Dark Romanticism In The Minister Black Veil

Dark Romanticism in ”The Ministers Black Veil”
Gothic writing is related to a style of fiction that deals with the mysterious or grotesque; Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Ministers Black Veil” is classified as a dark romantic work because it contains the themes of sin, guilt, and looking at the darker side of human life. He had trouble from his early life, his dreary adulthood, and his fascinations with common man. His early and more unsuccessful work is from his silent and productive years.
Hawthorne is a dark romantic because of his early life, dismal adulthood. He grew up without a father, when he was four his father died, leaving his mother and two sisters (Pearson 1). Pearson said the woods helped young Hawthorne heal, when he was young he was considered to be “delicate”, and Hawthorne became a reckless child injuring himself leaving him laid up for almost a year (1). While he was healing he developed a strong love for reading (1). When he was old enough he added a W to his name to escape his ancestor’s background because his great-great-grandfather was a judge at the Salem Witch Trials, and he was the only man to not apologize for sentencing innocent people to their deaths (Allen 454). “I take shame upon myself for their sakes and pray that any curse incurred by them…may now and henceforth removed” (454). Hawthorne was also fascinated by common man because he saw himself different from them, and he avoided failures daily (Bloom 33). Hawthorne didn’t waste his time “chatting” with people especially people who he thought of as fools (33). Hawthorne’s methods were to love and pity mankind more than he mocked them, he never created a character which didn’t possess a soul; another method was to write with a noble respect for his own...

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...regarding the request from the current minister and his wife as he took his last breath his veil stirred a bit, a piece of cloth separated him from the rest of the world it had taken away friendship with his congregation and his relationship with his wife. It settled upon his face, as if to deepen the gloom of his darksome chamber, and shade him from the sunshine of eternity (3).
These points classify Hawthorne as a dark romantic because he had a sad childhood and a stressful adulthood, and his obsession with common people. The years after college his silent and productive years were when Hawthorne became a transcendentalist and he started to write in the style of a dark romantic. His themes of sin, guilt, personal choices, and how individuals deal with the consequences on their decisions played many vital roles in his story helping classify him as a dark romantic.