In the novel The Scarlet Letter, author Nathaniel Hawthorne draws on the strengths and weaknesses of the characters to control the flow of the story while showcasing the strict religious values of a Puritan town. The most domineering character within the town of Boston is Roger Chillingworth, the conniving town physician. A true leech by nature, the doctor slowly sucks the life out of those he gets closest to while pretending to be a confidant and healer. Roger Chillingworth is a deviously underhanded man consumed by hatred who uses his uncanny knack for perceptive conversation, the ability to hide his true identity, and his present social position to gain the trust of the man he is determined to destroy.

From the minute that Roger Chillingworth befriends Arthur Dimmesdale, and convinces the reverend to become his patient, the doctor begins to draw on his natural abilities of perception and...