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The Minister’s Black Veil is by Nathanial Hawthorne and is about Mr. Hooper the minister wearing a black veil to show that he has sinned in his life. The Ministers Black Veil is a symbol of sin because it shows isolation, adultery, and mirror images. The story takes place in the New England Congregationalist community. Mr. Hooper was well known in his community and people looked up to him. The story does not say why he decided to wear the veil but we can come to the conclusion that he has done something terrible. He has a girlfriend that is named Elizabeth who asks him why he is wearing a veil and demands him to take it off. Mr. Hooper says that one day he will take it off but for now he has to wear it so he is not taking it off. Mr. Hopper says that it is more a, “mortal veil” and that it is not for, …show more content…
Hooper has committed adultery because he wears the black veil right before he has to attend a funeral and makes a commitment that he will not take the veil off at all. After Mr. Hopper attended the funeral a procession tells his partner that, “I had a fancy’, replied she, ‘ that the minister and the maiden’s spirit walking hand and hand,’ And so had I, at the same moment,” said the other” (124). This shows that the funeral Mr. Hooper was attending; the lady and him had some kind of connection. Mr. Hooper could not even tell his girlfriend why he was wearing the veil and when he attended the funeral and a wedding later that night he was still wearing the veil, which shows that he, was evil. We can assume that he committed adultery and that is why he is wearing the black veil and to show the crime of the dark side that he has committed for a constant reminder that he has sinned. He does not tell why he wears the black veil but we can assume that he does not tell why or take it off because he wants this to be between him and God. He wants God to know that he realizes what he has done is a sin and that he is paying for it for the rest of his
“Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” by Jonathan Edwards and “The Minister’s Black Veil” by Nathaniel Hawthorne are both 1700s Puritan works of literature with similarities, as well as differences, from their theme to tone and to what type of literary work they are. Edwards and Hawthorne are both expressing the topics of how people are all sinners, especially in regards to their congregation and that questions their congregation’s faith.
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.
“The Minister’s Black Veil” is a Romanticism short story written by Nathanial Hawthorne, and it is a story about well-respected and loving parson starts to wear a black veil, and he spends his long life isolated by his parishioners and fiancé. This is a short story classifies to Romanticism category which includes the characteristics of valuing feelings, believing supernatural and appreciating individual rights.
In “The Minister’s Black Veil” Mr. Hooper shocks his townspeople by putting a veil permanently on his face. The veil is a paradox of concealment and revelation (Carnochan 186). Although it is concealing Mr. Hooper’s face, it is made to reveal the sins in society. The townspeople first believed that the veil was being used to hide a sin that Mr. Hooper had committed. Mr. Hooper says that the veil is supposed to be a symbol of sins in general, however the townspeople ignore the message and still focus on his sinfulness. The townspeople know that they have sinned, but they use Mr. Hooper as their own “veil” to hide their sins. Because the townspeople are so caught up on his sins, they fail to figure on the message behind Mr. Hooper’s action and
Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Minister’s Black Veil” is about Parson Hooper, a Milford minister, and his black veil. One day, he arrives at mass on the Sabbath with a black veil covering his eyes. The townspeople immediately begin to question; some saying their “parson has gone mad,” while others believe he is covering a sin (1312). The Minister, however, disregards his own strange appearance and the shocked and curious whispering of the townspeople.
The minister's black veil and am i lengend are similar because the black veil and the darkseekers change the identity the main of characters . in the story minister's black veil his wife totally supported the black veil . she wanted him to embrace the way he was and the way he wanted to looked . she convinced him to not care not care about what people use to say . also in the i am legend his wife and daughter had a lot of confidence that he knew what he was doing and knew he would change the world . and when his wife died it allowed him to have more confidence that he could find the cure and fix all the dark seekers. also in both stories there environments also changed. in the story the minister's black veil every where he went people would
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 same thing happens in “The Minister’s Black Veil,” except the reader does not know exactly what secret sin makes Reverend Hooper begin to don the black veil. Many scholars believe that this has something to do with the funeral of the young lady at the beginning of the story. The opinions range from believing that Reverend Hooper loved the girl in secret, to Poe’s believe that Reverend Hooper may have actually been the cause of the girl’s death (Newman 204). Whatever the reason, the minister’s wearing of the veil taints his view of everyone else around him, making all of them look like they are wearing veils as well (Hawthorne 107).
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.
Reverend Hooper's black veil caused alienation from his congregation. The minister did not even move his veil to perform marriages, which the town believed "could portend nothing but evil to the wedding" (Hawthorne 256). This odd piece of clothing caused rumors about the holy man which caused his congregation to doubt his message. The veil "and the mystery behind it, supplied a topic for discussion between acquaintances meeting in the street, and good women gossiping at their open windows" (Hawthorne ...
The Minister's Black Veil By Nathaniel Hawthorne Anti-Transcendentalists believed that everything has a good or evil side, and that the truths about these matters would be terrifying and disturbing. Both of these views are represented in the story, The Minister's Black Veil, where Mr. Hooper wear's a black veil to conceal his hidden sin. He can't understand why everyone judges him differently just because of his black veil. These contrasting views help us view ourselves and how we should view others. In the story, one day out of the blue Mr. Hooper just starts wearing this black veil and the people have no idea why he is wearing this piece of crape. They then start treating him different because they don't like the black veil. They also can't see his face and that bugs them. They feel that their minister has gone mad. All the congregational members can do is sit and whisper among themselves and try and figure out what Mr. Hooper is trying to accomplish by having this covering on half of his face. What they really don't know is that Mr. Hooper has this veil on half of his face because he is trying to hide his secret sin. He doesn't want to look the world with his face because he doesn't want them to see him and look in his eyes and be able to tell that he is hiding something that he doesn't want anyone to know about. Even his fiancé tries to get him to remove the horrid veil and he said he would when the hour is to come.
This idea of original sin says that everyone is born with sin and is inevitable in human nature. In the “Ministers Black Veil” this can be best exemplified by the reaction of the towns-people. As previously mentioned, the towns-people had a negative reaction to the black veil that Hooper wore daily and nor did they think for one moment that this veil was a symbol of their own sin they carry from day to day but it was thought more of a mere imperfection in Hooper. This negative reaction of this simple black crape that hung over Hooper’s face is an example of this idea of original sin in the towns-people. This idea of original sin can also be seen in Hooper for not only wearing the black veil but also, in a way, contradicting himself while wearing the veil. In the story it says, “At that Instant, catching a glimpse of his figure in the looking-glass, the black veil involved his own spirit in the horror with which it overwhelmed all others. His frame shuddered—his lips grew white—he spilt the untasted wine upon the carpet—and rushed forth into the darkness” (413). Before this episode by Hooper takes place though, Hooper attends a funeral during the day and a wedding at night. In my opinion, this represents a contrast between light and dark between not only the funeral and wedding, but also the fact the
The Minister’s Black Veil, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne in 1836, is a parable about a minister, Mr. Hooper, who constantly wears a mysterious black veil over his face. The people in the town of Milford, are perplexed by the minister’s veil and cannot figure out why he insists on wearing it all of the time. The veil tends to create a dark atmosphere where ever the minister goes, and the minister cannot even stand to look at his own reflection. In Nathaniel Hawthorne 's literary work, The Minister 's Black Veil, the ambiance of the veil, separation from happiness that it creates, and the permanency of the black veil symbolize sin in people’s lives.
In the short story, “The Minister’s Black Veil,” Nathaniel Hawthorne tells the Mr. Hooper’s black veil and the words that can describe between him and the veil. Hawthorne demonstrates how a black veil can describe as many words. Through the story, Hawthorne introduces the reader to Mr. Hooper, a parson in Milford meeting-house and a gentlemanly person, who wears a black veil. Therefore, Mr. Hooper rejects from his finance and his people, because they ask him to move the veil, but he does not want to do it. In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Minister’s Black Veil”, Mr. Hooper’s black veil symbolizes sins, darkness, and secrecy in order to determine sins that he cannot tell to anyone, darkness around his face and neighbors, and secrecy about the black veil.
“The Minister’s Black Veil,” by Nathaniel Hawthorne, and “The Pit and the Pendulum,” by Edgar Allen Poe, are two short stories that both exemplify gothic literature. In gothic writing, there are 10 elements that a story could be counted as gothic. One element is the environment. Gothic environment is described as a place that is usually dark, stormy, or foreboding. In “The Pit and the Pendulum,” an example of environment is used when the narrator describes the darkness “The blackness of eternal night encompassed me,”(Poe, 252). The narrator describes the overall environment of the place that he is trapped in. The word, blackness, describes what the narrator is seeing. The narrator talks about how dark the room was, causing him to walk like