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Why does Roger Chillingworth torment Arthur Dimmesdale?

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A son of Salem — Nathaniel Hawthorne Nathaniel Hawthorne's ancestors in Salem, Massachusetts, were Puritans named Hathorne. He added a w to his name when he began writing.

In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel The Scarlet Letter, Roger Chillingworth torments Arthur Dimmesdale because he is the cuckolded husband of Hester Prynne, with whom the minister had an affair.21

After discovering that Dimmesdale is the father of Hester’s child, Chillingworth becomes obsessed with vengeance. He assumes the role of a physician to gain proximity to the minister, ostensibly to treat his declining health. In reality, Chillingworth uses this position to spy on Dimmesdale, gloat over his suffering, and psychologically manipulate him.12

Hawthorne portrays this pursuit as a moral failing; while Dimmesdale is burdened by his own guilt, Chillingworth is depicted as the greater sinner for his cold, calculated, and monomaniacal desire to destroy the minister’s spirit. Ultimately, this quest for revenge leads to Chillingworth’s own moral degradation.21