the affect and similarities of love and hate in the Scarlet Letter

"It is a curious subject of observation and inquiry, whether hatred and love be both the same thing at bottom." Hawthorne says this at the end of the book, talking about the decay of Chillingsworth. With this, and other moments throughout the book we see that love and hate are the same at the bottom through the authors eye, and both hold the same amount of intimacy, they are dependent for the food of affection, and when this is gone they all fall apart. When Chillingsworth has nothing to hate or to seek revenge he shrinks away and dies. I will talk about how both Chillingsworth and Hester are rotting away, but the one thing that keeps them going day in and day out is intimacy, even though what drives Hester is lovwe, but what drives Chillingsworth.