Hawthorne’s Use of Allegory

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"The Minister's Black Veil" by Nathaniel Hawthorne is a short story that was first published in the 1836 edition of the Token and Atlantic Souvenir and reappeared over time in Twice-Told Tales, a collection of short stories by Nathaniel Hawthorne. The short story narrates the events that follow Reverend Mr. Hooper's decision to start wearing a black veil that obscures his full face, except for his mouth and chin. Mr. Hooper simply arrives one day at the meeting house wearing the semi-transparent black veil and refuses from that moment on to take it off, which leads to the loss of his fiancée and isolation from the world. Mr. Hooper even goes as far as to insist on burial in the black veil. Yet, what is crucial to note are Mr. Hooper's last words to those surrounding his deathbed. Mr. Hooper tells them in anger that all of them wear black veils: “I look around me, and, lo! on every visage a Black Veil!” (Hawthorne). This declaration underlines the meanings of the veil in the story as symbolic of sin, darkness, and the duality within human nature. Thus, "The Minister's Black Veil" by Nathaniel Hawthorne is a literary work of art that demonstrates the author's use of allegory to highlight the psychological angle of the story and characters using agents of symbols, setting, characters, and actions in a coherent way to represent non-literal and metaphorical meanings about the human character (Abrams 7).

The most powerful and foremost symbol, without doubt, is the black veil itself. The black veil comes to represent the darkness and duality of human nature, thereby adding a certain, undeniable psychoanalytical angle to the short story. The black veil represents the sin and gloom that all men carry secretively within their heart as Mr....

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... Mr. Hooper and his wearing of the veil mirror the true nature of humans around him. Only when the true nature of life and the freedom of truth are observed can the veil be lifted.

Works Cited

Abrams, M. H. A Glossary of Literary Terms, 7th ed. New York: Harcourt Brace College Publishers, 1999.

Bell, Millicent. "New Essays on Hawthorne's Major Tales". Cambridge: Cambridge University Press., 1993

Hawthorne, Nathaniel. "The Minister’s Black Veil.” 1836. "The Norton Anthology of American Literature. Ed. Nina Baym et al. 7th ed. Vol. B. New York: Norton, 2007. 1311-1320. Print.

"How symbolism works: Hawthorne's "The Minister's Black Veil"." Kansas State University. n.d. Web. 20 Apr. 2011. .

Stibitz, E. Earle. "Ironic Unity in Hawthorne's 'The Minister's Black Veil'" Illinois: Duke University Press

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