“The Minister’s Black Veil:” An Object To A Symbol
In this essay, which offers, the reading of the veil as a symbol of symbols. The Black Veils Minister is a parable by Nathaniel Hawthorne, the essay discusses the theme of Romanticism. Romanticism stories are suspenseful, conclusions left to the imagination of the reader and exaggerated. In most cases, these stories are based on a true story about someone. For example, the Minister's Black Veil is full of suspense because when Mr. Hooper, the minister who was the protagonist, he always wore a black veil and did not tell people why he wore it until the end of the story, but meanwhile he wore the black veil and left people wondering. "But what has good Parson Hooper got upon his face?" cried
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the sexton in astonishment" (Hawthorne 4) With regards to this, Minister Hooper plays an important role in romanticism because he is a misleading character as well as one who wants to be set free by demonstrating the struggles of himself, but others as well. Equally important, he tried spreading the word of human destruction to our surroundings and to one another, by wearing the black veil which most did not comprehend. Eventually, there was so little he could do, and deceased before people fathom. Death is also an important part in romanticism since most romanticism stories are melancholic and mysterious, which most of the time lead to something defective or faulty. The Black veil that Mr.
Hooper wore symbolized the secret sins of humanity. Yes, he might have been a minister and just because he was one it did not mean that he always had to wear the happy color, which would be white to represent peace and happiness. He was allowed to express himself however he wanted and that is why he chose the black veil. The black veil symbolized everything as I have mentioned before, the secret sins of humanity. " 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!" (Hawthorne 132) He saying that he wears the veil to represent the struggles that a lot of people go through, but most do not recognize because they don’t want to see the true colors of reality. What I am trying to say is that when we face difficult situations we try to avoid them by pushing them aside, or by hiding the ugly reality with a pretty and believable mask. For that reason, he wore the black veil throughout his life to open people's eyes to reality. We try to avoid problems such as those who are less fortunate by leaving them behind and not lending a hand to those who are suffering. We cannot pretend like there isn't anything wrong with our society when there are plenty of problems to resolve. Sin was a major one, everyone was committing it, but no one really payed attention to it because they thought it wasn’t a big …show more content…
deal. Overall, you can say that the parable of the story is that we all have committed sins at one point. The minister himself was a minister, but that did not signify that he was pure and had never executed a sin. " I perhaps like most other mortals, have sorrows dark enough to be typified by a black veil" (Hawthorne 353) Equally important, we have all committed sins and we may not wear them physically but we wear a symbolic one when we hide the hideous act of sin. The truth is that no one can really escape from sin because there is always consequences. A sin is not as severe as long as you redeem yourself rather than worrying about and pointing out other's sins. However, the sins were seen as evil by the people who were surrounded by Mr. Hooper, little did they know he was trying to make them realize of their guilty mistakes that they had been avoiding for so long. It could have helped them redeem themselves before God made divine justice. Other things I read about the minister's black veil is that this story is taught by many high school teachers to show and help their students of how to redeem themselves before it's too late.
It also happens to be that just because we confess ourselves of all sins, anyway we will have to live with the burden of making the incorrect choices. " Reverend Hooper inspires many students to look more deeply into their own souls." (Sue 1) It is also very interesting to read a related article called "Hawthorne's the M.B.V' : A note on the significance of the subtitle" by German . It explains how these two stories are similar to each other because they're both about sins and hiding their faces. Happens to be that a relative of reverend Hooper accidently killed a beloved friend and "from that day till the hour of his own death, he hid his face from men." This has the contrast import , as to why Mr. Hooper wore the veil, and in this case, this man whose name is Moody, everyone knew why he wore the veil. If we compare and contrast these two romanticism stories we can say that one has to do with a Universal message of humanity sin to everyone, On the other hand, Mr. Moody deals with his own personal sin, but he didn’t exactly wear the veil because of personal sin rather because “he wishes to symbolize in himself and by example, almost as a living parable, the “darkened aspect of all living and inmate things.” (Davis 873) To conclude, anyone can exhibit a veil on them, but they have
different interpretations, some are worn universally to show that we are not perfect and that we avoid much of our problems, or personal to become better persons of the sins we have done to oneself. The majority of romanticisms tend to choose names that have a correlation to the story. In addition, Thomas Hooker played a huge role in the story “The Minister’s Black Veil”. Many people got the attention by the author’s creative Title of the book that grabbed people’s attention by the symbolism of the story. The story has further depth into it , and once you dig in deep and analyze the text thoroughlly. Mr. Hooper didn’t just wear the veil just because his veil symbolized many different meanings behind it. “The Minister’s Black Veil” goes hand in hand with romanticism because deep, deep down Mr. Hooper knew since the beginining that everyone sins and he felt like he had to do something about it himself. Not to stop it but those for the ones with a dark soul, for the sick, for the poor, for the reckless, for the prisoners, the hungry, and for the mourning. Mr. Hooper thought about everyone and everything all together. I’m quiet sure in his head he was saying “If everyone sins and commits mistakes and no one corrects them, then I should do something for each and everyone of them. Like a real christian”. To support everyone and be with every kind of person not just the sinners, but those who also don’t have anything. Mr. Hooper took redemption from everyone’s sins. Just Like Adam and Eve did their sins when they ate from the prohibited fruit tree, and they paid their consequences. Mr. Hooper was doing the same thing sins people sin and don’t go to church to purify or confess. He took actions within his own hands. The lesson I learned in this story was to avoid secret sin because there’s always a consequence to our sins or secret faults. The veil can be compared to a man’s way of trying to hide the hidoues acts of a sin by trying to cover it up with “a fig leaf” as in the case of Adam and Eve. Eventually, the lonliness and nakedness is obvious to all. We all learned that no one is perfect nor will be perfect. Each and one of us hides under a black veil to cover our sins. So, we all are covering our faces just like Mr. Hooper did. The only difference is that Mr. Hooper had one visibly and we humans carry one but under our consience. The great thing that Mr. Hooper did was that he had a huge heart and symathy towards people. I learnd so much in this story, and to find purity within ourselves.
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.
“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.
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
Hawthorne's parable, "The Minister's Black Veil," uses symbols to illustrate the effect of shame and guilt. In the story, Mr. Hooper represents the average Christian with a deep longing to be holy, and have fellowship with man. However he allows the cross that he bears to come between himself and the latter. His secret is represented by the veil he wears. The veil itself is black, the color of both secrecy and sin. Spiritually, the veil embodies the presence of evil in all of mankind. In the physical realm it serves as emotional barrier between himself and everyone else (Timmerman). During his first sermon after donning the veil, it is observed that, "... while he prayed, the veil lay heavily on his uplifted countenance. Did he seek to hide it from the dread Being whom he was addressing?" (par 10). The veil made Mr. Hooper a powerful preacher. But even the people his messages touched the most would shudder when Mr. Hooper would move close to comfort them, his veiled face making them tremble (par 45). His personal relationships all but ceased to exist. Outside of church, he was seen as a bugbear, or monster. (par 44). Seemingly, the only one that did not fear the veil was his loving fiancée, Elizabeth. Elizabeth symbolizes purity. She is innocent and...
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.
Nathaniel Hawthorne’s works often have parallel themes and similar characters. His approach is quite gloomy and the atmosphere for his stories is many times sad and depressing. Hawthorne concentrates his novel and short stories around the Puritan community, which adds to the tense and unforgiving atmosphere. One of his most renowned novels, The Scarlet Letter and his short story, The Minister’s Black Veil contain many of his typical elements and are many times referred synonymously. Although The Scarlet Letter and The Minister’s Black Veil share the common theme of alienation from society, the purpose behind the symbol both main characters are wearing is different.
It is no secret that Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Minister’s Black Veil” is a parable. Hawthorne intended it as such and even gave the story the subtitle “a parable.” “The Minister’s Black Veil,” however, was not Hawthorne’s only parable. Hawthorne often used symbols and figurative language to give added meaning to the literal interpretations of his work. His Puritan ancestry also influenced much of Hawthorne’s work. Instead of agreeing with Puritanism however, Hawthorne would criticize it through the symbols and themes in his stories and parables. Several of these symbols and themes reoccur in Hawthorne’s “The Minister’s Black Veil,” “Young Goodman Brown”, and The Scarlet Letter.
Motives of the black veil in the story of ‘The minister’s black veil’ and the old man’s paled eye in the story of ‘The Tell-tale heart”, appear to ensue possibly because of the sins that Mr. Hooper and the unnamed narrator had made in the past. At one side, in of story of Hawthorne, it is conveyed that almost a same situation as Mr. Hooper’s that happened 8 years ago where a clergyman had covered his face for a sin he committed. Therefore, we can conn...
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
Hawthorne believes the Puritan belief, that people are sinful, but he doesn’t care about perfection and improving society. Hawthorne has a great talent for using symbolism in his stories, and the symbols have a great(wc) meaning to go along with his use of powerful word choice. Hawthorne’s main symbol in this story is the black veil that Mr. Hooper wears all the
Nathaniel Hathorne, one of my personal favorite writers, and the greatest writer in American Fiction, was originally born in Massachusetts; July 4th, 1804 (which, later-on he added a ‘w’ in his name). He was the only Son of Nathaniel and Elizabeth Clark Hathorne, and at a young age, is father died from the yellow fever while at sea in 1808. Nathaniel believed that his own Puritan Heritage, haunted him because of the sins his forefathers committed were all divine retribution. He became immobile for several months after injuring his leg, and led him to believe it was the sins of his ancestors that made him live his life struggling. Likewise, in some of his works he talks about his own Puritan fathers, who were viewed as holy people, but underneath