The Minister’s Black Veil In the book “The Minister’s Black Veil” is an American Romanticism story written by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Mr. Hooper is the main character of this story. Mr. Hooper is the minister but there's something suspicious about him. He wears a black veil everyday, for couple years, and also when he died. He want to keep it on and wanted no one remove it after he died.Nobody knew why the minister would wear the black veil or why he would never take it off. May clues and reasons but none knew right. This story shows a lot of moral and religious lessons. The characteristics of american romanticism in this book is common . The characters in the story all play different roles and all in their own way add suspense to the story. …show more content…
Mr. Hooper is engaged to Elizabeth but after wearing that black veil the wedding never occurs. Elizabeth is the only one that has the courage to confront him about why he wears the black veil."If I hide my face for sorrow, there is cause enough . . . and if I cover it for secret sin, what mortal might not do the same?"[280] Even though she does not convince Mr. Hooper to remove his black veil, she receives a logical explanation for why he wears his veil. To prove a point or to spread awareness Mr. Hopper is portrayed as an exaggerated character. Mr. Hooper is a mysterious character. He is feared by most of the people in town although he is the minister. He didn't care what people thought about of him wearing the black veil. He would instead of making them comfortable, he would talk about the sins that lay around us. Mr. Hooper didn't like to show his face because he wanted to hide his sorrow. The black veil symbolizes the secret sin or sorrow a person has that is hidden from the people. Not only the person's sin or sorrow but its moral. “But the story is perhaps more about the community and its response to the veil than about the Pastor himself. After he dons the veil, the members of Hooper's congregation shun him in health and happiness, reaching out to him only when they are in anguish. Though the black veil remains an ambiguous symbol, Hawthorne suggests one interpretation through Hooper himself. On his deathbed, Hooper proclaims that his congregation has been so disturbed by the veil because it reminds them of their own secret failings which they try desperately and futilely to hide from each other and even from God” (Kim). Mr hooper only wears that veil not for himself but to show other people or to help them realize their committed sins and sorrows. Mr.hooper is pretty much saying you can't hide your secret from god, so might as well confess it to the world. Also it would be another sin to lie about the sin you made in the first place. They're three levels in the parable understanding the symbolism of the black veil.
The first is the communion of sinners. Hooper tried to get everyone in the town to open up and let go of the “secret sin”. He wanted the town to be sin free and instead of keeping the sin a secret. Facing your sin and not avoiding them is the way hooper wanted the town to be. The second is Morality. We all sin and must accept what we have done, because judgment will come for everyone. Hooper decides to represent hidden sin and guilt in a literal way to reach out. Mr. Hooper tries to make the people of his town to confess and make all their sin not a secret. And the last parable is the communion of sinners. Mr hooper wants to show his people that avoiding the sin is not the way to live. Mr. hooper tries to teach them a lesson but the veil is just making people uncomfortable. The veil should only be seen once or twice a week, not everyday. A secret sin cannot be hidden from god. The biggest sin is keeping a sin a secret, making the sinner a greater sin. “And though this antipathy makes plausible the theory that the veil represents some terrible sin, the minister's otherwise impeccable conduct suggests that the veil must instead represent a great sorrow” (Kim). Mr. Hooper wears the veil to show his
sorrow. “In order to be a member of the Puritan church, one had to know and believe its doctrines, to live a moral life, and to prove that he or she was one of the elect. While early on, one simply had to describe his or her conversion to provide the necessary proof of election, later applicants were required to give an account of the process by which they prepared for conversion. Even if one were accepted into the church and possessed all the outward signs of election, he or she could not truly be certain of salvation until death./The minister's black veil, especially when first worn while giving a sermon on secret sin, likely represented for the congregation their private doubts concerning their own salvation. Hawthorne writes that the veil made "the most innocent girl, and the man of hardened breast, [feel] as though the preacher had crept upon them, behind his awful veil, and discovered their hoarded iniquity of deed or thought" (Kim). Everyone has a sin but not everyone is brave enough to confess. This lesson of what Mr. hooper is trying to show is that do not ignore the fact that you have committed a sin. The main theme of this story is to show the secret sin. The story symbolizes the black veil and the minister. Having a minister wearing a black veil is very unusual and weird, something has to be up. Towards end of the book, the meaning of the veil somewhat changes. “The minister's black veil, especially when first worn while giving a sermon on secret sin, likely represented for the congregation their private doubts concerning their own salvation. Hawthorne writes that the veil made "the most innocent girl, and the man of hardened breast, [feel] as though the preacher had crept upon them, behind his awful veil, and discovered their hoarded iniquity of deed or thought". / In "The Minister's Black Veil," Hawthorne demonstrates the Puritan belief in the supernatural by having two members of the congregation simultaneously have a "fancy … that the minister and the [deceased] maiden's spirit were walking hand in hand". The entire story is imbued with the sense that the veil is a successful attempt on the part of Hooper to remind his congregation that the spiritual realm always coexists with the reality of everyday life”(Kim). The veil represents many things for instance a secret sin and a barrier from the people. What i have learn is that secret sins aren't good to keep. Everybody has keep something inside of them that hurt them. This story wasn't the type of romantic i thought it was, it was more like a short suspenseful story.
In reality the black veil was worn to teach a lesson. The lesson was to show how easily people are judged when unaware of one’s true intentions. This being said, Hooper is explaining how he was judged and his life changed for the worst just because he was wearing the black veil; he was hated for something that his friends and family had no clue about, but believed it was for the
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.
“Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” by Jonathan Edwards and “The Minister’s Black Veil” by Nathaniel Hawthorne are both 1700s Puritan works of literature with similarities, as well as differences, from their theme to tone and to what type of literary work they are. Edwards and Hawthorne are both expressing the topics of how people are all sinners, especially in regards to their congregation and that questions their congregation’s faith.
“The Minister’s Black Veil” is a Romanticism short story written by Nathanial Hawthorne, and it is a story about well-respected and loving parson starts to wear a black veil, and he spends his long life isolated by his parishioners and fiancé. This is a short story classifies to Romanticism category which includes the characteristics of valuing feelings, believing supernatural and appreciating individual rights.
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...
In “The minister’s black veil” The black veil Mr.hooper puts on is to prevent people from spying on his private life. The veil symbolized that human nature is blinded by sins and they way the town treated him after he started wearing the veil shows that there faith is blind they couldn't understand where he was coming from. “ Mr. Hooper's conscience tortured him for some great crime too horrible to be entirely concealed, or otherwise than so obscurely intimated. Thus, from beneath the black veil, there rolled a cloud into the sunshine, an ambiguity of sin or sorrow, which
Father Hooper wears a black veil over his eyes and nose, never revealing the reason of the veil to a soul. At times the sexton would insinuate a reason behind the veil but never revealing the answer to the mystery. Father Hooper is a very imaginative and creative individual to innovate the idea of wearing a black veil to express an idea. He is angry towards the response of the veil to his parishioners, since they treated him differently with the veil compared to without it. Most of the parishioners are clueless to why he wears it and some try to imagine why he would ever want to wear it, but there are only ideas and arguments to why a minister would wear it.
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
Nathaniel Hawthorne, a well-known American novelist in the Romantic era, wrote and published the short story, “The Minister’s Black Veil,” in 1836. The story provides an intriguing case of the moral and psychological facet of a religious man and his community during New England and Puritan Age. The tale begins with the villagers gathering on the front porch of the Milford meeting-house to wait for Reverend Hooper. Parson Hooper arrives, and to their astonishment, wearing a black veil obscuring his face. The villagers wonder among themselves and follow him into the meeting-house where he speaks on secret sin. The crowd is greatly affected by the veil, and leave confused of its significance. After the sermon, a funeral is held for a young woman, and his veil now becomes “acceptable”. After a few prayers, the funeral ends and someone mention that it seems “the minister and the maiden’s spirit were walking hand in hand”. He attends and brings gloom into a wedding the same night. His wearing the veil and refusal to remove it leads to the village isolating him, his fiancée leaving after an offer of redemption, and a life as a good clergyman. When it comes time for his death, he once again refuses to take off the veil, and accuses everyone to having a black veil. As Daniel Webster said, “There is nothing so powerful as truth, and often nothing so strange.” Character, symbolism, and solemn tone create a theme of rejection, socially and psychologically.
Throughout Nathaniel Hawthorne 's literary work, The Minister 's Black Veil, the sensation of the veil, the separation it creates from good things in life, and the persistence of the black veil on earth symbolize sin in mankind. During the whole parable, Mr. Hooper is restrained by the black veil and cannot live a free, enjoyable life. Also, people around him cannot tolerate the overwhelming, dark feeling that the black veil generates. Similarly, sin can take over people’s lives and create a feeling of hopelessness and gloom. Hawthorne’s parable overall demonstrates power and impact of sin on
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.
"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 following Reverend Mr. Hooper's decision to begin 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 then on to take it of, leading to the loss of his fiancée and isolation form the world. He is even buried in the black veil. Yet, what is important to note are Mr. Hooper's last words to those surrounding his deathbed. He tells them namely in anger that all of them wear black veils: “I look around me, and, lo! on every visage a Black Veil!”. 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.
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.
The minister's black veil is a story that it is characteristic that are unique to the romantic period, particularly those who are directly connected with gothic literature. That the possibility of inner terror, and curious nature of an impossible problem, also have a lot to do with the romantic characteristic in the story. one is also the importance of individual freedom I the sense that each person has the right to choose for themselves.