<p>Nathaniel Hawthorne's 'The Christmas Banquet,' drawn from his lauded collection 'Mosses from an Old Manse,' serves as an intricate exploration of human loneliness and the search for happiness amidst life's sorrows. This allegorical tale, ripe with Hawthorne's emblematic dark romanticism, investigates the ghosts of personal failings through the assembly of an enigmatic host's peculiar guests, each plagued by a unique misery. Existing within a l...