It is, indeed, helpful to the reader of Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter to always consider the context of the narrative as built around the strict Puritanical code of the Massachusetts colony. In the previous chapter, for instance, the cold, smug glee with which the goodwives condemn Hester and suggest more violent torture dramatizes the "fire and brimstone" tactics of early American Puritanism.
Because even the tiniest infraction of Puritan law was met with severe punishment--a fact that Hawthorne found objectionable in early Puritanism--Roger Chillingworth does not reveal himself. For, if he were to come forth and admit to being Hester's husband, he himself would be interrogated by the Puritan leaders and possibly punished for abandoning his wife, living with the Indians, and anything else that could be held against him. Furthermore, he does not wish to draw attention to himself as he plans a plot against the man who has made him a cuckold.
The fact that he feels some guilt about Hester's being abandoned is evident in Chapter IV when he visits Hester, telling her, "We have wronged each other." When Hester asks him, "Why not announce thyself openly, and cast me off at once?" Chillingworth replies,
It may be...because I will not encounter the dishonour that besmirches the husband of a faithless woman.
Then, Chillingworth tells Hester that he seeks no vengeance against Hester, but
the man lives who has wronged us both!....Let him hide himself in outward honour, if he may! Not the less he shall be mine!
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