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Examples Of Ambiguity In The Minister's Black Veil

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Through allegory and his intentional vocabulary in ‘the Minister’s Black Veil’, Nathaniel Hawthorne parallels the literal veiling of Minister Hooper’s face with his own withholding of details within the plot. Hawthorne is deliberate in his word choice throughout, keeping with the theme of concealing. By purposeful ambiguity, both the minister and Hawthorne are demonstrating a point to their congregation or reader.
In a review of Hawthorne’s book “Twice-Told Tales” in Graham's Magazine, Edgar Allan Poe insinuates that Hooper’s “secret sin” and the cause of the veil is an affair he had with the young woman whose funeral is mentioned, being “a crime of dark dye”. (Crowley 92) The only time that the veil is an “appropriate emblem” is during the funeral, where a pair attending swears to have seen “the minister and the maiden’s spirit walking … hand-in-hand” (Hawthorne 639) It is unlikely that Hawthorne would have included this scene or the dialogue between the two people had the woman not played a significant factor in the sudden demonstration through concealment of the Minister. …show more content…

(Morgan 184) When his fiancée and the only person who has not had a repulsed reaction, Elizabeth, inquires about the veil, he refuses to confess the reason for it to her. Although she never learns of Hooper’s offense, she leaves him until he is on his deathbed. His commitment to his lifelong vow to his God to cover his face is shown when he states to Elizabeth that he intends to have the “mortal veil” between them until they reunite in Heaven. Even as she begs him to show her his face just once, he refuses. (Hawthorne 641-642) He continues to become isolated and a spectacle throughout his

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