his prison cell, she saw no evil in him. Since Hester would not tell him who she had slept with, Chillingworth vowed that she would spend the rest of her life taking revenge and that she would eventually suck the soul out of the man she had had an affair with. “There is a sympathy that will make me aware of him. I'll see him tremble. I will feel myself shivering, suddenly and unconsciously” (Hawthorne, 101) As the novel develops, Roger Chillingworth has focused on Arthur Dimmesdale, but he cannot prove that he is “the one”. Chillingworth became friends with Dimmesdale, because he has a "strange illness" that needed to be cured; Chillingworth suspects something and begins drilling Dimmesdale. “…Disorder is strange…all the operations of this disorder were plainly revealed and told to me” (Hawthorne, 156). As Chillingworth continues to drill Dimmesdale, he hits a nerve. “Don't deal, I guess, I… middle of paper… Now go your way and deal as you will with that man over there” (Hawthorne, 192). Chillingworth's revenge plan relies on Dimmesdale not confessing to his crime. When Dimmesdale confessed to the crowd on Election Day, Chillingworth begged him not to tell. “Old Roger Chillingworth knelt beside him, with a blank and dull expression, from which life seemed to have departed. You escaped me... you escaped me! He repeated it more than once." (Hawthorne, 268). Once Dimmesdale had confessed and died, Chillingworth had nothing left to live for. "On the occasion of the death of old Roger Chillingworth (which occurred within the year)." (Hawthorne, 272). Revenge destroys the avenger, fits Roger Chillingworth's life. He dedicated his whole life to revenge, and what happiness did he have to show for this? If Chillingworth hadn't been so jealous, he could have lived a better life.