In the story “ The Minister’s Black Veil,” Nathaniel Hawthorne is trying to reveal that Mr. Hooper plays a significant role in the story and shows alienation and his moral values. Mr. Hooper was a new minister in a new town and people wondered about him because he constantly wore a black veil over his face. They wanted to know what was being hidden under the veil. Mr. Hooper is trying to reveal that the black veil is representing that he is sinful, depressed, mysterious and secretive. In addition, Mr. Hooper has committed many sins, which makes him a sinful man. In the passage, the author states “Beloved and respected as you are, there may be whispers that hide your face under the consciousness of secret sin. For the sake of your holy office, do away this scandal” (Hawthorne 29). The author is trying to say that Mr. Hooper is a good, respectful man, but he is continuing to hide a sin and will not even tell his wife Elizabeth. Elizabeth wants to know what dark fantasy he had done. She wanted to know the sin, but he was scared that if she knew what happened, she would leave him. Hawthorne states “ If I hide my face for sorrow, there is cause enough and if I cover it for …show more content…
secret sin, what mortal might not do the same” (Hawthorne 29). He is trying to state that if he wasn’t hiding his sin, people would not like him. The author says “ he became a man of awful power over souls that were agony for sin” (Hawthorne 30). He is trying to state that Mr. Hooper has a mental suffering from his sin. Mr. Hooper is expressed as a depressed kind of man. He feels destroyed because of the sin that he committed and does not feel the need to tell anyone because he feels like he will hurt more. Hawthorne states “ thus beneath a black cloud into the sunshine, an ambiguity of sin or sorrow, which enveloped the poor minister, so that love or sympathy could never reach him” (Hawthorne 29). The openness of his sin will lead him to no love or sympathy, which makes him sad and depressed. Hawthorne states “O! You know not how lonely I am and how frightened to be alone behind my black veil. Do not leave me in my miserable obscurity forever” (Hawthorne 29). Mr. Hooper won’t tell his wife Elizabeth his sin, while he refuses to tell her, she plans on leaving him, he doesn’t want her to because he will be lonely and depressed. Furthermore, Hawthorne states that Mr.
Hooper is a very mysterious looking type man. He wears the veil over his face, which make people wonder about him. Boone states that since Mr. Hooper continsuly wears the veil people began to grow curious on what he did to have to cover his face and why he feels to cover his face (34). The towns people wonder what he has done to be so scared to show his actual face or what he has to hide and why he has to hide. Boone adds that Mr. Hooper’s clothed face makes him be seen as a strange person (39). Mr. Hooper’s inactive face makes him mysterious. Boone states that Mr. Hooper has people basically following him to attempt and try to find out the truth that he is hiding (40). No one personally knows the mysterious truth behind the
veil. Moreover, Hawthorne states Mr. Hooper as a secretive man. He has a secret sin that he will not tell anyone about. Knowing that Mr. Hooper committed the horrific sin, from then on, he has felt tortured from committing that sin (39). Mr. Hooper is completely tortured for the sin that he has committed.Mr. Hooper could not own up his sin and removing the veil for nothing, not even the begging of his wife Elizabeth could get him to own up (34). Mr. Hooper can’t even tell his wife his secret sin because he is scared that she will leave. Boone states that it’s Mr. Hooper’s exposure, even as the veil covers the face makes him weak to the actions to others (35). Mr. Hooper’s secret sin caused emotional attack on his sin. In conclusion, the author reveals that Mr. Hooper plays a significant role in the story and shows alienation and his moral values. Mr. Hooper is trying to reveal to the community that the black veil represents that Mr. Hooper is sinful, depressed, mysterious, and secretive.
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
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.
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
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...
...t to acknowledge that fact than to live your life a lie. By keeping sin secret from the world like Dimmesdale, your conscience eats at your spirit until you are no longer able to live a healthy, normal life. Hooper's demeanor and sermons scared everyone into seeing their own sins and when looking at his black veil, they saw their own faults, which petrified them for they knew they were pretending to be one of the elect, and that none of them could be perfectly sinless. The horror and the hate people felt towards both the black veil and the scarlet letter was an outward manifestation of the horror and hate they all had for their own sins. Thus it brings us back to the theme that Hawthorne makes so clear in both the Scarlet Letter and "The Minister's Black Veil," that though manifested sin will ostracize a person from society, un-confessed sin will destroy the soul.
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.
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
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.
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
hooper is giving his sermon illustrate the commence of how the black veil is starting to interfere in his life. The women left church indicating they could not resist to see something unusual in Mr. Hooper. Although, his personality is the same still his appearance changed because of the black veil. When people are leaving it can be inferred that Mr. hooper might feel isolated because no woman left if not women more than one. In particular, appearance tells nothing about who they are because usually society focus more on the appearance than what is in the inside leaving people isolated. In this case, the people at church are leaving instead of comprehend and support his decision of wearing the black veil. Furthermore, it is noticeable that the black veil still is intervening in the life of Mr. hooper's because the veil provokes people to leave the meetinghouse. Moreover, in the short story, the fiancée of Mr. Hooper is persuading him to remove the back veil. As a result, Elizabeth separates from Mr. Hooper. To illustrate, “Then, farewell!” said Elizabeth. She withdrew her arm from his grasp and slowly departed…” (lines
The first example as to why Mr. Hooper is wearing the veil was the reference to secret sin that he addressed the day he began to wear it. Secret sin is sin that we hide from our loved ones and our closest friends. This sermon in particular captivated the audience because of the mystery surrounding the veil but it also made them extremely uncomfortable. For example, Hawthorne states “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 thought.” This passage from Hawthorne displays the amount of discomfort from the congregation, they felt violated, the response from Mr. Hooper wearing the veil was outright fear and it was almost as if he looked inside them and discovered their innermost thoughts and sins.
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.
We continuously see the greed of the people wanting to know what is wrong with Mr. Hooper and they don't realize that their curiosity is creating greater damage in Mr. Hooper's life. "It grieved him, to the very depth of his kind heart, to observe how the children fled from his approach, breaking up their merriest sports, while his melancholy figure was yet far off." (Hawthorne 12) Mr. Hooper's life was already filled with sorrow and sadness and what he wanted less was people's aggravation.