Examples Of Secret Sin In The Minister's Black Veil

Secret Sin

In the parable, the Minister's Black Veil by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Hawthorne portrays a parson that lives in a puritan community where religion is ideal to them. In the story, Reverend Hooper delivers a sermon about secret sin wearing a black veil that sparks worry and fear in the eyes of his congregation. He then later tends and preaches at both a wedding and a funeral wearing the veil creating a sense of alienation in the crowd. Overall, through the minister’s veil and the conflicts it created, Hawthorne shows that everyone has a secret sin that is hidden from all except god himself. First of all, the black veil that covers most of Mr. Hooper’s face is a very important symbol all throughout the story. It is first seen when

For example, in the story two of the mourners that attended the service of the dead maiden saw a ghost holding hands with Mr. Hooper. “ I had a fancy, replied she, that the Minister and the maiden’s spirit were walking hand in hand”(Hawthorne 7). “ And so had I, at the same moment,” said the other ”(Hawthorne 7).

This is showing a common characteristic in American Romanticism that is seen in many works, the supernatural. Also the Minister’s Black veil show another common trait that intuition over logic and reason were valued. In addition, Mr. Hooper can be seen as a romantic character because of his misleading ways. As mentioned in Ironic Unity in Hawthorne’s “the Minister’s Black Veil” by Earle Stibitz, that Mr. Hooper’s sin may be hidden one keeping it from himself and the parishioners. By doing this he is either misguiding his followers to learn a lesson or he is hiding a secret of his own.

“This irony is compounded in that Hooper’s sin is a hidden one-hidden not only from his fellows but from himself”(Stibitz 182).

This factor also contributes to the fact that Mr. Hooper is a mysterious character because the crowd does not truly know what secret is being hidden by the