Transcription: What Hawthorne is doing in this custom-asked sketch, one is he's getting even with the Salem Whigs who just tossed him out of office. So there is a satire directed at them. But he is also connecting himself with what will follow. His problems as an artist in the American community are not unlike those of Hester in her community. He is trying to pursue his notion of the romance. As you'll recall, there is this one point in the Custom House sketch where he defines the romance as this neutral territory between the actual and the imaginary. And as he takes you into the imaginary, he's also taking ...
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