Minister's Black Veil: Nathaniel Hawthorne Vs. Jonathan Edwards

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

Nathaniel Hawthorne utilizes the color of the veil, Mr Hooper’s speech to the townspeople, and the contrast of the bad veil in good events to once again showcase his views on the everlasting effect of guilt and sin. While it may be a harsh concept to comprehend, when one comes to terms with this, it leaves a feeling of ease. Once one knows that there is no time of the day where they can be freed of the feeling of guilt is when they can truly love themselves. Remember that sin is like a convenience store, it is open 24/7, and everyone has to take a trip there once in awhile, so there is no reason to be

Both of these stories revolve around a lot of symbolism. These stories, since they really don't make a lot of sense on their own, force the reader to look deeper in an attempt to understand the ideas that Hawthorne tries to get across.

Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Minister’s Black Veil is a story of guilt, humility, sin, hypocrisy, love, compounded emotional stability and trials of life. It is a work of gothic literary art that describes the complexity of emotions and the psychological give and take that takes place when processing and dealing with any human emotion. The gothic writing style Hawthorne uses in The Minister's Black Veil makes it easy for him to focus on one main emotion: guilt. Hawthorne is no stranger to guilt, a huge reason why he discusses its nature so much. The Hawthorne families, formally known as Hathorne, were involved in the Salem Witch Trials and have carried the shame and guilt of their families decisions through generations. Throughout this story,

Curiosity can be an incredible thing as Hawthorne’s own exploration of knowledge led him to discover his lineage’s dark actions against others. This leads him to explore the darker parts of people’s minds and their original sins. From a very young age, Hawthorne’s intelligence was acknowledged and nurtured. So much so that his family hoped he would go to college. He demonstrated an aptitude for journalism from the age of 16. He entered Bowdoin College in 1821 where he proved himself to be a competent, but not always diligent, scholar. He expressed a lack of interest in the professions of law and medicine as his time in college came to an end. He proposed the idea of becoming a writer to his mother. He returned home, only to keep himself in isolation for 11 years. During this time, Hawthorne wrote “Fanshawe”, a novel based off his time at Bowdoin. Time passed and he had begun researching New England history, only to find that one of his Puritan ancestors had “ordered the whipping of a Quaker woman, and another had served as a judge during the Salem witch trials.” It is believed that this guilt of his family history led Hawthorne into analyzing evil of man and the original sins in his works, which was the basis for “The Minister’s Black Veil”. Nathaniel Hawthorne in The Minister's Black Veil portrays moral corruption and sin by acknowledging the corruption of Hooper, the symbolism of sins within the veil, and the people's failure to address their own sins while demonizing

The two texts “Sinners..” by Edwards and “Black Veil” by Hawthorne both have every unique styles and themes in order to teach the reader certain morals. In the passage “Sinners..” Edwards’ theme is to obey God and what he says or you will go to hell,and in the text Edwards’ preaching is very intense and domian which makes up the style. Although, in “Black Veil” the theme is don’t judge people by their appearance and everyone has a secret sin. Hawthorne’s style of writing is very dark, shady, and mysterious. “Black Veil” by Hawthorne was a whole lot more effective.

Hawthorne themes are the focus of evil, human sins associated by the inspiration of human freedom and a host of psychological situations of the characters. “The Minister’s Black Veil” is a story for a typical Puritan setting. It is noted a clarified Calvinism as a maturity religion sort of wove into the story as we go along. It is in fact about a minister, Mr. Hooper, in a small town and this measure one day shows up for his congregation in a black veil. “Mr. Hooper had the reputation of a good preacher, but not an energetic one: he strove to win his people heavenward by mild, persuasive influences, rather than to drive them thither by the thunders of the Word.” (Hawthorne) The black veil is what keeps the minister out of the social world he lives in. It is a little unusual for a minister to be wearing something like that, but there is a reason for it, and

Secondly, both Edgar Allan Poe and Nathaniel Hawthorne share a very similar tone through their writings that affects the perception of evil in their stories. For example, “And now at the dead hour of the night, amid the dreadful silence of that old house, so strange a noise as this excited me to uncontrollable terror”(Poe, 11) represents a nervous, yet saddening tone presented by Allan Poe taking in consideration the repetition of a statement made by the main character in “The Tell-Tale Heart”. As well as Allan Poe, Hawthorne presents a mysterious gloomy tone where the minister’s veil makes the readers question themselves about the main purpose for using the piece of crape. An example of this gloomy and overwhelming mystery tone would be, “When Mr. Hooper came, the first thing that their eyes rested on was the same horrible black veil, which had added deeper gloom to the funeral, and could portend nothing but evil to the wedding” (Hawthorne, 11) letting the readers know that all of the villagers gathered at the funeral disliked the veil, for it only brought more mystery and sadness.

 “Hawthorne himself was preoccupied with the problems of evil, the nature of sin” (Swisher 13). The psychological impact of the veil is that each parishioner feels that “the preacher had crept upon them, behind his awful veil, and discovered their hoarded iniquity of deed or thought”; and “with every tremor of his melancholy voice, the hearers quaked.” Perhaps the rationale behind the black veil is with regard to the impact which it has on their moral lives; each one becomes more aware of the secret sin within himself and thus more morally cautious. Regardless of the reason behind it, the veil causes the congregation to want to get out of church:

Nathaniel Hawthorne is a prominent writer who uses many different elements in his works. He uses elements such as symbolism, figurative language, metaphor, irony and etc. to make his work prominent. In the works by Nathaniel Hawthorne, he uses symbols for secret sin in The Scarlet Letter, “The Minister’s Black Veil,” and “Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment.”

So too do Hawthorne 's short stories vary in how they address sin, but it remains clear that it is the core element of them. Two stories in particular reveal the different approaches to sin taken by Hawthorne. In “The Minister 's Black Veil,” there is a more mysterious and subtle idea of its nature and power, as well as a pronounced support for the idea of human salvation; “Young Goodman Brown,” on the other hand, is a virtually merciless exposing of the most base corruption of mankind, and one rendered all the more horrific by virtue of the Puritan population engaged in it. As the following will illustrate, “The Minister 's Black Veil” and “Young Goodman Brown” offer varying ideas of sin in terms of an overt or more subtle presence, but the two stories combine to strongly reinforce Hawthorne 's ultimate belief in sin as the miserable and true state of humanity.

Nathaniel Hawthorne conveys his purpose through his short story to criticize how society is quick when judging others, while failing to notice their own mistakes. He shows that everyone has a secret sin or dark side to them, but it is hidden behind a metaphorical veil as a sense of self-protection. Nathaniel Hawthorne’s message is supported through the usage of characterization. Towards the beginning of this short story, Mr. Hooper is widely known and seen as humble, modest and a just minister within his society; but this image of his changes when he decides to make his secret sin known by wearing a black veil in a symbolic manner. Mr. Hooper’s reputation is transformed, he is now being harshly judged due to his action.

Nathaniel Hawthorne's “ The Minister's Black Veil “ and Jonathan Edwards “ Sinners In The Hands of An Angry God” are writings that have much significance to religion, having a strong belief in god. “The Minister's black veil “ and “Sinners In The Hands of an angry god: may seem similar since they talk on the behalf of religion, they have differences such as the punishment, damnation, and who the sinners are. Edwards agrees that everyone is predestined and anyone no matter who you are can go to hell. However, Hawthorne believes that everyone carries a secret sin in their hearts and how terrible humans can be on the inside. These two authors have different ties but their main ideas still have ties.

Throughout his literary endeavors, Nathaniel Hawthorne utilizes symbolism to present a certain theme that pertains to human nature and life. In his works, The Scarlet Letter and "The Minister's Black Veil", Hawthorne uses symbolism to present a common theme pertaining to religion; that though manifested sin will ostracize a person from society, un-confessed sin will destroy the soul.

Religiously, Hawthorne suffered. The reader obviously noticed this in “The Minister’s Black Veil.” Hawthorne wrote, “As he prayed, the veil lay heavily” (Arvin 12). This quote showed the reader that a weight needed to be lifted off Hawthorne’s shoulders. Hawthorne wrote about his struggles with his faith by using the tone word “heavily” to show that Hawthorne may have felt like his prayers were pointless because he was so low in his Puritan faith.