“The Minister's Black Veil” by Nathaniel Hawthorne and “The Doll's House” by Katherine Mansfield, both describe close-knit communities running rampant with gossip and a strongly enforced need to ‘fit in.’ In the stories, the close-knit communities marginalize Reverend Hooper and the Kelvey sisters with their prejudiced notions, but their pressure to conform to the norms is rejected. Hawthorne and Mansfield depict social isolation as a vehicle for the removal of social barriers and fostering self-introspection. Hawthorne uses dark and ominous imagery to emphasize the challenges of maintaining one’s principles in the face of community opposition, while Mansfield employs intimate diction and humble imagery to characterize the compassion and gentle kindness of the Kelvey sisters. …show more content…
Throughout the story, Hawthorne’s depiction of Mr. Hooper encapsulates his heavy and mysterious aura, despite his “kind dignity” to the congregation (Hawthorne 4). The veil creates an immediate barrier between Hooper and his congregation when “a cloud seemed to have rolled dusky from beneath the back crape, and dimmed the light of the candles.” Disregarding his act of holy prayer, the community is unable to see past their perception of the veil and formulate their own flat characterizations of Hooper. Moreover, Hawthorne highlights Hooper’s isolation with his use of dramatic irony when Squire Saunders, “doubtless by an accidental lapse of memory, neglected to invite Mr. Hooper to his table” (Hawthorne 4). Hooper is acutely aware of the town’s mistreatment of him, but stays true to his purpose and principles. However, he experiences extreme emotional turmoil in this process. The veil becomes a catalyst for self-introspection, as Hooper himself acknowledges the personal toll of his choice:
Hooper was an all-round good minister, the type people looked up to and “had a reputation of a good preacher, but not an energetic one: he strove to win his people heavenward by mild, persuasive influences rather than thither by the thunders of the Word” (Monteiro 2). The morning he decided to wear the veil, the towns people believed there was a change in his behavior. “But there was something…it was tinged, rather more darkly than usual, with the gentle gloom of Mr. Hooper’s temperament” (Monteiro 2). His fiancé leaves the engagement, leaving him to become emotionally and physically insane. At the end of the story, he is on his death bed where he reveals the veils
Mr. Hooper in “The Minister’s Black Veil” puts on a veil to symbolize “those sad mysteries which we hid[e] from our nearest and dearest, and would fain conceal from our own consciousness, even forgetting that the Omniscient can detect them” (Hawthorne 310). From the moment the townsfolk see the black veil they become very frightened and intimidated by Mr. Hooper, the citizens felt that “the black veil seemed to hang down before his heart” (Hawthorne 308). People became very frightened even the “most innocent girl, and the man of hardened breast” (Hawthorne 312) Mr. Hooper puts this crape on as a “symbol of a fearful secret between him and them” and because of this society chastises him and makes him out to be a...
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
Hooper delivers his sermon, which is about how everyone has a secret sin that acts as a barrier between themselves and the others around them, with a black veil covering his face, “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.” (106). The message of his sermon, paired with the veil, causes the townspeople to feel as if Mr. Hooper can see their individual secret sins and expose them to the public, which, in a Puritanical society, makes one vulnerable to public punishment or ostracism by the community. Due to their fears of having their Christian facades shattered and their subsequent sinful natures revealed, the townspeople alienate the minister. This reflects hypocrisy in the sense that their fears come from knowing they are essentially living double lives, which causes more hypocritical behavior to arise in the form of treating their minister in quite the opposite way one should treat a human being, especially one who serves the church in such a high position. Furthermore, on his deathbed, Mr. Hooper points out the townspeople’s hypocrisy when he exclaims, “Why do you tremble at me alone? Tremble also at each other. . . .I look around me, and, lo! on every visage a Black Veil!” (118). Through this exclamation, he is trying to urge the townspeople to reveal their secret sins and stop hiding under a
His lover, Elizabeth, leaves him, because he refuses to take the veil off. The plot to the story is that Parson Hooper tries to overcome the gossiping of the town, and make people accept him. However, his plan backfires and they reject him. “ Mr Hooper had the reputation of a good preacher, but not an energetic one: he strove to win his people heavenward, rather than to drive them thither,” states Hawthorne. The sermon he gives with the black veil on his face, is the same style and manner he gave the last sermon.
“Lift the veil but once and look me in the face.”, “Never! It cannot be!”, ` “Then farewell.”(Hawthorne, Pg 5). This shows that even the love of his life has alienated Hooper because of the veil. As time went on, people would continuously alienate him. People were not talking to him and children screaming and running away. This goes to show that the town folks only judge others based on by the person's appearance. Hooper's personality hasn't changed a bit from before he started to wear the black veil yet the people still choose to alienate him. One of the critiques states that Hooper is doing a favor for the town folks. “the wearing of the veil can be seen as an ethical move in which Hooper takes the sin of the entire community.”(Boone, par 4). This shows that Hooper is acting as a scapegoat for the people. On his deathbed, Hooper finally reveals why he has worn the veil all his life, “on every visage a black veil.”(Hawthorne, Pg 7). He finally showed that everyone has a secret sin within them and they are all wearing a black veil so they shouldn't judge others just by their appearance.
Nathaniel Hawthorne in “The Minister’s Black Veil” is able to show the hypocrisy and the overemphasis of the Puritan people and their beliefs by engaging the reader in this short story by using “a gentlemanly person” (409) who decides to start wearing a black veil over his face. As Milford’s finest gather on “the porch of [the] meeting house” (409) and enjoy the hope of another Sunday service, the townspeople’s sunny disposition and picturesque setting soon changes as Parson Hooper emerges with a “simple piece of crape” covering his face. This unusual appearance of the Reverend to the townspeople even has some of them feeling faint and forcing some women “of delicate nerves to leave the service” (410). Even though Parson Hooper’s demeanor and his polite and gracious behavior is the same as always, and his preaching is much more interesting and entertaining, the townspeople perceive their minister far differently. As Parson Hooper continues to don the veil, people start to stare at him and rumors begin to fly, especially since his sermon dealt with the topic of secret sin. As the people make him a social pariah, Parson Hooper becomes a representation of hidden sin and an object of dread. Even as death knocks on his door, Parson Hooper still will not allow himself to be unveiled, in fact, Hooper finally reveals that no one should be afraid of him, but of one another because “men avoided me, and women shown no pity, and children screamed and fled” (417) all because of a simple black veil. Through the use of symbols, Hawthorne is able to use this short story to prove that the community people and the Puritan’s religion and their beliefs are hypocritical and over zealous.
During the last scene of the story, Mr. Hooper is laying in his death bed with the minister of Westbury, Elizabeth and a handful of others by his side. The minister of Westbury attempts to convince Mr. Hooper to take off his veil. Mr. Hooper refuses, shouting, “Never...On earth never!” (7). The minister exclaims, “With what horrible crime are you passing judgment”, which causes Mr. Hooper to let out how he is feeling about the village (7). He was disgusted that they were so concerned with his veil that they started to avoid him. From this death scene, the reader begins to notice all of the tragic consequences which were caused from the village’s assumptions about Mr. Hooper.
Hooper’s black veil also creates separation between him and happiness. “All through life that piece of crape had hung between him and the world: it had separated him from cheerful brotherhood and woman’s love, and kept him in that saddest of all prisons his own heart; and still it lay upon his face, as if to deepen the gloom of his darksome chamber, and shade him from the sunshine of eternity” (Hawthorne 417). He can never receive sympathy or have conversations with people because they are always perplexed by the veil. Children in the town run from him because of his appearance. Even his wife, Elizabeth, leaves him because she does not understand the meaning of the black veil and she cannot bear to look at it for the rest of her life. The separation that the veil causes between Mr. Hooper and happiness symbolizes how sin can easily separate people from good things in life. Just like the black veil, some sins can even destroy relationships or a person’s dreams. Sin can overall control an individual’s happiness like the veil did to Mr.
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.
{NEED A TOPIC SENTENCE} The very beginning of the story is a portrait of a happy everyday life in Milford - merry children are willing to make fun of a graver's gait, spruce bachelors are looking sidelong at the pretty maidens and a sexton is tolling the bell - and its light-hearted mood contrasts with that of the rest of the story. It gives us a taste of what the parson's life was like before his decision to wear his black veil.When Mr. Hooper appears wearing a black veil “[s]wathed about his forehead, and hanging down over his face, so low as to be shaken by his breath” (1) a period of alienation starts in his life. This event is not expected since Mr. Hooper is “a gentlemanly person” (1) and has the reputation of a “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” (2). The veil itself, Hawthorne tells us, consists of two folds of crape which entirely conceal Mr. Hooper's features, "except the mouth and chin, but probably did not intercept his sight, further than to give a darkened aspect to all living and inanimate things"(1). E. Earle Stibitz explains how Mr. Hopper’s is shown as an “essentially weak man, poorly prepared by his unmarried solitude, his somewhat morbid temperament, and his professional position to deal in a stable way with an absorbing religious idea that harmonizes with his personal and vocational prejudices(188).
Looking at A Doll House by Henrik Ibsen and The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde through a societal lense aids the reader in developing a new understanding for the upper class, one that is very shallow, superficial, and scandalous.
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.
Sorrow and angst swirled inside; Elsie and Lil captivated me by their strength. Society can have a profound impact on a child’s view and perceptions of the world, dictating the cultural norms on how we treat those in different social classes. In The Doll’s House by Katherine Mansfield, we see the theme of class distinction and the influences a parent has on how children view the world. Furthermore, society’s norms impact upon Kezia, Elsie and Lil.
In “The Doll’s House” by Katherine Mansfield, the lamp is an important image that repeats throughout the story. “The Doll’s House” explores the separation of social classes between the rich and poor families seen throughout. This is symbolized by the contrast of the lamp’s importance to that of the rest of the doll’s house. The lamp is overlooked by most of the characters who observe the house. This act is comparable to the town’s high-class families, who discriminate against the Kelvey family due to their lower social class. Secondly, the lamp symbolizes the personality of the main character, Kezia. Unlike other characters, who prefer the more extravagant objects in the house, Kezia’s favourite part of the doll’s house is the lamp itself.