Even early in the novel, as Hester stands on the scaffold with her infant daughter, there are signs that Chillingworth has the capacity, at least, to be evil.  The narrator says that, when he sees her upon the scaffold, "A writhing horror twisted itself across his features, like a snake gliding swiftly over them."  Snakes, especially in texts that comment on Christianity (Puritanism, specifically, in this case), are often symbolic of evilness as a result of their connection to the Devil in the story of the Garden of Eden.  Furthermore, Hester is clearly afraid to be alone with Chillingworth.  The narrator describes her thoughts to us: "Dreadful as it was, she was conscious of a shelter in a presence of these thousand witnesses.  It was better to stand thus, with so many betwixt him and her, than to greet him, face to face, they two alone."  This would seem to indicate that Chillingworth is a man to be feared.

By the time that Chillingworth becomes the physician of Reverend

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