Explanation: Roger is answering Dimmesdale's question about a weed. He responds with a peculiar answer eluding to the idea of someone keeping a secret. And it is abundantly clear to the reader that Dimmesdale was the man who had an affair with Hester. This quote affirms Roger Chillingworth's knowledge of this. This quote also seems to be sometype of mental game that Roger is playing with Dimmesdale. He is eluding to his knowledge of Dimmesdale's affair but does not affirm it to him, so Dimmesdale gets reminded of the affair and is punished mentally by Roger with guilt.
Question: Will Dimmesdale admit to his sin, will Chillingworth rat him out, or will anyone find out at all?
Quote 2: "True, there are such me... But, not to suggest more obvious reasons, it may be that they are kept silent by the very constitution of their nature. Or... they shrink from displaying themselves black and filthy in the view of men; becasue, thenceforward, no good can be achieved by them" -Dimmesdale (120).
Explanation: Dimmesdale and Chillingworth go into a discussion on why that "man" would have kept a secret burdened in him. And Dimmesdale response was that they may keep secrets because that is the way they are or that maybe they keep it so that they can continue to do good. These reasons he gives reflects his own reasons for not admitting to his relationship with Hester. He believes that if he admitted that he would not have been able to do good because people would assume he was bad. But Chillingworth questions this and brings up the idea that maybe that "man" did not admit to it because he did not want to bear the consequences. So the reader is left with these two ideas that maybe Dimmesdale did not admit to his sin because he still wanted to help others, or he did not admit because he was afraid of being punished as Hester was.
Question: Which one of these things is the reason why he did not admit to sinning, and will they impede from admitting to his sin later, if he chooses to?
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