characterise the writer's style.

Hawthorne's writing seems pretty strange to the modern ear. He uses formal words that are rarely used in common English. He is in love with commas and long complex sentences. Check this out,

"Doomed by his own choice, therefore, as Mr. Dimmesdale so evidently was, to eat his unsavory morsel always at another's board and endure the lifelong chill which must be his lot who seeks to warm himself only at another's fireplace..."