Hawthorne’s Use of Allegory

1530 Words4 Pages

"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 that follow Reverend Mr. Hooper's decision to start 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 that moment on to take it off, which leads to the loss of his fiancée and isolation from the world. Mr. Hooper even goes as far as to insist on burial in the black veil. Yet, what is crucial to note are Mr. Hooper's last words to those surrounding his deathbed. Mr. Hooper tells them in anger that all of them wear black veils: “I look around me, and, lo! on every visage a Black Veil!” (Hawthorne). 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 using agents of symbols, setting, characters, and actions in a coherent way to represent non-literal and metaphorical meanings about the human character (Abrams 7).

The most powerful and foremost symbol, without doubt, is the black veil itself. The black veil comes to represent the darkness and duality of human nature, thereby adding a certain, undeniable psychoanalytical angle to the short story. The black veil represents the sin and gloom that all men carry secretively within their heart as Mr....

... middle of paper ...

... Mr. Hooper and his wearing of the veil mirror the true nature of humans around him. Only when the true nature of life and the freedom of truth are observed can the veil be lifted.

Works Cited

Abrams, M. H. A Glossary of Literary Terms, 7th ed. New York: Harcourt Brace College Publishers, 1999.

Bell, Millicent. "New Essays on Hawthorne's Major Tales". Cambridge: Cambridge University Press., 1993

Hawthorne, Nathaniel. "The Minister’s Black Veil.” 1836. "The Norton Anthology of American Literature. Ed. Nina Baym et al. 7th ed. Vol. B. New York: Norton, 2007. 1311-1320. Print.

"How symbolism works: Hawthorne's "The Minister's Black Veil"." Kansas State University. n.d. Web. 20 Apr. 2011. .

Stibitz, E. Earle. "Ironic Unity in Hawthorne's 'The Minister's Black Veil'" Illinois: Duke University Press

Show More
Related

  • Comparing Black Veil And Rappaccini's Daughter

    262 Words  | 1 Pages

    On the surface, a beautiful, poisonous girl and a preacher shadowed by a black veil share no similar characteristics. However, in the works of Nathaniel Hawthorne, these characters share two remarkably comparable stories. The Minister’s Black Veil and Rappaccini's Daughter both share the symbolic use of colors, yet the characters’ relation to the outside world deviates. Hawthorne expertly contrasts colors to illustrate the battle of good against evil. In The Minister’s Black Veil, Mr. Hooper’s black veil contrasts sharply against the pale-faced congregation, just as Beatrice’s likeness to the purple flowers, described as being able to, “...illuminate the garden,” contrasts the darkness of Dr Rappaccini’s black clothing. These clashes of colors

    Read More

  • Literary Analysis Of The Minister's Black Veil

    898 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Minister’s Black Veil was written by Nathaniel Hawthorne. The story was published in 1836. Nathaniel Hawthorne was born in 1806 in Salem Massachusetts. He has an ancestor named John Hathorne, which was a judge in the Salem witch trials that was never repented for his actions. Nathaniel changed his last name from Hathorne to Hawthorne to hide his relations. He graduated from Bowdoin College in 1825. His fiction works were considered part of the dark romanticism. His themes often center on morality, sin, and redemption (Clendenning).

    Read More

  • Ambiguity of The Minister’s Black Veil

    3124 Words  | 7 Pages

    There is no end to the ambiguity in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Minister’s Black Veil”; this essay hopes to explore this problem within the tale.

    Read More

  • Symbolism In The Minister's Black Veil

    871 Words  | 2 Pages

    Nathaniel Hawthorne in “The Minister’s Black Veil” is able to show the hypocrisy and the overemphasis of the Puritan people and their beliefs by engaging the reader in this short story by using “a gentlemanly person” (409) who decides to start wearing a black veil over his face. As Milford’s finest gather on “the porch of [the] meeting house” (409) and enjoy the hope of another Sunday service, the townspeople’s sunny disposition and picturesque setting soon changes as Parson Hooper emerges with a “simple piece of crape” covering his face. This unusual appearance of the Reverend to the townspeople even has some of them feeling faint and forcing some women “of delicate nerves to leave the service” (410). Even though Parson Hooper’s demeanor and his polite and gracious behavior is the same as always, and his preaching is much more interesting and entertaining, the townspeople perceive their minister far differently. As Parson Hooper continues to don the veil, people start to stare at him and rumors begin to fly, especially since his sermon dealt with the topic of secret sin. As the people make him a social pariah, Parson Hooper becomes a representation of hidden sin and an object of dread. Even as death knocks on his door, Parson Hooper still will not allow himself to be unveiled, in fact, Hooper finally reveals that no one should be afraid of him, but of one another because “men avoided me, and women shown no pity, and children screamed and fled” (417) all because of a simple black veil. Through the use of symbols, Hawthorne is able to use this short story to prove that the community people and the Puritan’s religion and their beliefs are hypocritical and over zealous.

    Read More

  • Compare The Fall Of The House Of Usher And The Minister's Black Veil

    753 Words  | 2 Pages

    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...

    Read More

  • Minister's Black Veil

    754 Words  | 2 Pages

    Nathaniel Hawthorne has always been [caracterizado] for using symbols and ambiguity on all of his stories. This is the case in “The Minister’s Black Veil” where he introduces the story of Minister Hooper, a religious man that starts wearing a black veil on his face until the day he dies. While re reading the Ministers Black Veil it is impossible just to come up with one conclusion of the motives why Minister Hooper puts on the veil. Since Hawthorne uses the act of ambiguity in this parable for the reader to come to their own conclusion, there are a significant amount of interpretations of the Minister’s black veil. The reader becomes acquainted with the protagonist at the crucial moment of his life, the moment in which he decides to wear a black veil on his face. But every reader encounters the same question, why did Minister Hooper put on the veil?

    Read More

  • The Minister's Black Veil by Nathaniel Hawthorne

    556 Words  | 2 Pages

    Nathaniel Hawthorne's "The Minister's Black Veil" embodies the hidden sins that we all hide and that in turn distance us from the ones we love most. Reverend Hooper dons a black veil throughout this story, and never takes it off. He has discerned in everyone a dark, hidden self of secret sin. In wearing the veil Hooper dramatizes the isolation that each person experiences when they are chained down by their own sinful deeds. He has realizes that symbolically everyone can be found in the shadow of their own dark veil. Hooper in wearing this shroud across his face is only amplifying the dark side of people and the truth of human existence and nature.

    Read More

  • Black Veil

    684 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Black Veil

    893 Words  | 2 Pages

    The corruption of hidden sin and guilt is exemplified by the late Gilbert Parker who once said, “In all secrets there is a kind of guilt… Secrecy means evasion, and evasion means a problem to the mortal mind.” Nathaniel Hawthorne, one of America’s major authors, often wrote about the harsh realities of human existence such as sin, redemption, and morality. In “Minister’s Black Veil,” the main character, Reverend Hooper, wears a veil over his face during his sermons. Though his sermons are very powerful, a feeling of fear and mystery is evoked in the congregation and often in everyday life due to the strange veil that he refuses to remove. On his deathbed, miraculously, Hooper still has enough strength to resist his veil being lifted; his eyes forever covered, he dies with the veil. Hawthorne uses symbols of the black veil to portray hidden sin, guilt, and peculiar shame attaching to sin in Puritan beliefs.

    Read More

  • Characterism In 'The Minister's Black Veil'

    892 Words  | 2 Pages

    In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story “The Minister’s Black Veil”, the reader is introduced to Parson Hooper, the reverend of a small Puritan village. One Sunday morning, Hooper arrived to mass with a black veil over his impassive face. The townspeople began to feel uneasy due to their minister’s unusual behavior. When Parson appeared, “Few could refrain from twisting their heads towards the door; many stood upright….” (Monteiro 2). Throughout the story Hooper does not take off the black veil and the townspeople, including Reverend Clark from a nearby village, treat him as if he were contagious disease. A veil typically is used to represent sorrow, but in this story it is used to represent hidden sins. No one exactly knows why he

    Read More

  • The Minister’s Black Veil

    588 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Similarities Between Salem Witchcraft And The Minister's Black Veil

    1480 Words  | 3 Pages

    Witchcraft and a Black Veil The setting of “The Minister’s Black Veil” by Nathaniel Hawthorne occurs in Milford, Massachusetts which is less than 60 miles from Salem, a small town famous for putting hundreds of people on trial and sentencing several to death as a result of accusing them of witchcraft. The thematic historical similarities between the Salem Witch Trials and Hawthorne’s “The Minister’s Black Veil” is apparent through the use of gothic imagery, supernatural effects on the funeral and wedding, and hysterical emotion elicit on the townspeople by Mr. Hooper’s veil. The use of gothic imagery is subtly present throughout the tale of Mr. Hooper, a minister who one day begins to hide his face behind a stark black veil.

    Read More

  • Comparing Dark Romanticism And Young Goodman Brown Vs. Young Goodman Brown

    731 Words  | 2 Pages

    In summary, “Young Goodman Brown” and “The Minister’s Black Veil,” both written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, although similar in displaying colors as symbols,

    Read More

  • Analysis Of The Minister's Black Veil

    718 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • The Minister’s Black Veil

    970 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

More about Hawthorne’s Use of Allegory

Open Document