The Minister's Black Veil

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Ever felt like high school was judgemental? Wondered how one piece of cloth could change a man’s life forever? In this story there is a great representation of both. In Hawthrone’s “The Minister’s Black Veil”, the black veil is a symbol which showcases the Puritan’s superficiality and hypocrisy regarding sin. The black veil is a black piece of cloth that the protagonist, Mr. Hooper, decides to wear. Without explanation, the Puritan people were left to react to it as they pleased. Their reactions, however, were not all that positive. The behavior of the Puritan people changes during the time while Mr. Hooper wears the black veil. At first, they are just curious and uneasy about the veil; Hawthrone wrote, “... strange and bewildered looks …show more content…

One was supposed to act saintly, and hide their sins. Especially for a parson, who is supposed to be “above” the others and considered even more so unsinful. Some even go to the length to ignore Parson Hooper’s message. “By persons who claimed a superiority to popular prejudice, it was reckoned merely an eccentric whim…” (246) Overall, the Puritans are not ready to accept the fact that everyone inherently sins, but the black veil brings them face to face with this fact. This black veil of Hooper’s was not only a symbol of his own sin, but a reminder to each person in his village of their own individual sins. Near the end of the short story, Hooper cries “Lo! On every visage, a black veil,” (248) Which referred to everyone around him, as they are all sinners just the same. It was the point Hooper truly wanted to make with his veil. However, no one wanted to admit it as Hooper had, as it was unorthodox. “You know not how lonely I am, and how frightened to be alone behind my black veil.” (245) Up until Hooper’s death, no one ever worked up the courage to stand with him and admit their own sins. As a whole the Puritans were more willing to leave him isolated than try to understand

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    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.

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