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Hawthorne 's literary style and themes
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Hawthorne and his writing's impact
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“Solitary Confinement” “Swathed about his forehead, and hanging down over his face, so low as to be shaken by his breath, Mr. Hooper had on a black veil.” Hawthorne’s “The Minister’s Black Veil” begins with a description of Mr. Hooper and his veil, but much of the rest of the short story encompasses the guilt culture of the Puritans. Hawthorne, though writing in the 1800’s, depicted the Puritans as a people with an obsession for purity and a persecuting spirit for a secret sin that every human possesses. In “The Minister’s Black Veil” and “Young Goodman Brown”, Hawthorne isolates his characters to illustrate the compulsion of judgement that the Puritan culture embodied. Young Goodman Brown mentally isolates himself from society due to paranoia. …show more content…
Hooper becomes socially isolated due to an obsession of purity. He wears a black veil to examine the sin of others. “I look around me, and, lo! On every visage a Black Veil!” (35). The sight of black veils on all illustrates sin of the individuals in the community. His obsession with sin, represented by the veil, socially ostracises Hooper from society. Hence, he wears the veil, and members of the community detach him from society. “She withdrew her arm from his grasp, and slowly departed, pausing at the door, to give one long shuddering gaze, that seemed to penetrate the mystery of the black veil” (32). His wife, Elizabeth, “walks out on him” due to the black veil. As she walks out Hooper thinks “that only a material emblem had separated him from happiness, through the horrors, which it shadowed forth must be drawn darkly between the fondest of lovers” (32). Hooper concludes that his wife leaving is better than to be with someone who bears sin. Hence, he continues to wear the veil and the public continue to judge him. On his deathbed, a minister requests to remove his veil to see his pious face. However, Hooper responds “Have men avoided me, and women shown no pity, and children screamed and fled, only for my black veil?” (35). Hooper accuses the public of not focusing on their own sins. During his final hours, Reverend Hooper insists that he still judge the sin of others through the veil. Reverend Mr. Clark says “my soul hath a patient weariness until that veil be …show more content…
Through Hawthorne’s themes, one can detect his outlook of inevitable sin. His vision of the human heart as a place for sin occurs numerous occasions throughout his work. Goodman Brown has hope in the beginning. “But where is Faith? Thought Goodman Brown; and, as hope came into his heart, he trembled” (43). However, due to inevitable sin, Brown loses all hope “they carved no hopeful verse upon his tombstone, for his dying hour was gloom” (45). Since Hooper is hopeless, he falls into a moral hypocrisy which isolates himself. Also, Hawthorne had a grandfather who was a judge in the Salem Witch Trials. One can observe the shame that Hawthorne expresses towards the former judge and being related to him in his narratives. Similarly, Mr. Hooper becomes a recipient of shame. “Dark old man! exclaimed the affrighted minister, with what horrible crime upon your soul are you now passing to the judgement” (35). Hawthorne isolates his characters due to a historical occurrences and his the guilt culture of the
Mr. Hooper the minister’s is perceived to be a “self-disciplined man”. When he was wearing the veil people in his village believed that he went insane and is guilty of a dark and terrible sin. “He has changed himself into something awful, only by hiding his face” (1253).The author explains how Mr.Hooper would wear a mask to hide his sins and face which cause people to believe he was awful. The veil becomes the center of discussion for all of those in the congregate the mask all the people wore around others to hide their sins and embraces there guilty. Elizabeth in the story ends her relationship with Mr. Hooper because he will not remove the veil that he's wearing. The veil actually symbolize for the puritans belief that all people souls are black from
Minister Hooper is a very good man, believes solely in Christ, and throughout the story we come to see how his views on religion reflect his humanity and humility. In “The Minister’s Black Veil,” Minister Hooper dons a black veil that causes an eruption of gossip in his community. The townspeople do not have any clue as to why he is wearing this black veil and see it as scary and devilish. The people in the community believe that Minister Hooper is wearing the veil to cover up a horrible sin. This may not be the case, however, because he may be wearing it as a symbol of his faith.
Throughout Hawthorne’s short stories which examine secret sin based in Puritan societies, the protagonist, Mr. Hooper, a preacher in Milford, describes to his wife “Do not desert me though this veil must be between us here on earth” (32). Hooper who has arrived at a point where his community and wife have abandoned him while on his deathbed realizes that he is deserted because of his secret sin. This description of utter loneliness is in contrast with Hawthorne’s portrayal of Hooper, who once was a prominent priest in the Milford area. Hawthorne’s depiction of Mr. Hooper’s secret sin, taking form in the black veil alters his life indefinetely. In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short stories, the author identifies secret sin as the cause of isolation, relationship struggles, and the community’s behavior.
This short story reflects the Puritans’ lifestyle in the early colonial stage by using the black veil of Reverend Hooper to guide people through the sinful and struggling life of the Puritans. “The Minister’s Black Veil” is only one of the great stories written by Nathanial Hawthorne, and there are more Romanticism books like The Scarlet Letter and The House of the Seven Gables, and they also talk about the changes and struggles of human
In “Young Goodman Brown” The woods are characterized as devilish, frightening, and dark as said in the story, “..the traveler knows not who may be concealed by the innumerable trunks and thick boughs overhead, so that, with lonely footsteps, he may yet be passing through an unseen multitude.” (Hawthorne 3) In this Hawthorne shares the point of view of 17th century Puritans, who believed that the New World was something to fear and then dominate. He as well mentions Salem in context to the Salem Witch Trials. For example, Hawthorne uses the names of Goody Cloyse and Martha Carrier. Two of the “witches” killed at Salem, for townspeople in his story. The devil refers to seeing Goodman Brown’s grandfather whipping a Quaker and handing Goodman Brown’s father a flaming torch so that he could set fire to an Indian village during King Philip’s War. Hawthorne usage of this shows that the Salem Puritan town has always had a dark dubious side lurking behind them. His wife Faith, is, of course, symbolic of his faith, and is used as a foil to develop Goodman’s fall into evil. “Faith, as the wife was aptly named, thrust her own pretty head into the street, letting the wind play with the pink ribbons on her caps while she called to Goodman Brown” (Hawthorne 1 ). The pink ribbons that Faith has on her cap represent her purity. The color pink is associated with innocence and ribbons are a modest, innocent decoration Faith is a stand in for the beliefs of his Christian faith. All the evil people he meets in the woods are trying to lead him away from her/it, but he resists. Still, the awful things he sees means that, when he eventually returns, he finds her/it not as comforting as before. Hawthorne also conveys allusion and allegory within his story by the reference of Genesis from the bible. As well as the story
During Goodman Brown’s journey, he recognized Goody Cloyse, his catechism teacher, the preacher, and Deacon Gookin is going to the devil’s meeting. However, after seeing his church members at the devil’s meeting, Goodman says, “My Faith is gone! and There is no good on earth; and sin is but a name. Come devil! for to thee is this world given” (Hawthorne 27). “But, where is Faith?”, asked Goodman Brown (Hawthorne 29). As hope came into his heart, he trembled when he found the pink ribbon of his wife, Faith, in the forest. At that moment, Goodman Brown lost his faith in his family and church members. Goodman becomes unforgiving of others and believes only evil can be created from evil and there is nothing that anyone can do to change it. Here, Hawthorne demonstrates that a naive faith in our family, friends, and church member’s righteousness could lead to distrust. While, “Young Goodman Brown” lives a long life with Faith, he never loses his meanness toward humanity and the evil in the world, “for his dying hour was gloom” (Hawthorne
Nathaniel Hawthorne's knowledge of Puritanism and his close relationship with the religion has impacted his views on those in the society. Hawthorne is critical of the Puritans and he thinks that they are hypocrites for having rules and morals that they do not follow. He sees the underlying sin that others may not. Through his many writings he makes known to his readers that everyone is guilty of sin. The Puritan's main goal was to save themselves from the sin in the world, but Nathaniel Hawthorne portrays their morals and society as troublesome through his works, "Young Goodman Brown," "The Minister's Black Veil," and The Scarlet Letter.
Nathaniel Hawthorne was one of the first American writers to pioneer the unprecedented and unforeseen gothic genre which resulted in the exposure of darker themes across America in the 19th century. This new genre sprouted the “brooding” romantics who revolved around the human’s capacity for evil as a main theme of their works. Being one of the “brooding” romantics, Hawthorne followed the Puritans’ belief that everyone is a sinner as a result of being a descendent of the Puritans associated with the infamous Salem witchcraft trials. Not only was he related to the despicable Puritans, but also, he had to live with the guilt that his dishonorable great-great grandfather, Judge Hathorne, was “the only one who refused to apologize for his role
In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story “The Minister’s Black Veil”, the reader is introduced to Parson Hooper, the reverend of a small Puritan village. One Sunday morning, Hooper arrived to mass with a black veil over his impassive face. The townspeople began to feel uneasy due to their minister’s unusual behavior. When Parson appeared, “Few could refrain from twisting their heads towards the door; many stood upright….” (Monteiro 2). Throughout the story Hooper does not take off the black veil and the townspeople, including Reverend Clark from a nearby village, treat him as if he were contagious disease. A veil typically is used to represent sorrow, but in this story it is used to represent hidden sins. No one exactly knows why he
The story “The Minister’s Black Veil” is symbolic of the hidden sins that we hide and separate ourselves from the ones we love most. In wearing the veil Hooper presents the isolation that everybody experiences when they are chained down by their own sins. He has realized that everybody symbolically can be found in the shadow of their own veil. By Hooper wearing this shroud across his face is only showing the dark side of people and the truth of human existence and nature.
In “The minister’s black veil” The black veil Mr.hooper puts on is to prevent people from spying on his private life. The veil symbolized that human nature is blinded by sins and they way the town treated him after he started wearing the veil shows that there faith is blind they couldn't understand where he was coming from. “ Mr. Hooper's conscience tortured him for some great crime too horrible to be entirely concealed, or otherwise than so obscurely intimated. Thus, from beneath the black veil, there rolled a cloud into the sunshine, an ambiguity of sin or sorrow, which
“The Minister’s Black Veil” and “Young Goodman Brown” have many similarities. Both stories have similar writing styles, settings, and themes. Since both these stories were written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, they have many similarities.
Throughout Nathaniel Hawthorne 's literary work, The Minister 's Black Veil, the sensation of the veil, the separation it creates from good things in life, and the persistence of the black veil on earth symbolize sin in mankind. During the whole parable, Mr. Hooper is restrained by the black veil and cannot live a free, enjoyable life. Also, people around him cannot tolerate the overwhelming, dark feeling that the black veil generates. Similarly, sin can take over people’s lives and create a feeling of hopelessness and gloom. Hawthorne’s parable overall demonstrates power and impact of sin on
From the beginning of the story, Mr. Hooper comes out wearing a black veil, which represents sins that he cannot tell to anyone. Swathed about his forehead, and hanging down over his face, Mr. Hooper has on a black veil. Elizabeth urged, “Beloved and respected as you are, there may be whispers that you hid your face under the consciousness of secret sin” (Hawthorne 269). His fiancé says that in the black veil there may be has a consciousness of secret sin. Also, he is a parson in Milford meeting-house and a gentlemanly person, so without the veil, Hooper would be a just typical minister, “guilty of the typical sins of every human, but holier than most” (Boone par.7). He would be a typical minister who is guilty of the typical sins of every human without the black veil. Also, Boone said, “If he confesses his sin, the community can occur” (Boone par.16). If he confesses his sin about the black veil, all of the neighbors will hate him. Last, he said, “so, the veil is a saying: it is constantly signifying, constantly speaking to the people of the possibility of Hooper’s sin” (Boone par.11). Mr. Hooper’s veil says that he is trying to not tell the sins about the black veil. In conclusion, every people have sins that cannot tell to anyone like Mr. Hooper.
416), while it gave Hooper a more intimidating, enigmatic and somewhat inhuman demeanor that isolated him from the community his services were still available for his community. The book even says that it “enabled him to sympathize with all dark affections” (pg. 416) as many people, particularly the ones who were guilty of ‘secret sin’ felt comfortable and/or compelled by Hooper into confessing their sins. The people felt that they could tell him everything they kept secret, because the veil’s “gloom” and foreboding aura gave him the same aura of mystery. The black veil kind of symbolizes a cover-up that humans use every day to hide their real feelings and thoughts, as many people are never truly honest with others and each convey some sort of secret. It appears that the idea in this story is that humans by nature are sinful and are all guilty of some hidden sin that they try to keep in the dark because having sins is not considered human or moral. It’s not a very positive outlook on humans, but the book does seem to convey that idea, as Reverend Hooper himself is a flawed man guilty of secret sin as revealed in the end, making him no different from the rest of the townsfolk who have their own sins that they hide. However, it also shows that humans are hypocritical by nature because they are so flawed as in the end Hooper proved that he did exactly practice what he