Michael Tamietti October 29, 2013 3B

Scarlet Letter Section 2

Critics have debated over who committed the worst sin, Hester, Chillingworth, or Dimmesdale. Well, in my opinion there is quite a struggle of deciding who committed the worst sin. There is the obvious sin of adultery between Hester and Dimmesdale, or if you look into it more, you can see that Hesters withheld thoughts would have been a major sin back then as well. Dimmesdale having his own sin of holding information from the public, yet he does eventually confess, which in my opinion means his sin was ended. Although the adultery he cant quite take back. I honestly think that you could very much argue that Chillingworth has committed the worst sin. I say this since he did leave Hester to fend for herself, and then he was tormenting Dimmesdale trying to get information, basically threatening Dimmesdales life at one point in the book. Chillingworth was supposedly a doctor, if this is the case, he could have easily killed Dimmesdale, and so could this mean Chillingworth caused Dimmesdale to become even sicker than he was? I think Chillingworth was the one who committed the worst sin, as bad of a sin that Hester/Dimmesdale committed.

All the wrong doing that Chillingworth had done could tie him into being a/the Black Man. The people were thinking that Chillingworth had been drugging Dimmesdale, in a way being a necromancer. Not only that, but I think Chillingworth was stressing Dimmesdale mentally; this could be another factor into Chillingworth preforming magic or necromancy. Now looking into the meaning of Necromancer we can see that necromancers were told to be sorcerers who dealt with magic of the dead; raising the dead, or working deals with the dead. A Black Man is said to be a person who makes deals with the devil; working deals with the dead. Between these two we can see that a Necromancer could indeed be a Black Man. I think this valid point allows us to argue that Chillingworth could be tied to the Black Man in the eyes of certain people. Chillingworth being a doctor back in the day, doctors werent always seen as good people, their works were mysterious. The people within the settlement thought Chillingworth may have been working his black magic on Dimmesdale, or that he had been poisoning Dimmesdale with medicines. I think that you could tie Chillingworth to a Black Man quite easily; Chillingworth preforming his black magic, or even just being a doctor, so much mystery about him, just as a Black Man.