In this chapter Hester and Chillingsworth have a conversation about how terribly
Chillingsworth is treating Dimmesdale. Hester realizes that Chillingsworth has
turned into the devil. "In a word, old Roger Chillingsworth was a striking
evidence of man’s faculty of transforming himself into a
Devil, if he will only, for a reasonable space of time,
undertake a Devil’s office. This unhappy person had effected such a
transformation by devoting himself, for seven years, to the constant
analysis of a heart full of torture, and deriving his
enjoyment thence, and adding fuel to those fiery tortures
which he analyzed and gloated over."
Chillingsworth is treating Dimmesdale. Hester realizes that Chillingsworth has
turned into the devil. "In a word, old Roger Chillingsworth was a striking
evidence of man’s faculty of transforming himself into a
Devil, if he will only, for a reasonable space of time,
undertake a Devil’s office. This unhappy person had effected such a
transformation by devoting himself, for seven years, to the constant
analysis of a heart full of torture, and deriving his
enjoyment thence, and adding fuel to those fiery tortures
which he analyzed and gloated over."
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