In the story we read during class, “The Minister’s Black Veil” by Nathaniel Hawthorne, the author used the black veil in many different ways. He used it in a positive, negative, and neutral way in his story. As we read the text we noticed that the meaning of the black veil had changed drastically from good to bad. Of course, the black veil was a very important factor to not only the story, but also Mr.Hooper who is the main character in the story. According to Hawthorne in the beginning of the story the veil was used with a neutral connotation for example, on line 41 it states, “...piece of crape…”. To me this wording of the veil is used to just plainly say it’s an object there is nothing special about the veil, it’s just a veil with no meaning. Another example you can find is in line 95 it states,”.... the veil….”. This again shows that there is no meaning to the veil yet it is just an object which Mr.Hooper has decided to stow upon his face which nobody really knows why yet. …show more content…
On the contrary, when the other church people talk about the object on Mr.Hooper’s face they call it in line 88, “...his awful veil..”.
Furthermore the congregation does not like this odd phase that Mr. Hooper is going through. They are judging him and not even knowing why he is wearing this veil. Another illustration in line 108 says,”...require a shade..”. To me an explanation for that is very dark and mysterious. In line 181 it talks about how the veil is now a “...black crape..”. That is a very dark and negative descriptive word to use for the veil. While Mr.Hooper didn’t think the veil was a bad thing the church people did and treated him very differently after he started wearing it. My analyzes of the different connotations of the veil are mostly neutral from what I gathered from the
story. All in all Mr.Hooper had his motives of the veil and the church people had a view on how they saw Mr.Hooper motives. In the story, I did not see any positive connotations towards the veil. I only saw neutral and negative and mostly negative. I believe the church people are crazy for not understanding Mr.Hooper’s actions and spending years judging him when all he was giving them was love.
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
“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.
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
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's "The Minister's Black Veil" illustrates the dangers of secret sin. Allowing guilt from things done in the past, things that cannot be changed, can ruin lives. The life of the secret-carrier will be devastated, along with the lives of that person's most loved ones. Hawthorne uses various types of figurative language in his works to portray his message. "The Minister's Black Veil” is no exception; Hawthorne uses symbolism and suggestion to add depth and mystery.
His lover, Elizabeth, leaves him, because he refuses to take the veil off. The plot to the story is that Parson Hooper tries to overcome the gossiping of the town, and make people accept him. However, his plan backfires and they reject him. “ Mr Hooper had the reputation of a good preacher, but not an energetic one: he strove to win his people heavenward, rather than to drive them thither,” states Hawthorne. The sermon he gives with the black veil on his face, is the same style and manner he gave the last sermon.
Looking back over The Minister’s Black Veil, I interpret the veil as a symbol, saying that everyone has flaws, no one’s perfect. Consequently, they judged Mr. Hooper for the unknown, Although the townspeople seeing Mr. Hooper in that veil was shocking, but he had to get a message to them. “Subsequently Over the course of the story Mr. Hooper wore the black veil over his face to obscure himself away from the towns people’s sins.
The Minister’s Black Veil, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne in 1836, is a parable about a minister, Mr. Hooper, who constantly wears a mysterious black veil over his face. The people in the town of Milford, are perplexed by the minister’s veil and cannot figure out why he insists on wearing it all of the time. The veil tends to create a dark atmosphere where ever the minister goes, and the minister cannot even stand to look at his own reflection. In Nathaniel Hawthorne 's literary work, The Minister 's Black Veil, the ambiance of the veil, separation from happiness that it creates, and the permanency of the black veil symbolize sin in people’s lives.
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.
"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.
Now Hawthorne titles this short story as a parable which leads one to conclude that the veil is used a not only a symbol of "secret sin" but a paradox. His congregation is so concerned and obsessed with his personal sins that they forget about their own; this was the intent of Mr. Hooper's veil: to cause them to reflect upon their own spiritual status and to confess their sins. But the Puritans, notorious for their pride within practice and fallacy within faith, ignore this allegorical costume and sensationalize his message. Because, after all, Mr. Hooper must be hiding SOMETHING underneath that veil of his... The second character under scrutiny by their community and this English major is Hester Prynne, a young woman forced to don a scarlet letter "A" to signify to herself and to her community that she is a marked sinner. The letter, much like the veil, is an exterior symbol of appearance which is a popular device of Hawthorne; the outward appearance is an important aspect of the Puritan faith in that it reflects upon the interior climate. Interestingly, these symbols and their stewards are instituted for the benefit of the community.
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 reader can visualize the image of all these people in the church just whispering and coming up with ideas of why he wears the veil. This imagery shows how even in church these people are just judging the minister, which is horrible because church is supposed to be a judge free place. Being a good Christian, according to the Bible, means not judging and being accepting of others. Not only do they talk badly about him in the church, but they were so judgmental, that when he died he was finally at peace. The narrator states,” While his auditors shrank from one another, in mutual affright, Father Hooper fell back upon his pillow, a veiled corpse, with a faint smile lingering on his lips. Still veiled they laid him in
The Minister's Black Veil is one of Nathaniel Hawthorne's most famous and beloved works. The story introduces us to a small, seemingly peaceful Puritan town. Most of the townsfolk go about their business on what seems like a normal Sunday morning. The peace is shattered when Reverend Hooper is seen wearing a black veil that covers his face. Though some may wonder why he chooses to wear the veil, that is not the point of this story.