Chillingworth is referred to as "the leech" because he is a doctor and leeches were used as a form of medicine. Leeches latch on to the skin and suck blood out, which we know today, often had a negative effect on patients. This nickname of the leech represents a deeper look at Chillingworth and his effect on the minister, Hester and Pearl.
Upon seeing Hester and her baby on the scaffold in the center of town, Chillingworth is so infuriated that he remains in Boston to seek for revenge. He clings to the town and to his hope for revenge. He "sucks blood" or sucks life from them in his angry pursuits to hurt them.
Chillingworth's relationship with Dimmesdale depicts him perfectly as a "leech". Just as leeches "suck blood" in the hopes of medically healing someone, Chillingworth "attached himself to him as a parishioner, and sought to win a friendly regard and confidence from his naturally reserved sensibility. He expressed great alarm at his pastor's state of health, but was anxious to attempt the cure" (517). The two go on to live together as a way of searching for Dimmesdale's cure which only leads to hurting Dimmesdale. The narrator comments on that this led to Dimmesdale being "haunted by Satan himself, or Satan's emissary, in the guise of old Roger Chillingworth" (521).
Hi Jen,
ReplyDeleteChillingworth's character is an unsettling one, that's for sure! I appreciate the investigation you make of Chillingworth's association with this creature, and his specific actions that allow him to be characterized as such.
I personally found it interesting how early on in the text us readers receive a foreboding sense of Chillingworth's innate evil and parasitic tendencies- from the facial expressions Hester notices on his face in the crowd to the deeply disturbing meeting she has with him while in the prison. I wonder what effect Hawthorne would have had upon his readers had he withheld Chillingworth's malevolence from us for a bit longer?
Thanks for sharing your thoughts!