Roger Chillingworth: Man of Science?

1
Roger Chillingworth Man of Science?

• Presented by Melanie Wilson

2
The Scarlet Letter Why You Should Care

• Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote it in 1850.
• Many critics have written about it.
• Many high school and college classes study the
  novel.
• Many students subsequently cry.

3
Summary of The Scarlet Letter

• Hester Prynne is married to a much older man who
  spends most of his time studying. He decides to
  move to the New World. He sends Hester ahead of
  him. He vanishes for two years.
• Hester has an affair with her minister, Arthur
  Dimmesdale. This affair becomes not-so-secret
  when Hester becomes pregnant. The townspeople
  sentence Hester to wear a scarlet A (for
  adultery) for the rest of her life. Dimmesdale
  does not come forward to admit his part in the
  affair, so the father of the baby is a secret.
• Hester's husband shows up on the day Hester is
  being publicly humiliated. He adopts the
  pseudonym Roger Chillingworth and vows to find
  out who the father of Hester's baby is.

4
Roger Chillingworth Common Interpretation

• Evil
• Highly left-brained
• Unconcerned and unaffected by emotion
• Lacks compassion
• Reclusive
• Corrupt scientist

5
Chillingworths Appearance

• His eyes have a strange, penetrating power, when
  it was their owner's purpose to read the human
  soul. (p. 55)
• His left shoulder is slightly higher than the
  right.

6
Meyers-Briggs Results Introverted (22
preference)

• Shows this preference during his marriage
• Marries late
• Requires a lot of alone time
• Shows this preference in his friendship with
  Dimmesdale
• Seems to be his only major friendship

7
Meyers-Briggs Introverted (ctd.)

• His job forces him to be somewhat extraverted.
• His revenge also shifts his source of energy from
  himself to Dimmesdale.
• His loneliness scale score is 65.

8
Meyers-Briggs ctd.

• Intuitive (62 preference)
• Uses intuition to discover Dimmesdales identity
• Thinking (25 preference)
• He is a scholar by choice he enjoys ideas more
  than experiences.
• He also relies on emotion at times his entire
  revenge scheme is based on emotion.
• Judging (89 preference)
• He develops a plan and sticks to it until it
  consumes him and he dies a miserable, lonely
  death.

9
INTJ Tidbits

• Keirsey calls them Masterminds because of their
  abilities to engineer and execute great plans.
• Marina Margaret Heiss states that the Achilles
  heel of the average INTJ is relationships. They
  are obsessed with people making sense.

10
OCEAN Openness and Conscientiousness

• Openness 32
• Very high. He loves new ideas.
• He learns about plants from Native Americans
  during his captivity.
• Dimmesdale values his openness.
• Conscientiousness 29
• High (nearly very high). He is competitive and
  is interested in detail.
• This trait is most obvious in the way he
  approaches his revenge.

11
OCEAN Extraversion and Agreeableness

• Extraversion 16
• Middle
• As previously discussed, his job forces him to
  adopt some qualities of an extravert.
• Agreeableness 15
• Middle
• His reasons for being agreeable are similar to
  his extraversion he knows how to appear
  agreeable.

12
OCEAN Neuroticism

• Neuroticism 16
• Middle
• He is often very controlled with his emotions
• Sometimes they get the better of him, and they
  usually get the better of him in a big way.

13
Conclusions

• Chillingworth is not, as many sources claim, a
  flat character.
• His personality is much more complex than a
  cursory glance would suggest.
• He grows from being a mild-mannered scholar into
  being an obsessed, vengeful man. Then, he
  repents before dying.

14
Thats All, Folks!