Part one of term paper
It is easy to see why Melville, himself a prey to the deepest forebodings about the optimism of his day, recognized at once his kinship of spirit with Hawthorne. "There is a certain tragic phase of humanity which, in our opinion (he wrote), was never more powerfully embodied than by Hawthorne." A year after Hawthorne published The Scarlet Let ...

Part two of term paper
... a recrudescence of the tragic spirit in what would seem an unlikely time, on unlikely soil, and without benefit of tragic theater or tragic audience. Both authors were aware of the untimeliness of their books. Hawthorne, in the famous letter to his publisher, Fields, spoke of fearing that his novel would "weary very many people and disgust some" by keeping so close, and with so little diversification, to "the same dark idea." Would he have an audience receptive to his peculiar view of things? The ...