Author’s Background-Nathaniel Hawthorne was born in Salem, Massachusetts in 1804. He lost He was an only son of was the only son of Nathaniel and Elizabeth Clark Hawthorne. His father died in 1808 and after that tragedy moved in with her mother’s Elizabeth brothers. A leg injury left Nathaniel immobile for some moths and that lead him to become a writer. With help from his uncles he attended Bowdoin College from 1821 to 1825. After his graduation Nathaniel returned home to his family and began writing. He published “The Hollow of the Three Hills” and “An Old Woman’s Tale” and continued to do so throughout the upcoming years. He got married to Sophia in July 9, 1842. He had three children throughout is life. And after not attempting to find medical help he died in his sleep in May 19, 1864. Summary of Text-One day, Mr. Hooper unexpectedly started to wear veil over his face without giving anyone a reason. His fiancé approaches him normally but after exchanging word with him begins to fear him and breaks up with him. The people begin to murmur about the sudden change in …show more content…
Characters/include characterization: Mr. Hooper- He is the protagonist of the story. He suddenly starts to wear a veil without giving anyone an explanation. He is kind and loving man that suffers from the isolation from wearing the black veil. Elizabeth-She is Hooper’s fiancé at the beginning of the story but ends up breaking up with him. Throughout the story she remains in love with him and takes care of him when he becomes sick. The young woman- The woman that is being buried when Hopper starts to wear the veil. Mr. Joseph-He is a clergyman that also wears a veil. It is suggested that he wears a veil for a different reason. It’s suggested that he wears the veil because he accidently killed his friend. Reverent Clark- He is the priest from the near town of Westbury. He is the man standing beside Hopper when he
Rachel Brown - the daughter of Hillsboro's minister and the girlfriend of the defendant, Bertram Cates. She is a teacher.
Mr. Hooper the minister’s is perceived to be a “self-disciplined man”. When he was wearing the veil people in his village believed that he went insane and is guilty of a dark and terrible sin. “He has changed himself into something awful, only by hiding his face” (1253).The author explains how Mr.Hooper would wear a mask to hide his sins and face which cause people to believe he was awful. The veil becomes the center of discussion for all of those in the congregate the mask all the people wore around others to hide their sins and embraces there guilty. Elizabeth in the story ends her relationship with Mr. Hooper because he will not remove the veil that he's wearing. The veil actually symbolize for the puritans belief that all people souls are black from
Jane Washburn who is Rachel's best friend who knows everyone. and everything. very saucy. believes in women's rights. in mob. whig. also a maid servant to Sarah Welsteed.
Nathaniel Hawthorne was born in the year 1804 in the heart of Salem, Massachusetts, where to Salem witch trials were conducted. Hawthorne was born in an unforgiving time period, where life revolved around religion and family. Hawthorne’s father died of Yellow Fever in the year 1808. Nathaniel grew up fatherless, which had a lasting effect on who he later became to be. Education at the time was centered on reading and writing, with a heavy religious influence. “The education of the next generation was important to further "purify" the church and perfect social living” (Kizer). However, since his father passed away, there was no other man to instill the Puritan beliefs into young Nathaniel. Hawthorne later on was able to see the culture through a different lens than the people surrounding him, which made him slightly opposed to the Puritan way of life. He became intellectually rebellious; not thinking in the same way that his peers or family was.
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...
The Minister’s Black Veil by Nathaniel Hawthorne is a short story about a Reverend who begins to wear a mysterious black veil, causing much confusion, chatter and fear amongst the congregation of his church and the townspeople. The components and elements of Hawthorne’s story are both developed and altered by his powerful saturation of symbolism.
The story of the black veil is about a man with is the minister of a the village of gives speeches in their church. On a horrible day a maiden had died and mr hooper, the minister had to give a speech to the departed but to every ones surprise he was wearing a black veil covering his face expect is lower chain. After that mr. hopper added more by talking to the people about secret sin and that each and every one of them has one.
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
The veil teaches individuals to have courage and to abstain from arrogance. The people of the town were very arrogant in their mind set. They all contradicted to their principle beliefs; therefore, they were hypocrites of their own nature. The minister tried to reflect everyone's flaws by using the black veil as an object.
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.
Nathaniel Hawthorne is one of the more well known and well respected American authors to this day. Hawthorne was born and raised in Salem, Massachusetts to a Puritan family which had a long New England history. Although Hawthorne was not extremely interested in the idea of higher education he did attended and graduated from Bowdoin college. In 1842 Hawthorne was married to Sophia Peabody and they had three children together until Nathaniels untimely death in 1862 at the age of 59. His short stories are just one of the many reasons for his popularity. Hawthorne like most writers has his own method with which he writes. The term which is most often used when discussing a writer's method of writing is called style. Nathaniel Hawthorne writes with a style which is unique to him and that is what makes his writing so special. In the short stories The Ministers Black Veil, Young Goodman Brown, and The Birthmark patterns in Hawthorne's style become evident. In his writing Hawthorne uses a formal tone, long descriptive sentences which are full of complex vocabulary, a very dark/gothic tone, his characters are often victims of alienation and scrutiny, and lastly it can be noted that Hawthorne inserts autobiographical elements into each of his characters.
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
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.
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.
Hawthorne wrote his famous collection of short stories, Twice-Told Tale in 1837. The Minister’s Black Veil opened the collection and introduced to his readers about Reverend Hooper, who had a black veil on his face. Whenever he attended church or funeral service, he could preach the word of God informatively but not energetically to the audience. The reverend's fiancée wanted to remove his veil at the wedding, but he refused which created an awkward situation at the wedding. Many years later, he became mentally ill and needed Elizabeth's caring. He continued to wear the veil until his death with gloomy and mysterious affection (Wright).