The Scarlet Letter Study Guide Ques. (not double spaced)

1. What is the primary purpose for the Custom House introduction?
The primary purpose for the Custom House introduction was to be an autobiography of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s life but also ended up being an explanation on how the story “The Scarlet Letter” came to exist. While explaining his life in deep description he tells leads to the origins of his book and from that point the primary purpose of the Custom House introduction is lost and forgotten.
The Custom House introduction started out as and autobiography of author Nathaniel Hawthorne’s life. He explained he was in his native town of Salem and was reminiscing of the past when he worked in the Custom House. While he worked in the Custom House he found an old piece of scarlet cloth in the shape of an “A” and also a letter belonging to the deceased Surveyor Jonathan Pue. Not only does Hawthorne tell readers about his past in this introduction but also gives us an idea of how he came about his idea for this story. He proves this statement with this quotes which states, “,that this Custom House sketch has certain propriety, of a kind always recognized in literature, as explaining how a large portion of the following pages came into possession,”. In this quote “the following pages” refers to the actual chapters of the book or “The Scarlet Letter”.

2. What significant change does Hawthorne admit to making in telling the story contained in the dairy?
The significant change Hawthorne admitted was taking the original “Scarlet Letter” and “dressing it up”. In other words made the story more interesting to the readers put his own ideas of what the original people thought or felt during the original events. He used the original letter as a guideline to the book he wrote.
Hawthorne tried to take a deeper look into the narratives that Mr. Surveyor Pue left behind and imagine the original character’s passion for their motives. On page thirty-three Hawthorne describes how he feels that Mr. Pue wants him to tell this story and has given it to him to profit from. While trying to get a deeper look into the narratives he tried to make the original characters more life-like and giving them a believable personality and “dress it up”.

3. What potential impact will this change have on the story?
Since the narratives were just a full explanation of an old affair and conversation with a Hester Prynne, Hawthorne had to “dress up” the story quite a lot. Hawthorne had to invent all the personalities of the characters and read between the lines of the narrative. That fact would mean the change would have a huge impact on the story because most of the story would be Hawthorne’s imagination and only a small part actual truth. Since the reader’s have not read the original manuscript they are ignorant to fiction or nonfiction of the story. The biggest part of the change would be in the way the story is told.