THE SCARLET LETTER There is something reminiscent of now familiar processes in Hawthorne's account of the origin and growth of the idea of The Scarlet Letter in the introductory essay to the novel, "The Custom House." He tells (albeit whimsically) of finding one day the scarlet letter itself--- "that certain affair of fine red cloth"--- in his rummagings about the Custom House and of how it, and the old manuscript which told its story, …showed first 75 words of 2165 total…

…showed last 75 words of 2165 total…door "to relieve the darkening close of a tale of human frailty and sorrow," To relieve, but not to reverse or redeem. Henry James said that Hawthorne had "a cat-like faculty of seeing in the dark"; but he never saw through the dark to radiant light. What light his vision reveals is like the fitful sunshine of Hester's and Dimmesdale's meeting in the forest---the tragic opposite of Emerson's triumphant gleaming sun that "shines also today."