Chillingworth, Hester's wronged husband pretends to be his friend, but he actually plays an evil game with Dimmesdale throughout the whole story. In Chapter 17 Hester tells Dimmesdale about his so-called friend "Thou hast long had such an enemy, and dwellest with him, under the same roof!"(215).After their conversation, Dimmesdale regains his lost power again and decides to confess. Although Dimmesdale is physically very sick at the end of the book, he seems to be quite clear mentally. Hester and Pearl have to help him, get onto the scaffold, to confess his sin. Although Dimmesdale is so sick that he will die shortly after the confession, he speaks "with a voice that rose over them, high, solemn, and majestic" (285). At the end of the novel Dimmesdale is finally able to acknowledge his family in front of the townspeople releasing!.
the sin he held so long hidden in his heart (285-287). This moment can be defined as the climax of the story. It is the moment of Dimmesdale's victory over Chillingworth. Although Chillingworth seems to be the master of the game, Dimmesdale thwarts his plans. Dimmesdale's development can be compared with a wave. At the beginning he is the powerful minister that everybody admired. In the middle of the story, he changes into a sick person without any signs of life and hope. Finally, at the end of the story he changes again into the minister everybody had known. .
If Dimmesdale really is the protagonist of the story, who is his antagonist and who is his helper? Dimmesdale has to fight against two antagonists. On one hand, there is Chillingworth; Hester's wronged husband who wants to take revenge against him, on the other hand there is the Puritan society that is represented by the townspeople. Chillingworth becomes a very important character in the story after he gets to know who wrongs him. He decides to take revenge on Dimmesdale. Chillingworth had suspected Dimmesdale of being Pearl's father for a long time but he knows it for sure at the end of chapter 10, when he finds the minister fallen asleep in his room and sees the scratch on the form of the letter A.
