The intellect of Roger Chillingworth had now a sufficiently plain path before it. It was not, indeed, precisely that which he had laid out for himself to tread. Calm, gentle, passionless, as he appeared, there was yet, we fear, a quiet depth of malice, hitherto latent, but active now, in this unfortunate old man, which led him to imagine a more intimate revenge than any mortal had ever wreaked upon an enemy. (Chapter 11)

Basic set up:

Roger Chillingworth is really mad that his young, beautiful wife has had an affair with another man. Ok, fair enough. So he decides that he's going to seek revenge and make her lover's life a living hell. Hmm. Why don't you take the high road, Roger?

The dude is called "Chillingworth," which would suggest that he's a pretty chilled, unemotional guy. In fact, as the narrator informs us, he isn't. Below his "calm, gentle, passionless" exterior, he is full of malice and hatred.

The narrator's emphasis on the deep feelings of hatred that motivate Chillingworth point to emotion as a big preoccupation in American Romantic literature. The good guys and the bad guys are full of emotions. They do things because of their feelings; they see the world through their feelings. Emotions motivate everything they do… including Chillingworth's desire for revenge.

Hawthorne's novel is full of very detailed portraits of various characters, from Hester Prynne to her lover to her husband Roger Chillingworth. Like other Romantics, Hawthorne was interested in representing individuals who went against the grain, or who were nonconformists.

The passage's emphasis on character, psychology, and emotion is important because it reflects the extent to which the American Romantics were interested in exploring individualism. Chillingworth's individualism is destructive, not productive, and in this way Hawthorne suggests that we should make a distinction between good and bad versions of individualism.