In class we read a short story by Nathaniel Hawthorne about a minister, Mr. Hooper, who shows up one day to preach wearing a black veil. The whole of the congregation were shocked and spent almost the entirety of the story trying to get Mr. Hooper to remove the veil. In the end, Mr. Hooper dies and is buried with the veil. The various aspects of Nathaniel Hawthorne’ life and background influenced the ideas expressed in “The Minister’s Black Veil”, therefore creating the different character and their views.
A large contribution of his ideas came from himself and his beliefs as a Puritan. In the story, when Mr. Hooper shows up with his black veil, his parishioners find his sermon more eerie than they usually are. In the story is says, “It was
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His great great grandfather, William Hathorne, was a very harsh magistrate, or judge, who had, according to an article about Hawthorne, “sentenced a Quaker woman to public whipping.” That article goes on to say that he was a huge defender of Puritan orthodoxy. Later on, William’s son, John, was one of the judges that participated in judging the women during the Salem Witch Trials. Having had two ancestors who had done very horrible things, it seems as though Nathaniel felt shamed. He also thought for a while that having these things in the past are responsible for his family’s decline. All these reasons were to blame for Nathaniel adding a ‘w’ to his name to change it from ‘Hathorne’ to ‘Hawthorne’ to hide the fact that he was in any way related to the fact that he was related to his family. This idea of being shame was shown in the story when Elizabeth came to Mr. Hooper to try and convince him to remove the veil he told her, “‘I, perhaps, like most other mortals, have sorrows dark enough to be typified by a black veil.’” This quote explains that the character, Mr. Hooper, has done things he’s been shameful for, or shameful things that he’s seen done. It shows that Mr. Hooper is sort of being torn at by his own sort of guilt for things in the past. That quote also ties into the fact that Nathaniel Hawthorne felt shamed because of his past and Mr. Hooper does
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
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
This short story reflects the Puritans’ lifestyle in the early colonial stage by using the black veil of Reverend Hooper to guide people through the sinful and struggling life of the Puritans. “The Minister’s Black Veil” is only one of the great stories written by Nathanial Hawthorne, and there are more Romanticism books like The Scarlet Letter and The House of the Seven Gables, and they also talk about the changes and struggles of human
“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.
The damage that can come from assumptions is far greater than most people today realize. “The Minister’s Black Veil” by Nathaniel Hawthorne is a short story which shows the sad truth of how society makes false assumptions about others. Throughout the story, the townspeople’s assumptions regarding Mr. Hooper causes themselves and Mr. Hooper much distress and sorrow.
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.
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.
Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story “The Minister’s Black Veil” manifests a duality of conflict – both an external conflict and an internal conflict. It is the purpose of this essay to explore both types of conflict as manifested in the story.
These words aptly put the reason for his veil and secrecy around the reason for donning a veil “But that piece of crape, to their imagination, seemed to hang down before his heart, the symbol of a fearful secret between him and them.” The veil makes him remote and distant and unapproachable so that people can no longer talk freely with him or ask him questions which are intrusive. so another purpose of the veil can be to keep people at arm’s length and avoid detection of the true sins of the Reverend. The question of the veil also shows the inherent wickedness in the Puritan society as the townspeople gossip about the reason for the veil and attributed it to dark reasons.They ignore The Reverend in happy times and call him only in times of need. Even though the Minister was always present for the townspeople they never return this favor and are unfair to him. Christianity preaches that only God can decide who is worthy of punishment and is actually a sinner but we can see the townspeople acting as judge,jury and executioner in this story. This shows the hypocrisy of a puritan society as they ostracize someone without any such evidence of a crime only based on assumptions. Reverand Hooper had never expressly accepted or denied committing any sin however this does not stop the townspeople from gossiping about it and believing him to be a sinner. They ironically engage in sins of backbiting and ridiculing a person and superior to the Reverend and judge him making them guilty of the sin of pride. The veil symbolises something dark and evil.It may be a symbol of the darkness inside a person’s own soul or of a viel that a person wears between himself and his Lord to hide his shame and guilt. The author shows the effect of the veil on the person in the words that“The black veil, though it covers only our pastor 's face, throws its influence over his whole
“This veil that Mr. Hooper was wearing represents that everyone has something in their hearts that no one else knows about.” As time passed by and the minister still was wearing the veil the townspeople began to become very uncomfortable whenever in his presence. The simple reason behind this is the veil begins to make the congregation fear
The people in the town think that the veil has changed Mr. Hooper, “He has changed himself into something awful, only by hiding his face.”(pg.2) Their reactions demonstrate that they fear what the veil represents, sin. Even though the inhabitants don’t know his secrets he wants them to believe they are dark and represented by the veil. We can see this when he is talking to Elizabeth “I, perhaps, like most other mortals, have sorrows dark enough to be typified by a black veil” (pg.8)
Instead of focusing on being good, religious and moral, they decide to spread rumors and to create theories as to why Mr. Hooper wears his veil. This is stated where people are whispering about Mr. Hooper's past that he had sin, and written "from beneath the black veil, there rolled a cloud into the sunshine, an ambiguity of sin or sorrow." This is giving ideas that can justify Mr. Hooper's past as to why he wears a veil. This detail is placed here because Hawthorne wants to question the Puritans morality; that they can be easily persuaded into badmouthing based on someone's
In “The Minister’s Black Veil”, Nathaniel Hawthorne uses Hooper’s isolation to reveal the judgemental assumptions and moral values of the community. By assuming of the different possibilities of a sin he could have committed, the community demonstrates their true colors. When Hooper first arrives, they are swift to imagine that a grave sin is the purpose for the black veil. Also, by isolating Hooper, the town demonstrates how judgemental they are and how important appearances are to them. Finally, the community fails to realize the intention of the veil by constantly speculating the sin that causes Hooper to wear the veil.
What he has written many have not been a real life example of something that he has actually experienced, but shows or gives us a view of the way society may have been during his time period. A piece of his that shows this is a short story that is called The Minister's Black Veil. In this story, they main character that goes by “mr. Hooper”, decided to let it be known that he has sinned. In doing this he wears a Black Veil that covers his face to right above his lips, so you can only see his mouth move. As soon as this got back to town rumors immediately began circulating among his Puritan parishioners about his reasons for wearing the veil.