Meeting the dark: autobiography in Hawthorne's unfinished tales.

This essay discusses the autobiographical implications of Nathaniel Hawthorne's last, unfinished tales. Biographical documents, as well as the tales, demonstrate that Hawthorne's personal condition shaped the characters and ideas in his fiction, particularly the aged protagonist, the meditations on old age and death, and the quest for immortality. The conflict between the moral vision in the tales and his personal attitude toward old age and death caused creative difficulties that he could not overcome.