ABSTRACT
Nathaniel Hawthorne have sensed beyond that consideration the appropriateness of having The Scarlet Letter provide a coda for his several stories on American origins. While he was pressing to finish the manuscript of The Scarlet Letter and simultaneously negotiating the details of its eventual publication, Hawthorne had thoughts of binding the novella with some of his previously published stories. The significance for Hawthorne of creating this particular tale becomes apparent from thinking about the personal past he recounts in "The Custom House". A final element in the net of interrelations Hawthorne carries through complication and crisis to resolution comes to sight in Hester and Dim-mesdale's changing relationship to their polity. Hawthorne's resolution for the various conflicts of freedom into which he has projected every major character requires his bringing lovers to acknowledge obligations paramount to their desires and then to act upon that recognition.
