In this preface, Hawthorne also shares his definition of the romance novel as he attempts to imagine Hester Prynne’s story beyond Pue’s manuscript account. A careful reading of this section explains the author’s use of light (chiaroscuro) and setting as romance techniques in developing his themes. Hawthorne explains that, in a certain light and time and place, objects ". . . seem to lose their actual substance, and become things of intellect.” He asserts that, at the right time with the right scene before him, the romance writer can “dream strange things and make them look like truth.”
Finally, the preface serves as means of authenticating the novel by explaining that Hawthorne had discovered in the Salem Custom House the faded scarlet A and the parchment sheets that contained the historical manuscript on which the novel is based. However, we know of no serious, scholarly work that suggests Hawthorne was ever actually in possession of the letter or the manuscript. This technique, typical of the narrative conventions of his time, serves as a way of giving his story an air of historic truth. Furthermore, Hawthorne, in his story, “Endicott and the Red Cross,” published nine years before he took his Custom House position, described the incident of a woman who, like Hester Prynne, was forced to wear a letter A on her breast.
