The Minister’s Black Veil:A representation of an Inherent Sinful Nature

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Who doesn’t have a deep, dark or secret sin? Unfortunately, no one does. Everyone lives life hiding it from public, keeping it away from people’s sight. The reason why we behave like this is because people have the tendency on judging each other without knowing the true meaning or the reason of the thing their judge is based. A group of English Protestants called Puritans believed that all people are born sinners, and they can never get away of their sinful nature. Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote a magnificent literacy work. The Minister’s Black Veil, one of his well-known stories of all time. In the story, Hawthorne illustrates and criticizes certain behaviors of the Puritans in their fixation on judging others and attempting to live a clean life free of sin.
There are some key elements of Puritan theology that are relevant to the characters, which Hawthorne demonstrates throughout the story. Mr. Hooper behaved in different way from the other puritans did regard their sins. Hawthorne describes Mr. Hopper as “a good preacher, but not an energetic one: he strove to win his people heavenward by mild, persuasive influences, rather than to drive them thither by the thunders of the Word.” He didn’t preach the horrors of hell; instead he reveals their deepest sins. The Puritans “quaked” they were scared of Hooper, and they feel he discovered their secrets. People try to cowardly hide their sins from each other & from God. However, they could hide their “secret sin, and… sad mysteries”; however, God is “Omniscient.” God can detect all of their secrets. In the Funeral the girl’s body moved when the veil’s cast aside of Hooper’s face. Moreover, he ”and maiden's spirit were walking hand in hand”, an evidence that was not cleared about the rel...

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...er's Black
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Carnochan, W. B. “‘The Minister's Black Veil’: Symbol, Meaning, and the
Context of Hawthorne's Art.” Nineteenth-Century Fiction 24.2 (Sept. 1969): 182-192. JASTOR. Web. 19 Feb. 2014.
Fogle, Richard Harter. “’An Ambiguity of Sin or Sorrow’.” The New England Quarterly
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Hawthorne, Nathaniel. “The Minister’s Black Veil.” Gutenberg.org. 2012. Gutenberg
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Morsberger, Robert E. “’The Minister's Black Veil’: ‘Shrouded in a Blackness, Ten
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