Chillingworth: Friend or Demon? Some people seek revenge when they are wronged. In the novel The Scarlet Letter, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, the character Roger Chillingworth is no exception, but the weight of his revenge becomes so heavy that it leads to an unprecedented transformation of the character. Although he began as a humble doctor, Roger Chillingworth slowly, through acts of seeking revenge on his wife's lover, Arthur Dimmesdale, turns into a parasitic leech, which ultimately leads to his downfall. At the beginning of the novel, Roger Chillingworth is a humble, old doctor. For example, the night after Hester's shame on the gallows. Roger Chillingworth is called upon to care for Hester and her baby while acting as if he were her doctor. [Chillingworth] 'Pray, friend, leave me alone with my patients […] my old studies and alchemy have observed it, and my sojourn for above a year past, among a people versed in the benevolence of the simple , have made me a better doctor than many who claim medical degrees […] What should ail me, to harm this disorderly and miserable child? Mighty medicine for good as if it were my own child […] I couldn't do better' (Hawthorne 66-67). Chillingworth's humble beginnings are also described when he is introduced by Hawthorne as the doctor he is, and tells of the great knowledge of the herbs he sees. The only surgeon was he who combined the occasional practice of that noble art with the daily and habitual use of a razor. For such a professional body Roger Chillingworth was a brilliant inquisitor. He soon showed his familiarity with the heavy and imposing mechanism of the ancient physicist; in which each remedy contained a multitude of unlikely and heterogeneous ingredients […] He had acquired much knowledge of the properties of native herbs and roots (Hawthorne 108-109). Roger Chillingworth's reputation as a good doctor becomes more evident when the townspeople see him as Arthur Dimmesdale's savior, and encourage them both to live together. Why in such a category of the learned world whose sphere is the big cities, search in the desert? In response to this question, a rumor spread which, however absurd, was accepted by some very sensible people.