Semi-fictional, this chapter explains how the romance of The Scarlet Letter came to presented as a story to the audience. Having always wanted to be a "literary man," the writer talks about his three-year stint as a Surveyor in the Salem Custom House. Mostly filled with older gentlemen, the workplace was a very political (Whig) environment and charged with Puritan history. After brief character sketches of the personalities in the Custom House, the writer then …showed first 75 words of 474 total…

…showed last 75 words of 474 total…novel has very strong opinions and a very particular voice of his own. The comments that the narrator makes may not necessarily line up one-hundred percent with that of Nathaniel Hawthorne. Furthermore, even if the narrator takes some of the real-life details of Hawthorne's life, he probably also elaborates on or changes them. For this reason, we will speak of the way that "the narrator" stylizes the story. Bibliography The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne