Most people define a symbol as something, such as an object or an action, utilized in a literary work to represent something else with the belief that the symbol can represent one thing and one thing only. This defines an allegory, a much more obscure literary device, meanwhile a symbol has the exact same function of an allegory except it has the capability to represent many different things instead of just one. This adjusted definition of a symbol now gives symbols much more versatility and allows many more possibilities as to what a symbol could represent. In his short story, “The Minister’s Black Veil,” Nathaniel Hawthorne exploits the black veil to symbolize omnipresent sin everyone possesses and the isolation public wrongdoing brings in …show more content…
Hawthorne first clarifies the meaning of the black veil by outright stating “this veil is a type and a symbol,” and goes on to say that Mr. Hooper “[is] bound to wear [the black veil] ever” and “no mortal eye will see [the black veil] withdrawn” (641). With these few lines, Hawthorne already reveals the symbolic nature of the black veil, more specifically as a type or an object that symbolically embodies or reveals a religious idea, which supports the idea that the black veil physically represents sin. Furthermore, by stating that Mr. Hooper must adorn the black veil forever so that no one, or at least no mortals, will see him without it on, Hawthorne implies that once someone puts on the black veil, or transgresses, it will never go away and that person must live …show more content…
Hawthorne demonstrates the severity of isolation caused by just the physical black veil alone when he writes that “only a material emblem” (642) keeps Mr. Hooper from happiness and that the black veil separates Mr. Hooper “from cheerful brotherhood and woman’s love” (643). In revealing how people treat Mr. Hooper simply for wearing a black veil, Hawthorne gives the audience a small taste of how isolated Mr. Hooper feels. However, if people treat him like this for not even transgressing, then one can only imagine how much worse they would treat someone who did commit a sin that everyone knew about. Additionally, Hawthorne begins to hint at the hypocrisy when Mr. Hooper inquires “Why do you tremble at me alone?” and then exclaims “Tremble also at each other!” (644). In this quote Hawthorne employs Mr. Hooper to project the theme almost directly, since Mr. Hooper tells those present that everyone wears a black veil, not just him, and that if they fear him, then they should fear everyone. At last, Hawthorne exploits the black veil as a symbol of isolation caused by wrongdoing in combination with the fact that everyone transgresses in order to display the hypocrisy in acting sanctimonious over others due to their
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 former work, many readers, to include myself, have concluded the black veil represents sin. The protagonist, Reverend Hooper, wears the veil over his face in order to show the townspeople how revolting sin can be. The townspeople speculate to why the reverend wears such a garment but never truly understand his intentions. I believe the misunderstanding is symbolic to how people react to sin nowadays. People have trouble understanding why they occasionally sin. They sometimes also have trouble recognizing sin even if it is their own. These two flaws are symbolic of the reverend veil because people have trouble understanding it and that it represents sin.
It symbolizes a sin and thst no one is perfect each of us hide behind a symbolic veil.In the story, Mr Hooper says, “ Why do you tremble at me alone?....Tremble also at each other! Have men avoided me, and women shown no pity, and children screamed and fled, only for my black veil?...the symbol beneath which I have lived and die”! His point was that people should be less concerned of others sins and worry about their own sins. The veil can be compared to a man’s way of trying to hide the hideous acts of a sin by trying to cover it up. Just like Hooper was trying to, he decided to wear the veil to try and cover up his sin. Although people do not understand him, they are just thinking about themselves. The veil in this case is defined as a secret sin that Hooper is trying to
Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote The Minister’s Black Veil: A Parable in 1836. Hawthorne was a man known for his grim view of life and society, and this point of view frequently colored his work as an author. His inspiration for this short tale about a minister who dons a black veil over his eyes and nose until his death may have been inspired by a real event. A clergyman named Joseph Moody, of York, Maine accidentally killed a friend as a young man and wore a veil over his face until his own death. There are many theories as to what message Hawthorne was attempting to convey in this story. Some think the main theme is secret sin, with the veil being used literally in order to reach out to his followers. Others, like Edgar Allan Poe, believe the veil was used to symbolize guilt over a terrible crime. While the veil is without a doubt symbolic, one is also drawn to believe in its use as a tool to symbolize isolation; however, secret sin and guilt are also underlying themes.
In his various works, Nathaniel Hawthorne addresses the religious themes dominant in colonial Puritan society. For example, the beloved Mr. Hooper of Hawthorne’s parable The Minister’s Black Veil dons a black veil, a mysterious change which the Puritans believed “could portend nothing but evil” (Hawthorne 630). As a result, the Puritans isolate their minister. Even though the parable does show the Puritans’ harsh and superstitious reaction to the vagary of the minister, the veil itself symbolizes both the minister’s isolation from society and his connection to society through original sin. This veil and other symbols in Hawthorne’s works illustrate the universal truth that “all art is a paradox.”
An analysis of the reading reveals that Hawthorne presents human nature as obsessive. The story tells of a respected Puritan minister, Mr. Hooper, who decides to wear a black veil over his face. He refuses to tell his congregants his reasons for wearing the veil, and he never removes the garment. His congregants and his fiancée, Elizabeth, become fixated upon the mask and what he might be hiding underneath it. The congregants proceed to alienate Mr. Hooper. Later, Elizabeth breaks off her engagement with the minister and leaves him after he denied her request to remove his black veil. As she is about to abandon him, he says, “It is but a mortal veil – it is not for eternity! Oh! You know not how lonely I am, and how frightened to be alone behind my black veil. Do not leave me in this miserable obscurity forever!” (22). In other words, Mr. Hooper entreats Elizabeth to stay with him and tells her how he is suffering from the alienation that his former congregants forced upon him. The words “lonely,” “frightened,” and “miserable” all work to convey the depression, fear, and anguish that he felt since his ex-congregants shunned him. The phrase “mortal veil” is a metaphor that compares the veil to a human, a being who is also known as a “mortal.” It implies that, like a human, the veil is impermanent, making it a minor object that doesn’t have much importance in “eternity,” a word that emphasizes the vastness of time. This shows that the congregants and Elizabeth caused Mr. Hooper to suffer by obsessing over an insignificant object, his black veil. Thus, Hawthorne supports his claim that human nature is obsessive and that obsession creates tragedy and suffering. A book that shares Hawthorne’s view on human nature is Song of Solomon by Toni
He was trying to prove a point that everyone is very judgmental and cruel. Nobody in the town asked why Mr. Hooper had the veil on, they all had just assumed. And that was Hawthorne’s message that everyone was judgmental and cruel. This quote supports my claim because of the fact that it was one of the consequences Mr. Hooper had to face in wearing the veil. Because of Mr. Hooper wearing the veil, he had the entire town talking and speaking and about him. It did worry people because of him wearing it but you can tell in the story that wasn’t his intentions. Everyone just started with rumors and went along with
In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story, “The Minister’s Black Veil,” Hawthorne portrayed a Puritan minister as a man not naïve enough to believe that he could not escape sin or secret sin. Good Mr. Hooper, as he was called, spent his entire adult life trying to prove a point that was only figured out in the end. Throughout the story good Mr. Hooper was treated as though he was a threat revealing to the people that they too, hid behind masks. Hawthorne tried to get the point across that no person could escape secret sin and that all people hid behind masks.
Another meaning of the black veil can be an acknowledgment of how he recognizes secret sin and instead of everyone else hiding and judging him, he is the one who chooses to represent the injustices that humanity commits and is immediately separated from everyone. It also can be an understanding of seeing everything through a dark veil or seeing the black veil as truth distorted and a symbol of pride and deliberate self-isolation. The ambiguous veil is used as a catalyst by which other moral and perceptual values are examined. Since Mr.Hooper attitude is dramatic the removal of the veil can encapsulate the reader by simple curiosity,personal uneasiness and the appeal to a sense of clerical property, the assumption of a horrible crime. Nathaniel Hawthorne uses a lot of references to the bible for example when he calls the people auditors only implies that they remain spiritually blind despite Mr.Hoopers renewal of religious symbology and the informing scripture here is perhaps the parables of sowers after which Jesus says " Who
"There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you." - Maya Angelou. In the "Minister's Black Veil" by Nathaniel Hawthorne's character, Mr. Hooper, has a personal sin that warrants his action of wearing the terrible black veil. I believe this because of two reasons; he had an affair with the young women who passed away, and he wanted to show that even men of God sin. Others believe that Mr. Hooper hid his face because of his sin of vanity which is not the case and here's why.
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.
Everyone masks themselves with false pride while covering up who they really are. No one is truly and utterly honest with others or even themselves. Such is the case of Mr. Hopper, a pastor who Hawthorne portrays in The Minister’s Black Veil. The story follows his life as a minister who wears a black veil over his face everywhere he goes. Hawthorne uses metaphysical characterization of the black veil in Mr. Hopper’s life to prove that pride causes Christian leadership to be ineffective. Hawthorne shows that pride causes Christian leadership to become ineffective because it creates a false idea of control, it disfigures the proper image of man, it prevents genuine self-examination, it establishes a flaws perspective on the world, and the most
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
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.
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