Nathaniel Hawthorne defined the term "romance" a bit differently than you might expect. In the introduction to the book, he explains that he views the genre as

somewhere between the real world and fairy-land, where the Actual and the Imaginary may meet, and each imbue itself with the nature of the other.

A romance, then, combines what is possible with what is not to create an imaginative world of possibilities. Hester Prynne's strict Puritan setting is believable, as is her unfortunate position of being caught in an affair in the absence of her husband. The scorn of the town and the dialogue that they use is also believable, as they push Hester to the outskirts of life based on their religious codes.

However, woven into the story are also details of the imaginary. In chapter 23, Dimmesdale climbs the scaffold with Hester and Pearl and tears his clothes from his chest, revealing his own mark. In a moment of guilt, Dimmesdale also sees the letter A written into the night sky by the red light of a meteor, believing that his sins are evident for all to see. In details such as these, readers must suspend typical expectations and understandings in order to accept details that are more imaginative.

Of course, the background of this story is a tragic romance, according to more typical definitions of the term. Hester Prynne and Reverend Dimmesdale do share a physical and emotional connection in spite of her status as a married woman. Their relationship is doomed from the start because of their setting in a devout Puritan community, and this connection becomes Hester's primary conflict as she is forced to bear the condemnation of the town alone for most of the plot.