In Nathaniel Hawthorne's short story, "The Minister's Black Veil," he paints a visual of early American Puritanism. The story takes place in a small New England town of Milford. In this town Mr. Hooper is a reverend who mysteriously wears a black veil one day. Due to the black veil that is worn, Reverend Hooper receives heavy mounts of criticism from the towns people, while rumors are also made by the towns people. Through these acts, performances of contrasts and contradictions are displayed in this short story. An early example of a contrast can be first found where the sexton is pulling and tolling the bell while keeping an eye Reverend Mr. Hooper's door. While doing this he catches a glimpse of Mr. Hooper wearing a veil and excitingly cries out in astonishment, " But what has good Parson Hooper got upon his face?" The sexton could be calling out Mr. Hooper as a step in his procedure to criticize or "expose" Mr. Hooper. This is an odd detail because of why the sexton would be doing that, especially during the Puritan Era. During their times, people were very dreary, gloomy and worried about their selves on how they should act in life so that they could have a good afterlife. …show more content…
Instead of focusing on being good, religious and moral, they decide to spread rumors and to create theories as to why Mr. Hooper wears his veil. This is stated where people are whispering about Mr. Hooper's past that he had sin, and written "from beneath the black veil, there rolled a cloud into the sunshine, an ambiguity of sin or sorrow." This is giving ideas that can justify Mr. Hooper's past as to why he wears a veil. This detail is placed here because Hawthorne wants to question the Puritans morality; that they can be easily persuaded into badmouthing based on someone'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
...t to acknowledge that fact than to live your life a lie. By keeping sin secret from the world like Dimmesdale, your conscience eats at your spirit until you are no longer able to live a healthy, normal life. Hooper's demeanor and sermons scared everyone into seeing their own sins and when looking at his black veil, they saw their own faults, which petrified them for they knew they were pretending to be one of the elect, and that none of them could be perfectly sinless. The horror and the hate people felt towards both the black veil and the scarlet letter was an outward manifestation of the horror and hate they all had for their own sins. Thus it brings us back to the theme that Hawthorne makes so clear in both the Scarlet Letter and "The Minister's Black Veil," that though manifested sin will ostracize a person from society, un-confessed sin will destroy the soul.
In both the “Scarlet Letter” and “The Minister’s Black Veil,” Hawthorne showed that we tend to judge a book by its cover and not by its plot. Mr. Hooper and Dimmesdale have many things in common. They are both reverends and both held up high in their societies. They are also similar in that they both were hiding something from their townspeople. In Dimmesdale's’ case he was hiding the fact that he had committed adultery. In Mr. Hooper’s case, he was hiding his face behind a black veil to become a more effective role model amongst his townspeople. However, these characters secrets had different effects. Near Mr. Hooper’s death, the minister of Westbury says, “Dark old man! With what horrible crime upon your soul are you now passing to the judgment?”(story) Mr. Hooper replies says that there is no sin, the veil was used a symbol of how the Puritans are hypocrites because they see the wrongs in others, but can't admit to their own sins. Unlike Mr. Hooper who was set on keeping his secret, Dimmesdale’s secret starts to play mental games on him. Dimmesdale is a hypocrite himself, because he tells everyone to be pure, but he has committed adultery which was extremely bad in Puritan faith. Dimmesdale realizes that evil has overcome him and he finally confesses, which leads to his death. Although he was a hypocrite, he is a role model also because he came
If Roderick Usher and Mr. Hooper have anything in common it is that they both share the burden of hidden sin. Both Poe and Hawthorne use gothic elements to emphasize the human mind that is put through anxiety and depression because of their guilty conscience. Through body language and social interactions the reader becomes aware of the internal conflict that is going on inside a mind that is hiding a secret sin. It is apparent that the authors wanted the audience to put secret sins in perspective by examining an individual in society that has a secret sin.
The sermon “Sinners in the Hand of an Angry God” by Jonathan Edwards and the short story “The Minister’s Black Veil” by Nathaniel Hawthorne were alike because both of these ministers saw their congregation as sinners. Before the short story “The Minister’s Black Veil” starts, there was a sentence about Hawthorne that says, “He believes that evil was a powerful force in the world, a sentiment that infuses most of his fiction”. This applies to both authors of the sermon and the short story because they both felt that sin was a big, influencing part of their society. This took place from the 1700s to the days of the Puritans. They both had multiple
Main characters in short stories almost always have a point they are trying to prove to the world. Whether it is against society, God, or themselves. In “The Minister 's Black veil” by Nathaniel Hawthorne Mr. Hooper who is the protagonist of the story shows up one day wearing a black veil. The Black veil seems to represent everyone 's hidden sins they have or have not shared. He wears the veil to show the society that you should not hide or runaway from your past sins. In “Before The Law” by Kafka a man tries his whole life to get through the gate the gatekeeper told him he can not go into. In “A Clean Well-Lighted Place” by Ernest Hemingway an old waiter battles against the world to prove that people need to be in a light clean quiet place
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
In “The Minister’s Black Veil,” for example, Hawthorne describes how, “perhaps the palefaced congregation was almost as fearful a sight to the minister, as his black veil to them”(2). This directly contrasts the “light” faces of the members of the congregation with the darkness of the minister’s veil. By stating that the minister was just as afraid of the people as the people were of him, Hawthorne indicates that the people fear the minister due to the abrupt reveal of his mysterious sin, but the minister also somewhat fears the people and the secrets they hold deep within their hearts. The people of the town are supposedly pure and innocent, yet it is clear that many of the citizens carry the burden of their own evils. Although the minister boldly comes forward with his own sin, he still feels the pain of the loneliness, scorn, and spite that has come with his statement. Hawthorne represents the discomfort the guilty townspeople feel when in the presence of Mr. Hooper when he describes how they were, “conscious of lighter spirits the moment they lost sight of the black veil” (3). Once again, this use of light and dark imagery supports Hawthorne’s argument that people, even those who claim to be pure and innocent, are capable of sin. The townspeople in Mr. Hooper’s community feel the burden of their own sins when they come in
Reverend Hooper was the protagonist in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Minister’s Black Veil. He was a soft spoken man who wanted people to realize that every one was a sinner, no matter how much they may deny the fact. He preached during the Puritan era. Conversely, Jonathan Edwards was a preacher who preached during the end of the Puritan era in a terrifying manner; he thought that if he scared those who were listening enough, it would get them to convert. When faced with a challenge regarding how Reverend Hooper would have felt about Edwards, one might conclude that Hooper would have appreciated the intent but not the delivery because it was far too intimidating and aggressive for the congregation, it was the incorrect way to approach wanting people to convert, and it was antipodal to how Hooper would have done so.
In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story, “The Minister’s Black Veil,” the townspeople are concerned with the minister’s new clothing piece, a black veil that conceals his face. Midway through the story, Mr. Hooper’s veil has gained attention from the townspeople, as is evident in the statement, “That [Mr. Hooper’s black veil], and the mystery concealed behind it, supplied a topic for discussion between acquaintances meeting in the street, and good women gossiping at their open windows” (Hawthorne 6). In this sentence, it is clear that the townspeople spend a great deal of time discussing Mr. Hooper’s veil, demonstrating how in the society created by Hawthorne, a person acting out of character worries the people. In today’s society, someone with
These are all remarks of Hooper and his black veil and the start of the alienation where the people start outcasting him because they don't like his veil and are starting to wonder why it's on his face, they want to know what he is hiding. Hawthorne also includes as a small note to perceive this as a parable for secrecy and sin where he talks about the reverend’s subject “The subject had reference to secret sin, and those sad mysteries which we hide from our nearest and dearest, and would fain conceal from our own consciousness,even forgetting that the omniscient can detect them.” This is ironic due to the fact he has a veil covering his face to show his masked sin, and won’t tell anyone what his sin is and why he wears the
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.
The theme in this story is that misfortunes come to those who do not seek it, and to those who are pure. In addition, the black veil represents: those who do not have a say in anything, and those who do not have anything to live for. Mr. Hooper wore the black veil in symbolizing those who have lost or live their life unjustly. While he is trying to represent those, his life becomes unjust. In the article written by William Freedman says “Some of the townspeople are amazed, others awed; some are fearful or intimidated, others perplexed or defensively wise, while yet others are inspired or made hopeful… . Both conjure back into the simple materials of literature and earth a power beyond. They do so, as Teufelsdrockh recommends, by planting "into the deep infinite faculties of man, his Fantasy and Heart" (Carlyle 225)-Hooper by means of the veil, the artist by means of the symbol the veil represents.”, which demonstrates how the townspeople took the fact that Mr. Hooper would never reveal his face. In the same manner, some took it lightly as many live their life ‘lightly’ or joyfully. However, many were frightened by the black veil and the person wearing it, being Mr. Hooper; this represents those who live their life frightened by the world or those who live their life mourning the loss or lack of their belongings or love. In all, the theme represents those who live and how they live their own individual
Throughout Nathaniel Hawthorne 's literary work, The Minister 's Black Veil, the sensation of the veil, the separation it creates from good things in life, and the persistence of the black veil on earth symbolize sin in mankind. During the whole parable, Mr. Hooper is restrained by the black veil and cannot live a free, enjoyable life. Also, people around him cannot tolerate the overwhelming, dark feeling that the black veil generates. Similarly, sin can take over people’s lives and create a feeling of hopelessness and gloom. Hawthorne’s parable overall demonstrates power and impact of sin on
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.