Minister's Black Veil Essays: Social Interaction

Mr. Hooper has an effect on people by wearing the veil and he uses it to express his original purpose. Everyone on Earth has sinned, “for the Earth, too, had on her Black Veil.” This shows that Mr. Hooper believed that sin is a part of nature and it is a natural thing to be sinners. Even Earth, His own creation, is hiding her secret under a black veil. Hawthorne says this to show Mr. Hooper’s point that people have an inborn sinful nature and it is not always represented by literally wearing a black veil. In other words, he says that even people who do not wear a black veil equally have secret sins, “If I hide my face for sorrow, there is a cause enough…and if I cover it for secret sin, what mortal might not do the same?” People hide their real self to prevent being criticized by society and because they are ashamed of what they have done. He pays a high price in the attempt of teaching society the nature of sins. The people who used to admire him are now afraid and confused so he is forced to live a lonely live. Following this further, he influences people to believe the moral lesson behind his decision of wearing the veil. He wants people to

   Based on the evaluations of literary critics, Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story, “The Minister’s Black Veil,” contains both an external and an internal conflict, about equally treated in the tale. It is the intent of this essay to explore both types of conflict as presented in the story.

In The Minister’s Black Veil by Nathaniel Hawthorne, the author seeks to convey that although all individuals are sinners, members of society will condemn those who seek to confront their own faults. This conclusion was drawn from the many motifs which relate to Puritan society, particularly the superstitions and Christian ideologies of many New Englanders during the 18th century. In this tale, Mr. Hooper’s donning of the black veil is viewed as a change which alters his countenance indefinitely; from the moment it is introduced, those who view it are awestruck. The mere sight of Mr. Hooper even acts as a “signal for the bell to cease its summons”. As murmurs spread throughout the congregation, Mr. Hooper preaches of “secret sin, and those

In Hawthorne’s “The Minister’s Black Veil”, Mr. Hooper loses human connection after he bounds himself to wear the black veil as a representation of human nature to hide sinful actions. Mr. Hooper’s refusal to remove the black veil causes the townspeople to distance themselves from him because they found his behavior odd and unnatural, including his fiancee. During Mr. Hooper and his fiancee’s argument, she continually presses him for a reason for wearing

The work of Hawthorne’s that I chose to critique is his short story titled “The Minister’s Black Veil.” This story takes place in the town of Milford, just southwest of Boston, at a church on the Sabbath day. The parson of the church, Reverend Hooper, leaves his house and walks toward the porch of the meeting house wearing a black veil that conceals his entire face except for his mouth and chin. The entire congregation is immediately in a stir, astonished and appalled by this mysterious veil. Nobody knows why Hooper has this veil on his face or what it means, and nobody dares to question him about it except, however, his own wife. Her attempt to attain answers from him fails, and she results to simply walking out on him because of his refusal to remove the veil. Hooper lives out the rest of his life like this with the veil over his head all the way into the grave, pressing his hands firmly on the black veil when on his deathbed so nobody could have the chance to remove it.

Yet, many of the townspeople were only worried about the veil, making statements like “I don’t like it”, “he has changed himself into something awful”, and “our person has gone mad” (Hawthorne 2). However, the sermon was powerful,

In Nathaniel Hawthorne's "The Minister's Black Veil," Mr. Hooper, a Reverend in the town of Milford, surprises his parishioners by donning a conspicuous black veil one Sunday. The town is visibly spooked, yet still curious, about his eerie appearance and profoundly affected by his sermon on secret sin. "A subtle power was breathed into his words. Each member of the congregation, the most innocent girl, and the man of hardened breast, felt as if the preacher had crept upon them, behind his awful veil, and discovered their hoarded iniquity of deed or thought" (2432). The parishioner's expect that Hooper will only don the veil for one day and then remove it, having used the visage to make his point on secret sin, but they are taken aback to

In examining “Minister's Black Veil" and “Rececetif,” authors Nathaniel Hawthorne and Toni Morrison utilize symbolism, cultural references, and complex characterization to reveal the theme of identity and interpretation. To begin with, Hawthorne utilizes a great deal of symbolism throughout the short story to engage the theme of identity and interpretation. Through symbols such as the black veil, Hawthorn compares the true identity of Rev. Hooper to how he is interpreted in the story due to the veil effect. The theme of interpretation is shown through symbolism, such as this quote: “The black veil that only covers our pastor's face throws its influence over his whole person and makes him ghost-like from head to foot”(Hawthorne 301). This quote reveals that the people of his town who believed him to be a good minister now presume him to look ghost-like, and although his identity stays the same, the way his townspeople see him has changed, simply because of a black veil.

In the story Hawthorne for “The Minister’s Black Veil” the major theme might be to not judge a book by its cover. Therefore, meaning that many people might have secrets that are sins or they might just have sorrowness that they want to hide from others. The minster like many others can hide from their sins and sorrowness with a veil over their face. The ambiguity in the story is the black veil and why the minister refuses to remove it. In his sermon he states “ The subject had reference to secret sin, and those sad mysteries which we hide from our nearest and dearest, and would fain conceal from our own consciousness” During this sermon all the members from his congregation started to feel uncomfortable.

    There is no end to the ambiguity in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Minister’s Black Veil”; this essay hopes to explore this problem within the tale.

The Minister's Black Veil, a story by Nathaniel Hawthorne, explains the complex themes of sin, guilt, and the human condition. The story follows the life of Reverend Mr. Hooper, a well respected minister of a small New England town, who one day decides to wear a mysterious black veil that covers his face. This act sets off a chain of events that leads the townspeople to question his motives, his character, and ultimately their own beliefs and values. The black veil that Reverend Hooper wears serves as a symbol of the hidden sins and secrets that we all carry within ourselves.

The mysteriousness of the veil created by detail helps to reveal the community’s assumptions of Reverend Hooper. Hawthorne demonstrates this detail when he writes, “In this manner Mr. Hooper spent a long life, irreproachable in outward act, yet shrouded in dismal suspicions; kind and loving, though unloved and dimly feared; a man apart from men” (7). No matter how good of a person you may be, one effect can change how people see you. To be honest, it is just human nature whether we admit it or not. Even though he was a kind man, he would always be an outcast.

Nathaniel Hawthorne's "The Minister's Black Veil" embodies the hidden sins that we all hide and that in turn distance us from the ones we love most. Reverend Hooper dons a black veil throughout this story, and never takes it off. He has discerned in everyone a dark, hidden self of secret sin. In wearing the veil Hooper dramatizes the isolation that each person experiences when they are chained down by their own sinful deeds. He has realizes that symbolically everyone can be found in the shadow of their own dark veil. Hooper in wearing this shroud across his face is only amplifying the dark side of people and the truth of human existence and nature.

“The Minister’s Black Veil” was first published in 1832 and was written during the American Romantic time period. Romanticism was a time period where emotion and beliefs were valued over reason and facts. Nathaniel Hawthorne can be seen as a writer of “Dark Romanticism,” a sub genre of Romanticism with a fascination with horrific themes and the exploration of the psychological effects of sin and guilt, and where the writers focused on judgement, punishment, and self-destruction. Hawthorne’s use of this style of writing sets the tone of the work as a observation of the nature of sin.

For Thoreau, the escape from society was a way to deeply learn about himself and human nature. He writes, “Every morning was a cheerful invitation to make my life of equal simplicity, and I may say innocence, with Nature herself” (Thoreau 72). This simple way of life allowed Thoreau to analyze himself and tendencies within society. He explains the effects of this solitary life on a person: “In proportion as he simplifies his life, the laws of the universe will appear less complex, and solitude will not be solitude, nor poverty poverty, nor weakness weakness” (253). Thoreau was able to discover flaws in society. He states, “... men establish and conform their daily life of routine and habit every where, which still is built on purely illusory foundations” (78). Unlike Hester and Sethe, the societal norms Thoreau experiences are not painful punishments or dehumanizing treatment. However, the “opinion, and prejudice, and tradition, and delusion, and appearance, that alluvion which covers the globe … through poetry, philosophy and religion” (80), can still have a profound and often negative effect on individuals and society as a whole. Thoreau is able to overcome these societal norms because he separates himself from them. Thoreau explains of humankind, “When we are unhurried and wise, we perceive that only great and worthy things have any permanent and absolute existence,-that petty fears and petty pleasures are but the