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Good and evil in the history of literature
The theme of guilt in the minister's Black Veil and the scarlet letter
The theme of guilt in the minister's Black Veil and the scarlet letter
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Recommended: Good and evil in the history of literature
If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not within us. (1 John 1:7-9) All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away. (Isaiah 64:6) The conscience is the eyes to the truth. You carry the load of someone’s misconduct, misbehavior, someone’s iniquity, and Mr. Hooper and his veil is symbolic for mankind keeping their sins veiled. People tend to act as if they are pure and have not committed any wrongdoings, but in Mr. Hooper’s town little did they know that he was wearing this veil to remind his self that everyone sins. As a minister in a church Mr. Hooper is the person his congregation would confess to if they have sinned. Through this veil Mr. Hooper sees nothing but darkness which would be the symbolic meaning of sin in the air but it was being covered up with light, or semblance of purity. According the article “The Minister’s Black Veil it states, “the sermon subject had reference to secret sin and 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” (Line 83). After Mr. Hooper’s implication “some decided to head homeward” (103). He has realized that all people …show more content…
Take it not amiss I shall wear this piece of crape until then” (Line 254-256). Mr. Hooper was not planning on taking the veil off. He wanted “all” as in everyone to acknowledge and remove the veil from their sins, but people fear the worst side of themselves. Mr. Hooper didn’t allow anyone to see his face he wore it day and night. Article 1 claims that Mr. Hooper veil represented everyone’s sin in general not just his sin, “The veil worn by Mr. Hooper in “The Minister’s Black Veil” for sins that mankind hides within. It is not always representative of Hooper’s own sin but those sins many others have
Mr. Hooper the minister’s is perceived to be a “self-disciplined man”. When he was wearing the veil people in his village believed that he went insane and is guilty of a dark and terrible sin. “He has changed himself into something awful, only by hiding his face” (1253).The author explains how Mr.Hooper would wear a mask to hide his sins and face which cause people to believe he was awful. The veil becomes the center of discussion for all of those in the congregate the mask all the people wore around others to hide their sins and embraces there guilty. Elizabeth in the story ends her relationship with Mr. Hooper because he will not remove the veil that he's wearing. The veil actually symbolize for the puritans belief that all people souls are black from
In “The Minister’s Black Veil,” Minister Hooper dons a black veil that causes an eruption of gossip in his community . The townspeople do not have any clue as to why he is wearing this black veil and see it as scary and devilish. The people in the community believe that Minister Hooper is wearing the veil to cover up a horrible sin. This may not be the case however, because he may be wearing it as a symbol of his faith. As Judy McCarthy voices that Moses and the minister have a relation by in this quote “Moses in the bible wore a black veil to conceal his shining face after meeting and talking with Christ.” Judy McCarthy also stated that “the veil that hangs over the heart cannot be lifted other than by God’s gracious hand,” meaning that Hooper relates his real veil as a very powerful and spiritual object. Hooper wears this veil as an expression of faith and will not remove it until he departs from this world. This behavior in itself reflects how much Hooper’s relationship with religion means to him. As John Timmerman states, “[Hooper] is a person who has abrogated earthly relationships for his heavenly meaning …This may be clearly seen by Hooper’s refusa...
...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 “The Minister’s Black Veil” Mr. Hooper shocks his townspeople by putting a veil permanently on his face. The veil is a paradox of concealment and revelation (Carnochan 186). Although it is concealing Mr. Hooper’s face, it is made to reveal the sins in society. The townspeople first believed that the veil was being used to hide a sin that Mr. Hooper had committed. Mr. Hooper says that the veil is supposed to be a symbol of sins in general, however the townspeople ignore the message and still focus on his sinfulness. The townspeople know that they have sinned, but they use Mr. Hooper as their own “veil” to hide their sins. Because the townspeople are so caught up on his sins, they fail to figure on the message behind Mr. Hooper’s action and
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...
Continuing on, Mr. Hooper is not wearing the burdens of other people because he is trying to prove more than one point. By wearing a veil to hold other people's burdens he is making no statement. People are left to assume that he knows all of their sins when really, the situation is not that intricate. As stated before, Mr. Hooper is trying to prove that everyone is human, and that even he sins
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 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.
In “The minister’s black veil” The black veil Mr.hooper puts on is to prevent people from spying on his private life. The veil symbolized that human nature is blinded by sins and they way the town treated him after he started wearing the veil shows that there faith is blind they couldn't understand where he was coming from. “ Mr. Hooper's conscience tortured him for some great crime too horrible to be entirely concealed, or otherwise than so obscurely intimated. Thus, from beneath the black veil, there rolled a cloud into the sunshine, an ambiguity of sin or sorrow, which
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.
Hooper delivers his sermon, which is about how everyone has a secret sin that acts as a barrier between themselves and the others around them, with a black veil covering his face, “each member of the congregation, the most innocent girl, and the man of hardened breast, felt as if the preacher had crept upon them, behind his awful veil, and discovered their hoarded iniquity of deed or thought.” (106). The message of his sermon, paired with the veil, causes the townspeople to feel as if Mr. Hooper can see their individual secret sins and expose them to the public, which, in a Puritanical society, makes one vulnerable to public punishment or ostracism by the community. Due to their fears of having their Christian facades shattered and their subsequent sinful natures revealed, the townspeople alienate the minister. This reflects hypocrisy in the sense that their fears come from knowing they are essentially living double lives, which causes more hypocritical behavior to arise in the form of treating their minister in quite the opposite way one should treat a human being, especially one who serves the church in such a high position. Furthermore, on his deathbed, Mr. Hooper points out the townspeople’s hypocrisy when he exclaims, “Why do you tremble at me alone? Tremble also at each other. . . .I look around me, and, lo! on every visage a Black Veil!” (118). Through this exclamation, he is trying to urge the townspeople to reveal their secret sins and stop hiding under a
Hooper’s face as long as his body is on earth. He refuses to lift the veil and he cannot escape from it until he dies and his soul goes to Heaven. Mr. Hooper explains to his wife, “‘Do not desert me, though this veil must be between us here on earth. Be mine, and here-after there shall be no veil over my face, no darkness between our souls! It is but a mortal veil-it is not for eternity!’” (Hawthorne 415). Similarly to the black veil, sin is ever-present on earth, but when an individual goes to Heaven they are no longer in contact with sin. On earth people are repeatedly sinning and facing the consequences, but when people pass away and go to Heaven, they can be completely free from the darkness and strife that sin creates.
From the beginning of the story, Mr. Hooper comes out wearing a black veil, which represents sins that he cannot tell to anyone. Swathed about his forehead, and hanging down over his face, Mr. Hooper has on a black veil. Elizabeth urged, “Beloved and respected as you are, there may be whispers that you hid your face under the consciousness of secret sin” (Hawthorne 269). His fiancé says that in the black veil there may be has a consciousness of secret sin. Also, he is a parson in Milford meeting-house and a gentlemanly person, so without the veil, Hooper would be a just typical minister, “guilty of the typical sins of every human, but holier than most” (Boone par.7). He would be a typical minister who is guilty of the typical sins of every human without the black veil. Also, Boone said, “If he confesses his sin, the community can occur” (Boone par.16). If he confesses his sin about the black veil, all of the neighbors will hate him. Last, he said, “so, the veil is a saying: it is constantly signifying, constantly speaking to the people of the possibility of Hooper’s sin” (Boone par.11). Mr. Hooper’s veil says that he is trying to not tell the sins about the black veil. In conclusion, every people have sins that cannot tell to anyone like Mr. Hooper.
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
One of Hawthorne’s very literal symbols of secret sin is the veil in “The Minister’s Black Veil”. The story describes a man, named Reverend Hooper, who one day appears before the congregation on a Sunday morning wearing a mysterious black veil that covers his entire face, excluding his chin. Members of the congregation begin to suspect that Hooper is hiding something behind his black veil. “The whole village of Milford talked of little else than Parson Hooper's black veil. That, and the mystery concealed behind it,” Hooper’s veil is a physical representation of human sin. In one of his sermons he preaches about secret sin, causing everyone in the room to feel uncomfortable while reciting their secret sins inside their heads. One of the Reverend’s thoughts is that, “those sad mysteries which we hide from our nearest and dearest, and would fain conceal from o...