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The minister's black veil research paper
The minister's black veil research paper
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Caleb Martin Hensley Honors English 11/ Second Period 27 January 2017 ?The Minister?s Black Veil? Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote ?The Minister?s Black Veil? in 1836. Reverend Mr. Hooper was the protagonist of the the story. He was a minister in a small Puritan town called Milford, located somewhere in New England. At the beginning of this story, Mr. Hooper was walking to church with a black veil over his face. No one knew why the minister has this garment covering his face, and they did not like it. One woman claimed, ?He has changed himself into something awful, only by hiding his face? (Hawthorne 2). Typically, people put veils over their faces when they were sorrowful and mourning. As you read on, you will notice that the Minister is not depressed, or at least doesn?t show it. He walked through the church, bows to his oldest parishioner, and steps into his pulpit. As he began preaching to the congregation, the black veil remained upon his face. ?That mysterious emblem was never once withdrawn. It shook with his measured breath, as he gave out the psalm; it threw its obscurity between him and the holy page, as he read the Scriptures; and while he prayed, the veil lay heavily on his uplifted countenance? (Hawthorne 2). In his sermon, he preached about secret sin. He told us that we all have our hidden sins, and how we wish for the …show more content…
Hooper, or at least discover the reasoning of why he wore it. He says that no human will ever see his face, friends or strangers. ?Know, then, this veil is a type and a symbol, and I am bound to wear it ever, both in light and darkness, in solitude and before the gaze of multitudes, and as with strangers, so with my familiar friends. No mortal eye will see it withdrawn. This dismal shade must separate me from the world: even you, Elizabeth, can never come behind it? (Hawthorne 8)! She then left him because she did not understand his reasoning or the veil?s
In the short story “The Minister’s Black Veil”, fear of the unknown is used by the main character, Mr. Hooper, to draw attention to what he believed was a necessary in order to achieve salvation. He believed people should be honest and forward with God, and should avoid wearing a “veil” to hide their true faces when speaking with God. He wore the veil to symbolize the indirectness most people use to cover themselves when speaking to God. Hooper refused to remove his veil, saying he would cast aside his veil once everyone else did, Unfortunately, Hooper never explained why he choose to wear his veil, which led to an uproar of confusion in the community. The community members looked for a simple explanation for his actions. For instance, some believed he had relations with a young girl who recently died, and he was in mourning, or committed a sin so severe he refused to show his face. The community began to avoid Hooper and fear the Reverend they once respected, just because of his one unexplained action. The community began to fear him in such a way that he losses almost all the respect he held within the community, and dies without his betrothed by his side. Even upon his deathbed he refuses to share, with the community, why he chose to wear his veil. Hawthorne reveals in this short story how people crave an explanation for the abnormal, and when they fail to find a satisfactory answer, they will reject and fear the
Considering, Melville’s and Hawthorne’s views of humanity and how they perceive the world in an accurate manner just goes to show that people can be thrown off by false views. In “Benito Cereno”, Caption Cereno is blind to the evil within Babo, his faithful servant. Caption Cereno’s judgment is clouded by the one person he believes is taking care of him and in trusted him with more power then he deserves. While in “The Minister’s Black Veil”, Mr. Hopper judgment is clouded by the veil he wears, and the congregation minds are clouded by the veil that Mr. Hopper wears. They believe he is not the same man due to the fact that he wears this black veil now; however Mr. Hopper ends up blinded by the veil that he
His lover, Elizabeth, leaves him, because he refuses to take the veil off. The plot to the story is that Parson Hooper tries to overcome the gossiping of the town, and make people accept him. However, his plan backfires and they reject him. “ Mr Hooper had the reputation of a good preacher, but not an energetic one: he strove to win his people heavenward, rather than to drive them thither,” states Hawthorne. The sermon he gives with the black veil on his face, is the same style and manner he gave the last sermon.
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.
Nathaniel Hawthorne, a well-known American novelist in the Romantic era, wrote and published the short story, “The Minister’s Black Veil,” in 1836. The story provides an intriguing case of the moral and psychological facet of a religious man and his community during New England and Puritan Age. The tale begins with the villagers gathering on the front porch of the Milford meeting-house to wait for Reverend Hooper. Parson Hooper arrives, and to their astonishment, wearing a black veil obscuring his face. The villagers wonder among themselves and follow him into the meeting-house where he speaks on secret sin. The crowd is greatly affected by the veil, and leave confused of its significance. After the sermon, a funeral is held for a young woman, and his veil now becomes “acceptable”. After a few prayers, the funeral ends and someone mention that it seems “the minister and the maiden’s spirit were walking hand in hand”. He attends and brings gloom into a wedding the same night. His wearing the veil and refusal to remove it leads to the village isolating him, his fiancée leaving after an offer of redemption, and a life as a good clergyman. When it comes time for his death, he once again refuses to take off the veil, and accuses everyone to having a black veil. As Daniel Webster said, “There is nothing so powerful as truth, and often nothing so strange.” Character, symbolism, and solemn tone create a theme of rejection, socially and psychologically.
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...
This can be presumed because of Hawthorne’s upbringing in a Puritan family and his references to this same time period in his other works such as “Young Goodman Brown” (1835) and “The Scarlet Letter” (1850). This story tells the tale of a town terrified reaction to their minister, Mr. Hooper, who had “Swathed about his forehead, and hanging down over his face, so low as to be shaken by his breath, Mr. Hooper had on a black veil.” (Hawthorne 331). The town does not take well to this choice and rumors being to stir about it acting as a symbol of Mr. Hooper being “under the consciousness of secret sin” (Hawthorne 335) or having something to hide. Hooper repeatedly dismisses these accusations but continues to wear the layers of crape upon his face. Time goes by, Mr. Hooper ages, becomes ill, passes away, and is buried, all with this same mysterious black veil still draped upon his
Doing things you can't see or comprehend make you doubting or anxious? A few individuals fear the obscure. Actually, the unexplainable frequently puts unreasonable trepidation into the hearts of numerous. In "The Minister's Black Veil" by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Reverend Hooper reasons disagreement by wearing a shroud before his assembly. Never clarifying his reasons, he keeps on wearing the shroud each and every day. His kin start to evade him, supposing it is peculiar and uncivilized. He wears it whatever remains of his life, and upon his deathbed clarifies it is an image of the cover everybody is wearing to cover his mystery sin. The creator accentuates fixation, seclusion, and hidden blame as parts of man's concealed sins by displaying the battle between the disguised side of man and the beliefs of society. The clergyman gets to be fixated on his quest for demonstrating men's internal personalities. As his lady to-be Elizabeth defies him about evacuating the cover, his reaction is not to her preferring.
"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.
In the novel The Scarlet Letter and the short story “The Minister’s Black Veil”, Nathaniel Hawthorne incorporates romantic elements, such as beauty, truth, innocence, and sin, in his criticism of Puritan societies. In both texts, Hawthorne argues that all people, even those in strictly religious societies with corrupted standards, are capable of sin. Hawthorne uses symbolism and light and dark imagery to convey his argument.
The same thing happens in “The Minister’s Black Veil,” except the reader does not know exactly what secret sin makes Reverend Hooper begin to don the black veil. Many scholars believe that this has something to do with the funeral of the young lady at the beginning of the story. The opinions range from believing that Reverend Hooper loved the girl in secret, to Poe’s believe that Reverend Hooper may have actually been the cause of the girl’s death (Newman 204). Whatever the reason, the minister’s wearing of the veil taints his view of everyone else around him, making all of them look like they are wearing veils as well (Hawthorne 107).
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...
In “The Minister’s Black Veil” Nathaniel Hawthorne conveys the idea that sin, whether it be your sin, secret sin, or a known sin, can sometimes lead to isolation and gives insight into people’s true character. The main character Parson Hooper was met with many confrontations in his literal representation of secret sin by wearing a black veil. In the beginning of the story, as Hooper leaves the church he dreadfully realizes the darkness and effect of the black veil which would soon lead to his own isolation. Hawthorne writes, “catching a glimpse of his figure in the looking-glass, the black veil involved his own spirit in the horror with which it overwhelmed all others.” Parson Hooper was so hurt by the people’s reaction and afraid of the black
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.
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.