The book The bedford introduction to literature holds three stories by Nathaniel Hawthorne. The first story ‘young goodman brown” is about a man who travels into the forest to observe a satanic ritual. He rejects the offer to join in and lives disconnected from the others since they were part of the ritual. The next story “The minister 's black veil” is about a man refusing to take off a veil even upon death which results in the people of the village judging him. Finally in “The birthmark” a man of science is trying to remove a mark from his wife cheek which is the only thing keeping her from being perfect. The man succeeds in removing the mark but results in killing his wife. Even Though all three of the stories have different details, they …show more content…
One day on the way to a meeting, Mr.hooper is wearing a black veil and the people are quick to judge. As mr. hooper is preaching the author mentions how “the pale faced congregations was almost as fearful a sight to the minister, as his black veil to them”(409). The black veil on the minister displays his secret sin. Although the veil makes him more powerful as a preacher many people didn 't like it including his wife. After a while Elizabeth asks his husband mr.hooper to remove the veil and he refuses, so “she withdrew her arm from his grasp and slowly departed’(413). Just like that the long relationship between Mr.hooper and Elizabeth wes terminated because of hooper 's black veil. After that one moment no one questioned his black veil and he went on to become a powerful clergymen until the day of his death. When the day comes mr.hooper is insulted for not wanting to remove the veil and hooper responds “Men avoided me, and women shown pity, and children screamed and fled only for my black veil?”(415). Mr.hooper unfolds that the people are quick to judge and avoid him just for wearing a black veil. All the people have in that room have a black veil because they to have sinned too but fail to see it on …show more content…
Aylmer is a man of science who marries a beautiful woman named georgina who is almost perfect. She has a tiny mark in the shape of a hand which the author describes that “many a desperate swain would have risked life for the privilege of pressing his lips to the mysterious hand”(427). Even Though the tiny hand on georgiana cheek is her only defect aylmer can 't accept it while other man will die just to kiss it. Aylmer says it shocks him as “being the visible mark of earthly imperfection”(417). Aylmer can 't accept her to have a small imperfection instead he wants her perfect. As Georgiana only care for what her husband thinks of her, she accepts aylmer suggestion to remove the mark. During the making of the poison to remove the mark georgina finds out their is a chance she could die and agrees to proceed. In the the potion worked in removing the birthmark but it caouse her to die. Before Georgiana dies she tells Aylmer he has “rejected the best earth could offer”(427). Aylmer tried to change what made her human and that got her killed. Aylmer couldn 't accept human imperfection to the point where it got her wife
Reverend Hooper's black veil caused alienation from his congregation. The minister did not even move his veil to perform marriages, which the town believed "could portend nothing but evil to the wedding" (Hawthorne 256). This odd piece of clothing caused rumors about the holy man which caused his congregation to doubt his message. The veil "and the mystery behind it, supplied a topic for discussion between acquaintances meeting in the street, and good women gossiping at their open windows" (Hawthorne ...
Both of these stories revolve around a lot of symbolism. These stories, since they really don't make a lot of sense on their own, force the reader to look deeper in an attempt to understand the ideas that Hawthorne tries to get across.
The short story “The minister's black veil” by Nathaniel Hawthorne is about a minister whose wears a black veil as a symbol of how mankind in his/her nature is a sinner and whose faith is blinded as a black veil covers your eyes. The book more talks about how the minister is seen by the town after covering his face. “The birthmark” is another book by Nathaniel Hawthorne it talks about a married couple, the husband who is a man of science and the wife who is a woman of nature.The book describes the husband's search for perfection of his wife and the fight between nature and science. Both of Hawthorne’s book contain a description of nature guilt and sins.
He knows that everyone else should be wearing a black veil because they are all hiding their secret sin as well. Mr. Hooper feels that his secret sin is a very evil thing and he doesn't want anyone else to know about it. The people in his congregation don't understand why he has to cover his face like that and they treat him a lot differently now just because he has the veil over his face. Mr. Hooper doesn't understand why his people would treat him any differently because he hasn't changed at all as a person, he has just changed his appearance somewhat and people shouldn't judge one another on their appearance, they should be judged on their inward qualities. Mr. Hooper feels that he is doing what is good by shielding the world of his sin and part of the problem his congregation has is that they too have a secret sin and they don't want to own up to the fact that they do and admit it.
History has underrepresented females throughout countless centuries. In contrast, Hawthorne allows them to take on essential roles in “Young Goodman Brown,” “The Minister’s Black Veil,” “and “The Birthmark.” The way he presents them distinguishes his stories from others at his time. He proves all of his female characters almost flawless, deeply connects the male protagonists to them, and uses them to reveal the males’ hidden sides.
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.
Moreover, the veil continues to distract the congregation from religion and morality. Dismissing Hooper’s behavior as insane, the physician shows some signs of sympathizing with it, noting that all humans are afraid of themselves and all are and were once sinners. The physician’s insight also suggests a little further which is that Mr. Hooper may wear the veil to suggest exactly what the physician is noting, that all people are sinners, and that one of the reasons people are afraid of the veil is that they don’t want to face this meaning of the veil. This I believe is true exactly but, the black veil was never really
In the story “ The Minister’s Black Veil,” Nathaniel Hawthorne is trying to reveal that Mr. Hooper plays a significant role in the story and shows alienation and his moral values. Mr. Hooper was a new minister in a new town and people wondered about him because he constantly wore a black veil over his face. They wanted to know what was being hidden under the veil. Mr. Hooper is trying to reveal that the black veil is representing that he is sinful, depressed, mysterious and secretive.
In, The Minister’s Black Veil, Mr. Hopper wears the veil for his personal sins. I chose Article 3 to help support my claim because it makes a lot of valid points and it helps boost my claim up. In Article 3, the author says, “Reverend Mr. Hooper wore the black veil to symbolized secret sin; this veil represented how everyone has something in their heart that no one knows about” I agree with this quote because this is why I think Mr. Hooper wore the veil. Everyone in the town just assumed it was for something bad or that it had something to do with the young girl that had recently died. In this quote, Searis West is saying that Mr. Hooper wore the veil because he had his personal sins.
In “The Veil of Words In ‘The Minister’s Black Veil’,” Norman German argues that “The Minister’s Black Veil” gives insight into how people’s appearances often contradict reality.
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.
Every man before has always complimented Georgiana on her sweet imperfection. People would tell her all the time that true beauty was in that little blemish. Aylmer, being the man of Science wanted to change what nature had created. Typically, we all know better than to go against Nature, but not Aylmer. Georgiana finally agreed to let her husband remove the birthmark due to a frightening dream Aylmer had encountered. Aylmer started working on a potion to remove Georgiana 's birthmark. As soon as Georgiana sipped the potion, she suddenly falls into a deep coma-like state. The birthmark magically disappears from Georgina 's face. However, as the birthmark fades away, so does Georgina 's life. Hawthorne uses Georgiana 's character to symbolize beauty in this story. Georgiana is already made perfect in the eyes of Nature and all other men, expect Aylmer. Aylmer, representing Science, tries to change Georgiana 's beauty that Nature has created. Aylmer was successful in removing the birthmark, but unsuccessful in keeping Georgiana alive. Aylmer was too intertwined in Science to realize that Georgiana was perfectly made by Nature. Nature paid Aylmer back for trying to correct Georgiana 's face by taking the life of his beloved
The tone adopted by Hawthorne from the inception of the narrative toward Aylmer urges the reader to respect Aylmer’s scientific ambition—directly his triumph of head over heart, but indirectly his objectification of Georgiana and subsequent attempts to fix something that she never thought was a flaw. Not only is Aylmer’s obsession with getting rid of her birthmark selfish in that he does it for “the sake of giving himself peace” (647) rather than any desire to make his wife happy, he also admits to feeling guilt over his tyrannical treatment of her. For example, his “horror and disgust” in response to her facial blight rarely escapes her notice, and when she reacts poorly to his “convulsive shudder,” he attempts to soothe her and “release her mind from the burden of actual things” (650) as if she is an empty-headed infant in need of a pacifier. Furthermore, in response to her desperate request for its removal, he isolates her from humanity, administers potentially harmful concoctions into her rooms and body without her knowledge, and ultimately—and rapturously—succeeds in shrinking the mark at the cost of her
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
We are all flawed, perfection is an impossible standard for any human to achieve. Some of us are closer than others and this couldn't be more true for Aylmer's wife Georgiana. Her only flaw is a single birthmark upon her cheek, shaped to look like a tiny hand. As a scientist, Aylmer believes he can remove her birthmark, thus making her perfect. He sees the birthmark as simply a symbol for human imperfection, and wishes to make his wife perfect.