Roger Chillingworth


Roger Chillingworth is a fictional character and primary antagonist in the 1850 novel The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne. He is an English scholar who moves to the New World with, after, his wife Hester Prynne.
Chillingworth, a doctor and student of alchemy, attempts to emigrate from England to Puritan Boston. He sends his wife ahead to set up in Boston, but he is delayed by problems at sea and then held captive by Indians. When he finally arrives in Boston, he finds his wife on a scaffold, being shamed for committing adultery. Meeting Hester in jail, Chillingworth presses her to divulge the name of her partner in adultery, but she refuses. Searching without her help, he eventually discovers that her lover is the town minister, Arthur Dimmesdale. Using his position as a doctor, and under the guise of treating Dimmesdale's unexplained sickness, Chillingworth manipulates Dimmesdale into insanity and a confession of sin before the entire community before dying. Chillingworth then also dies. Throughout the book Chillingworth is referred to as "The Leech", which was a term at the time for a doctor, and then he dies once he no longer has a victim to harm.

Portrayals

Chillingworth was portrayed by Henry B. Walthall in Victor Seastrom's 1926 film adaptation, starring Lillian Gish. He reprised the role opposite Colleen Moore in the 1934 adaptation.
Chillingworth was played by Robert Duvall in the 1995 adaptation, starring Demi Moore.