Nathaniel Hawthorne’s hatred of Puritanism was so big that he described in many of his writing such as The Scarlet Letter and The Minster Black Veil. He usually satirized them as evildoers and sin creators, not holy and Christ zealous as they described themselves. Hawthorne also used the effects of mysterious human mind and spontaneous action to describe the Puritan as satanic worship and God disobedience. In result, his writing reflected much of his Puritan ancestry affections.
Nathaniel Hawthorne was born in Salem, Massachusetts on July 4, 1804. His father named Nathaniel Hawthorne, Sr. who died in the shipwreck and his mother, Elizabeth Manning Hawthorne, who remained a widow. In 1825, Hawthorne graduated from Bowdoin College and began his career as a writer. He published some volumes of short stories and children’s literature at the Brook Farn community for the next 10 years. On July 9, 1842, he married Sophia Peabody and moved to Old Manse in Concord, Massachusetts where they lived for approximately four years (Werlock).
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).
Many critics observed Reverend Hooper as a sinful and demonic preac...
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Heims, Neil. “An Introduction to Some Elements of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Fiction.” Philadelphia: Chelsea House Publishing, 2003. Blomom;s Literary Reference Online. Fact On File, Inc. 21 January, 2011.
Mellow, James R. “Nathaniel Hawthorne in His Times.” Philadelphia: Chelsea House Publishing, 2001. Bloom’s Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. 27 January, 2011.
Werlock, Abby H.P., ed. “Nathaniel Hawthorne.” New York: Fact On File, Inc, 2006. Bloom’s Literary Reference Online. Fact On File, Inc. 21 February, 2011.
Wright, Sarah Bird. “The Minister’s Black Veil”. “Critical Companion to Nathaniel Hawthorne: A Literary Reference to His Life and Work”. New York: Fact On File, Inc, 2006. Bloom’s Literary Reference Online. Fact On File, Inc. February 28, 2011.
“Nathaniel Hawthorne – Biography.” The European Graduate School. The European Graduate School, n.d. Web. 17 Feb. 2014
Sullivan, Wilson. “Nathaniel Hawthorne.” In New England Men of Letters. New York: Macmillan Co., 1972.
Hawthorne was born in Salem, Massachusetts on July 4, 1804 (Magill 1; Campbell 1; “Nathaniel Hawthorne”; Eldred 1). He was born into the sixth generation of his Salem family, and was a descendant of a long line of New England Puritans, which contributed in his interest in the Puritan way of life. The family was originally known as the “Hathornes”, but Nathaniel added the “w” to his name so it would become “Hawthorne”. The Hawthornes had been involved in religious persecution with their first American ancestor, William. Another ancestor, John Hathorne, was one of the three judges at the seventeenth-century Salem witchcraft trials. Hawthorne’s father was a sea captain, and when he was four years old (1808), his father died on a voyage in Surinam, Dutch Guinea (Campbell 1). Hawthorne was left alone with his mother and two sisters. He spent his early years in Salem and in Maine, during which he showed an interest in his father’s nautical adventures and read his logbooks often, even after his death (Magill 1). His maternal relatives recognized his literary talent at such a you...
Sullivan, Wilson. “Nathaniel Hawthorne.” In New England Men of Letters. New York: Macmillan Co., 1972.
Nathaniel Hawthorne was raised in the Puritan Calvinist religion. He had a lot of viewpoints against the religion that were of the Christian beliefs and faith.
Fogle, Richard Harter. "Hawthorne's fiction: The Light and the Dark." Nathaniel Hawthorne: A Study of Short Fiction. Ed. Nancy Bunge. New York: Twayne Publishers, 1993. 133-35
Wagenknecht, Edward. Nathaniel Hawthorne – The Man, His Tales and Romances. New York: Continuum Publishing Co., 1989.
“Nathaniel Hawthorne.” The Norton Anthology: American Literature, edited by Baym et al. New York: W.W. Norton and Co., 1995.
Hawthorne was a private individual who fancied solitude with family friends. He was also very devoted to his craft of writing. Hawthorne observed the decay of Puritanism with opposition; believing that is was a man’s responsibility to pursue the highest truth and possessed a strong moral sense. These aspects of Hawthorne’s philosophy are what drove him to write about and even become a part of an experiment in social reform, in a utopian colony at Brook Farm. He believed that the Puritans’ obsession with original sin and their ironhandedness undermined instead of reinforced virtue.
"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.
Lathrop, G. P., ed. "Hawthorne, Nathaniel." The Reader's Encyclopedia of American Literature. Binghamton, New York: Vail-Ballou, 1962. 439-40. Print.
In Readings on Nathaniel Hawthorne, edited by Clarice Swisher. San Diego, CA: Greenhaven Press, 1996.
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.
Hawthorne, Nathaniel. “The Scarlet Letter”. American Literature: Volume One. Ed. William E. Cain. New York: Pearson, 2004. 809-813. Print
Symons, Arthur. "Nathaniel Hawthorne." Studies in Prose and Verse. E. P. Dutton & Co., 1904. 52-62. Rpt. in Nineteenth-Century Literature Criticism. Ed. Laurie Lanzen Harris. Vol. 2. Detroit: Gale Research, 1982. Literature Resources from Gale. Web. 3 Feb. 2012.