Disclaimer: Sugarpony neither owns nor wishes to own The Scarlet Letter.
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Chapter Four
The Black Man?s Legacy
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I have referred to one Doctor Chillingworth which resided in our little town of Boston. This man, unbeknownst to all but Mother and, later, the Reverend Dimmesdale, was the husband which had sent Mother here alone; he was the husband which Mother had betrayed.
Roger Chillingworth was a cold man. While I was young, I spoke of him as 'the black man.' I could feel the dark presence which presided over the man, and I knew he was a creature of evil. He was not a Puritan, no; he was the Devil's own servant. He always was near Dimmesdale, for his single purpose was to torment the man until his death. Chillingworth died less than a year after the minister. Strangely enough, he left his fortunes to none other than myself. "Why me?" I have always wondered. "I have done nothing to deserve his riches, and Mother most certainly has not, either. I am the result of Mother's terrible crime against him! Why has he chosen me to be his heiress?"
Chillingworth had been predictable my entire life. He was the Black Man, slave of the Devil. He tortured Reverend Dimmesdale until the very last of his day, whereupon Chillingworth himself passed away because he had no reason to exist. Why, then, does he now leave his inheritance to the minister's child?
Roger Chillingworth had become and enigma.
I was a child of seven years, and I knew not what to do with my newly
gained riches. Mother brought me here, to England, and I now live on
his property. Still, I neither want nor deserve this fortune of mine.
Therefore, I give all I can to Mother, who has returned to that town
of Boston and resumed her torture with the Puritans.
Perhaps
Doctor Chillingworth wished to cause grief for Dimmesdale's child,
or perhaps he wished to repent for his own sins against the man.
Either way, he has accomplished his goal.