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Nathaniel Hawthorne use of symbolism
Symbolism Nathaniel Hawthorne uses in his stories
Dramatic irony in the minister's black veil
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When people are younger they are taught that there are good and bad people, but what if everyone is bad and some are just better at hiding it than others? In “The Minister’s Black Veil”, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Mr. Hooper, a minister in a Puritan community, is seen for the first time by the congregation wearing a black veil. He wears the veil through his sermon and people become uneasy. His wife pleads with him to take it off, but he refuses. Through the entire story Mr. Hooper leaves the veil on. Even after his death the black veil was never removed from his face. Hawthorne uses symbolism, irony, and the reaction of the community to show that most people have a secret sin. Symbolism is used to delineate that the black veil is a representation of the sins we all …show more content…
Mr. Hooper gives this sermon very shortly after the puritan community's first contact with the veil. “The subject had reference to secret sin, and those sad mysteries which we hide from our nearest and dearest, and would fain conceal from our own consciousness, even forgetting that the omniscient can detect them.”(301).the sermon given talks about how even though we may hide it from the people around us we cannot hide it from God himself. The community is unsettled by the sermon. “A subtle power was breathed into his words, 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.”(301). The people in the community that heard the sermon felt as though the minister knew what they were trying to keep hidden from others. Although the people of the community have kept their sins hidden, even from themselves, they now have concluded through the sermon that they are not the only one keeping secrets, but most of the people in the congregation, who felt uneasy, are
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
Another prevalent symbol to me is the idea of sin. In The Ministers Black Veil Hooper just suddenly one day shows up to church wearing a veil. At first the people are sort of angered by it. People soon start to flock to his congregation to view the spectacle, and go so far as to test their '"'courage'"' by seeing who will go and talk to him. I think that the veil could represent sin. In The Ministers Black Veil Hooper was either trying to hide his sin from the people so that they could not judge him, which is god"'"s job, or maybe he was trying to protecting his self from the sins of the people. In the end of The Ministers Black Veil Hooper dies, and sees his congregation all wearing black veils, which would probably hint that maybe it represented the sin in all of us. In The Birthmark Georgiana"'"s birthmark could represent, as some religions believe, the original sin which is bestowed on all by the '"'hand'"' of god. But, unlike Hooper, Georgiana could not help her markings.
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.
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...
Everyone masks themselves with false pride while covering up who they really are. No one is truly and utterly honest with others or even themselves. Such is the case of Mr. Hopper, a pastor who Hawthorne portrays in The Minister’s Black Veil. The story follows his life as a minister who wears a black veil over his face everywhere he goes. Hawthorne uses metaphysical characterization of the black veil in Mr. Hopper’s life to prove that pride causes Christian leadership to be ineffective. Hawthorne shows that pride causes Christian leadership to become ineffective because it creates a false idea of control, it disfigures the proper image of man, it prevents genuine self-examination, it establishes a flaws perspective on the world, and the most
In “The Minister’s Black Veil”, Parson Hooper wears the veil as a visible symbol of sin. It could be interpreted as a representation of his own sins or as a reflection of the sins of the people of the town. Although Parson Hooper tried to teach the people of their sinful nature the town failed to understand the meaning behind the veil and were only concerned with the reason for wearing the veil. They would gossip about him and “talked of little else than Parson Hooper’s black veil,” (Hawthorne “The Minister’s Black Veil” 1315) and they would make up rumors regarding the veil, or that “‘Something must surely be amiss with Mr. Hooper's intellects,’” (Hawthorne “The Minister’s Black Veil” 1314). In the end, he lived a life Hooper lived a life shunned while trying to show to the people the nature of their unavoidable sins and how they should accept their own sins to ask for repentance for their wrong
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.
For example, the town’s people in the “Black Veil” can be seen as evil and sinful. The reason they are thought as evil and sinful is because they say things about him because he is wearing the black veil. This can be seen in Hawthorns the minister and the Black veil when Mr. Hooper says, ”why do you tremble at me? Cried he turning his veiled face around the circle of pale specters. Tremble also at each other! Have men avoided me and women shown no pity, and children screamed and fled only for my Black veil?
Mr. Hooper chooses to give a sermon on secret sin the day he starts wearing the veil. “The subject had reference to secret sin, and those sad mysteries which we hide from our nearest and dearest, and would fain conceal from our own consciousness, even forgetting that the Omniscient can detect them”(pg.3). This can lead us to infer that he uses the veil to make his sermon more effective. The veil actually makes him a better minister because sinners identified with him, “he became a man of awful power over souls that were in agony for sin.”(pg.10) “A subtle power was breathed into his words.”(pg.3), the power that is breathed into his words is a result of the people’s perception of Mr. Hooper; how they associate him with
“For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God” (King James Version, Rom. 3.38 ). This Bible verse appears to encompass Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story “The Minister’s Black Veil”. As with many of his works, Hawthorne draws from his puritan heritage and New England childhood. The setting is in a small puritan village by the name of Milferd. The main character, Reverend Hooper, appears one Sunday with a black veil completely covering his face. Thereafter, he never takes it off, despite gossip and judgement from his parish. Inspiration for this parable stems from Hawthorne knowledge of a man that accidentally murdered his friend, and thereafter wore a black veil. Despite this, there is not a defined reason that is given as to why the main character of this story makes the same decision. This is because the concentration of the story is not on why the minister wears the veil, but rather what the veil represents. “The Minister’s Black Veil” is meant to be a parable to teach the theme that all have sinned. Through analyzing this short story, it can be seen how he extends this relentless motif through symbolism, characters and irony.
Initially, Rev. Hooper is displayed as a mysterious character. He is seen as a mysterious character because of the black veil he wears over his face. In the very beginning of the story Rev. Hooper walks in to the church wearing a black veil. One of the people in the congregation says this about Rev. Hooper “ Our parson has gone mad!” ( Hawthorne 27). Rev. Hooper displays that he is very brave, and trying to send a message by not explaining why he is wearing the veil. He doesn’t care what the people of the community think of him. This also puts his reputation as a preacher on the line. This is one of many ways that Rev. Hooper displays his brave character.
In the short story “The Minister’s Black Veil,” Nathaniel Hawthorne reveals that Mr. Hooper hides his true identity from his congregation. Mr. Hooper knows his congregation makes mistakes but they hide it; Hooper shows his people that he was hiding something by covering his face. He sacrifices his reputation in the community, and his relationship with Elizabeth. Hooper wants his congregation to know that it’s okay to accept your sin.
As Mr. Hooper goes on to preach about “secret sins” and that humans try to hide there’s from one another, each member of the congregation from “the most innocent girl” to “the man of hardened breasts” begins to feel “as if the preacher had crept upon them, behind his awful veil, and discovered their hoarded iniquity of deed or thought.” It upset the towns’ people that he wears this black cloth without any explanation for it, even though no one actually asks him. The community is not afraid of this piece of cloth itself, but that they are afraid of what the cloth must symbolizes. Mr. Hooper chooses to wear the veil to signify the sins and secrets that we try to hide from one another, as well as ourselves. We hide this sin from the people that we love and refuse to share it to the people were closes to. That every day we don’t decide to share our “secret sin” it is eating away at us and slowly killing us. The veil’s haunting presence forces the community to look deep within themselves and face their own secrets. Every
As a minister Mr. Hooper’s role in the short story is quite literally a messenger whose role is to teach the congregation that sin must be accepted in life and can only be judged by God. “Good Mr. Hooper” is completely dedicated to teaching this moral in his own way by wearing the veil which is severely misunderstood by those around him. Even so, the benefit of Mr. Hooper’s attempt is clear as he is the only one to accept that all of his secret sins will be judged at one point. “There is an hour to come,’ said he ‘when all of us shall cast aside our veils.” Mr. Hooper’s words express a careless attitude towards what others think about his actions with the quote “I, perhaps, like most other mortals, have sorrows dark enough to be typified by a black veil.” Because he knows that everyone is trying to judge him, while they themselves also have secret sin. Mr. Hooper’s message
This veil in Hawthorne's story is believed to represent secret sin to the people of the town who gossip about their preacher however, in relation to the fundamentals of