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Morality in literature
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In the story "The minister's black veil" by Nathaniel Hawthorne there a guy name Mr. Hooper who wore a veil. The reason why he wore the black veil was to symbolized secret sins. The veil is like your inner self that nobody knows about, but you. Mr. Hooper wore the veil because he wore the veil to hide his face from the world and what he did. That show that people can't hide their sins because sins build up and make you have a bad soul so the only way to find peace is through repentance from god. In the story the veil really show how people really act towards the veil. Some was wondering why he was wearing the veil. The congregation and Mr. Hooper fiancé I feel that they was the most disturb by the veil. The congregation deeply respected Mr. Hooper but as soon they saw him throughout the day all that change immediately and some believe that Mr. Hooper is holding a deep sin, they say that Hooper had spelt with a young girl that pass away so now everybody look at him different children flee while the congregation stood and watch him. The reason why Mr. Hooper fiancé didn’t like it because he would not remove his veil even for his own fiancé and he won't tell her the real reason why he wear the …show more content…
Mr. Hooper is trying to teach us a moral lesson to his congregation by wearing the veil that only a man or woman can interpret according to their own consciences. What that mean is that people think their own way inner feeling , so when Hooper was wearing the veil everybody was giving him asking question, gossip; some say that he has gone mad. Even though his wearing the veil for his on reason his using it for everybody else too, showing us that no one's perfect not even a Minister or a Reverends. he don’t want people thinking that this people don’t make mistakes too he want people to know that his still human even though his a leader to the
In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story “The Minister’s Black Veil”, the reader is introduced to Parson Hooper, the reverend of a small Puritan village. One Sunday morning, Hooper arrived to mass with a black veil over his impassive face. The townspeople began to feel uneasy due to their minister’s unusual behavior. When Parson appeared, “Few could refrain from twisting their heads towards the door; many stood upright….” (Monteiro 2). Throughout the story Hooper does not take off the black veil and the townspeople, including Reverend Clark from a nearby village, treat him as if he were contagious disease. A veil typically is used to represent sorrow, but in this story it is used to represent hidden sins. No one exactly knows why he
Minister Hooper is a very good man, believes solely in Christ, and throughout the story we come to see how his views on religion reflect his humanity and humility. In “The Minister’s Black Veil,” Minister Hooper dons a black veil that causes an eruption of gossip in his community. The townspeople do not have any clue as to why he is wearing this black veil and see it as scary and devilish. The people in the community believe that Minister Hooper is wearing the veil to cover up a horrible sin. This may not be the case, however, because he may be wearing it as a symbol of his faith.
Mr. Hooper the minister’s is perceived to be a “self-disciplined man”. When he was wearing the veil people in his village believed that he went insane and is guilty of a dark and terrible sin. “He has changed himself into something awful, only by hiding his face” (1253).The author explains how Mr.Hooper would wear a mask to hide his sins and face which cause people to believe he was awful. The veil becomes the center of discussion for all of those in the congregate the mask all the people wore around others to hide their sins and embraces there guilty. Elizabeth in the story ends her relationship with Mr. Hooper because he will not remove the veil that he's wearing. The veil actually symbolize for the puritans belief that all people souls are black from
In the novel The Scarlet Letter and the short story “The Minister’s Black Veil”, Nathaniel Hawthorne incorporates romantic elements, such as beauty, truth, innocence, and sin, in his criticism of Puritan societies. In both texts, Hawthorne argues that all people, even those in strictly religious societies with corrupted standards, are capable of sin. Hawthorne uses symbolism and light and dark imagery to convey his argument.
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.
The short story “The minister's black veil” by Nathaniel Hawthorne is about a minister whose wears a black veil as a symbol of how mankind in his/her nature is a sinner and whose faith is blinded as a black veil covers your eyes. The book more talks about how the minister is seen by the town after covering his face. “The birthmark” is another book by Nathaniel Hawthorne it talks about a married couple, the husband who is a man of science and the wife who is a woman of nature.The book describes the husband's search for perfection of his wife and the fight between nature and science. Both of Hawthorne’s book contain a description of nature guilt and sins.
In “The Minister’s Black Veil” Mr. Hooper shocks his townspeople by putting a veil permanently on his face. The veil is a paradox of concealment and revelation (Carnochan 186). Although it is concealing Mr. Hooper’s face, it is made to reveal the sins in society. The townspeople first believed that the veil was being used to hide a sin that Mr. Hooper had committed. Mr. Hooper says that the veil is supposed to be a symbol of sins in general, however the townspeople ignore the message and still focus on his sinfulness. The townspeople know that they have sinned, but they use Mr. Hooper as their own “veil” to hide their sins. Because the townspeople are so caught up on his sins, they fail to figure on the message behind Mr. Hooper’s action and
Mr. Hooper’s veil is very sentimental to him. His veil is looked at in different ways, it can symbolize the confession of his sins or a way to hide his sins. Mr. Hooper showed honesty toward his veil. He didn’t take it off even when people tempted him to take it off, specifically when his soon to be wife debated with him to take the veil off who was pretty much the only person who had the courage to go up and talk to him about the veil, he then rebuttled and told her he can not take it off. People around were thinking he was hiding secret sin, but we really don’t know why Mr. Hooper wore that veil, but for whatever the reason was, Mr.Hooper was being honest in whatever the reason was he wore that veil, to either show he is confessing his sins and showing that he is a sinner or a symbolic way to show that we are all sinners and we all have masks but the only difference is that his veil is
In the short story, “The Minister’s Black Veil,” Nathaniel Hawthorne tells the Mr. Hooper’s black veil and the words that can describe between him and the veil. Hawthorne demonstrates how a black veil can describe as many words. Through the story, Hawthorne introduces the reader to Mr. Hooper, a parson in Milford meeting-house and a gentlemanly person, who wears a black veil. Therefore, Mr. Hooper rejects from his finance and his people, because they ask him to move the veil, but he does not want to do it. In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Minister’s Black Veil”, Mr. Hooper’s black veil symbolizes sins, darkness, and secrecy in order to determine sins that he cannot tell to anyone, darkness around his face and neighbors, and secrecy about the black veil.
By the next day, even the local children are talking of the strange change that seems to have come over their minister. Yet, no one is able to ask Mr. Hooper directly about the veil, except for his
The corruption of hidden sin and guilt is exemplified by the late Gilbert Parker who once said, “In all secrets there is a kind of guilt… Secrecy means evasion, and evasion means a problem to the mortal mind.” Nathaniel Hawthorne, one of America’s major authors, often wrote about the harsh realities of human existence such as sin, redemption, and morality. In “Minister’s Black Veil,” the main character, Reverend Hooper, wears a veil over his face during his sermons. Though his sermons are very powerful, a feeling of fear and mystery is evoked in the congregation and often in everyday life due to the strange veil that he refuses to remove. On his deathbed, miraculously, Hooper still has enough strength to resist his veil being lifted; his eyes forever covered, he dies with the veil. Hawthorne uses symbols of the black veil to portray hidden sin, guilt, and peculiar shame attaching to sin in Puritan beliefs.
He going against everyone else 's beliefs not caring about what they think of him for wearing it. Before everyone would invite him over and greet him and now they were all ignoring him. He was wearing the veil to show people that you shouldn 't hide or runaway from your sins. They are still there no matter how much you try to ignore them and try to act like they don 't happen. Even though he 's wearing the veil he says it doesn 't make him any better than those who are judging him for it. The main character loses all of his friends and loved ones because he isn 't backing down to what they have to say about him and his viel. He went against society by never giving it to what everyone else wanted him to do he wore the veil until death. In “Nathaniel Hawthorne: A Biography” by Metzler He said Hawthorne had a dramatic skill that helped him come up with a lot of his characters. Also that most of his tales are filled with depressing, hopeless, religious meanings.
Furthermore, the reader can understand that the ministers black veil had been used to hide his affair after a maiden died and was put into a cemetery. Because of this affair he secretly hides his sin and tries to make up for his sin by helping others in their sins so he can get peace with himself. Also, when his
416), while it gave Hooper a more intimidating, enigmatic and somewhat inhuman demeanor that isolated him from the community his services were still available for his community. The book even says that it “enabled him to sympathize with all dark affections” (pg. 416) as many people, particularly the ones who were guilty of ‘secret sin’ felt comfortable and/or compelled by Hooper into confessing their sins. The people felt that they could tell him everything they kept secret, because the veil’s “gloom” and foreboding aura gave him the same aura of mystery. The black veil kind of symbolizes a cover-up that humans use every day to hide their real feelings and thoughts, as many people are never truly honest with others and each convey some sort of secret. It appears that the idea in this story is that humans by nature are sinful and are all guilty of some hidden sin that they try to keep in the dark because having sins is not considered human or moral. It’s not a very positive outlook on humans, but the book does seem to convey that idea, as Reverend Hooper himself is a flawed man guilty of secret sin as revealed in the end, making him no different from the rest of the townsfolk who have their own sins that they hide. However, it also shows that humans are hypocritical by nature because they are so flawed as in the end Hooper proved that he did exactly practice what he
The Minister's Black Veil By Nathaniel Hawthorne Anti-Transcendentalists believed that everything has a good or evil side, and that the truths about these matters would be terrifying and disturbing. Both of these views are represented in the story, The Minister's Black Veil, where Mr. Hooper wear's a black veil to conceal his hidden sin. He can't understand why everyone judges him differently just because of his black veil. These contrasting views help us view ourselves and how we should view others. In the story, one day out of the blue Mr. Hooper just starts wearing this black veil and the people have no idea why he is wearing this piece of crape. They then start treating him different because they don't like the black veil. They also can't see his face and that bugs them. They feel that their minister has gone mad. All the congregational members can do is sit and whisper among themselves and try and figure out what Mr. Hooper is trying to accomplish by having this covering on half of his face. What they really don't know is that Mr. Hooper has this veil on half of his face because he is trying to hide his secret sin. He doesn't want to look the world with his face because he doesn't want them to see him and look in his eyes and be able to tell that he is hiding something that he doesn't want anyone to know about. Even his fiancé tries to get him to remove the horrid veil and he said he would when the hour is to come.