Prejudice In The Minister's Black Veil

Judgement causes people to wear masks. In The Minister’s Black Veil by Nathaniel Hawthorne, people in the community judge Mr. Hooper for wearing a veil. Since he lives in a Puritan community everyone knew everything about each other, and if anyone misbehaved everyone would know about it. Hawthorne makes this evident in the first paragraph when he describes the way the town reacted when he wore the veil to a funeral sermon. In his sermon Hooper states that God is always watching, but the truth is that the townspeople are always watching and judging their peers. ” As he entered the church people became disturbed. He wanted to see how people would react when he did something he normally wouldn’t do. “The next day, the whole village of Milford talked of little else than Parson Hooper's black veil. That, 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. It was the first item of news that the tavern-keeper told to his guests. The children babbled of it on their way to school. One imitative little imp covered his face with an old black handkerchief, thereby so affrighting his playmates that the panic seized himself, and he well-nigh lost his wits by his own waggery.” Hoopers appearance leads the town to believe their own interpretations of why he chose to wear the black veil.

How willing are you to give up your whole life and reputation to help others by proving a point? In “The Minister 's Black Veil” Nathaniel Hawthorne writes about a minister named Mr. Hooper who changes his whole life to try to show the people in his congregation that they are living in sin and need to change their ways. The author Nathaniel Hawthorne was born around the time when Puritan life was the norm and everyone was a Puritan. Hawthorne also admired his ancestor’s ways and their lifestyles as much as he felt the need for people to have the freedom to strongly disagree about something (Grant). Grant says, “ It is this rich combination of his ancestral soil, a strong sense of the richness of the American past, and that moral quality” which

The main character in “The Minister’s Black Veil”, Mr. Hooper represents how everyone carries a sin with them but some choose to acknowledge it, while others choose to hide them.

“ We magnify the flaws in others that we secretly see in ourselves” -Baylor Barbee. In “ The Minister’s Black Veil” by Nathaniel Hawthorne, the main character Reverend Hooper is alienated by his community because he is the wearer of a mysterious black veil. Reverend Hooper is the reverend of his community’s church and has always been well respected by his surrounding peers. One day, Hooper shows up to his church and preaches the sermon wearing a mysterious black veil causing his peers to alienate him. Throughout the story, Hooper’s actions portray just how judgmental our society really is. In the “Minister’s Black Veil”, Hawthorne displays Hooper and the symbol of the veil as a representation of how judgmental society can become when faced with situations they don’t understand even though they have no right to judge.

“The Sacrifices of the Minister’s Black Veil” Could a simple black veil take on the sins of an entire community? At intervals, veils are often thought to be worn by a bride in a wedding. For some women in the Muslim world, the veil they wear is a symbol of oppression. In The Minister’s Black Veil, Nathaniel Hawthorne uses strong diction, imagery, and details to portray the sacrifice needed to take on the responsibility of sin by Rev. Hooper donning the black veil. Hawthorne uses diction to portray how Rev.Hooper deliberately sacrificed his personal happiness for others sins.

French designer Philippe Starck once claims: “I like to open the doors to people’s brain.” Nathaniel Hawthorne 's short story “The Minister’s Black Veil” reflects this principle in which the author advertently creates ambiguities and opens the possibilities of interpretation to the readers. Nathaniel Hawthorne employs commonplace symbols to present the ambiguity of sin and secrecy through a psychological lens in “The Minister’s Black Veil”. This short story also reflected the principle of Puritanism as well, such as the idea of manifest destiny represented by Mr. Hooper in the story.

First off, Hooper is introduced to the readers as someone who is already wearing the veil, so the reader has no idea who he was before putting it on.

“Thus from beneath the black veil, there rolled a cloud into the sunshine, an ambiguity of sin or sorrow, which enveloped the poor minister, so that love or sympathy could never reach him.” (Hawthorne). In the Minister’s Black Veil, Nathaniel Hawthorne evokes the idea there is a dark side of humanity and that humans have secrets and sins hidden away from their nearest and dearest. In the parable, Hawthorne emphasizes the idea of personal sacrifices must be made during one’s lifetime for those you love even if it meant giving up one’s source of happiness. In Milford, a small Puritan town men, women, and children are fancying another Sunday. The peace is interrupted on the Sabbath day when Reverend Hooper, Minister of the Puritan Community appears

Just because he didn’t show his bare face to Elizabeth, she ended their relationship. “...material emblem had separated him from happiness, though the horrors, which it shadowed forth, must be drawn darkly between the fondest of lovers.” (Hawthorne 12) Hooper is thinking about what he has done but still doesn’t do anything about it because the black veil signified something more important to him. “Each character, then, is faced with the prospect of assuming mature responsibilities, and each story is an account of how he responds to this crucial psychological situation.” (Askew 2)

“The Minister's Black Veil:” In the story ," The Minister's Black Veil" it has several characteristics of American Romanticism that is shown through the reading. Also, the story contains a great deal of moral and religious lessons that can be learned by reading the story. Nathaniel Hawthorne which is the author does a great job of giving simple things more meanings. For example, the veil that Mr. Hooper wears is a sign that he has committed a sin.

What can you expect from a minister from changing persona where people use to see him as a “gentlemanly men, of about thirty, though still a bachelor, was dressed with due clerical neatness.” Then have a change in his appearance where it drastically changes his life. By a piece of cloth over his head accounts reactions of the congregation to it, the veil, a black veil that changed the image and the reactions of the people from Westbury. It is just a man, Mr.Hooper, who Hawthorne is modulating between dramatic incidents involving the black veil and Mr.Hooper approaches dramatic reactions towards it, in the short story the “Minister’s Black Veil”. The key symbol of the short story is the black veil it represented the spiritual isolation between

Have you ever judged someone,but said you don’t judge people on the way they look. I’m going to be getting examples from “The Minister’s Black Veil” that will show when people judge others. In the story Mr.Hooper began to wear a black veil and people began to judge him. In real life when someone does something out of the ordinary people begin to judge them. The moral of the story is that everyone is judgemental. We all put on a facade to hide our true selves.

The author uses deep emotions to describe the scene of the “Black Veil”. The passage uses older, outdated and uncommon language. First point of view was in the passage. Mr. Hooper says “Have men avoided me, and women shown no pity, and children screamed and fled, only for my black veil”. “Me” in the quotation marks is one example of first point of

Mr. Hooper's audience even begins to distrust him, leading one to say "'I would not be alone with him for the world,'" ("The Minister's Black Veil" 411-2). Although Mr. Hooper remains unchanged for the most part, the black veil changes his appearance and the townsfolk's opinion of him. This superficiality, Hawthorne insinuates, should not be characteristic of Puritan communities. One common interpretation of Mr. Hooper's veil is that it represents the secret sin everyone bears. However, given Mr. Hooper's treatment, one would be surprised to learn that everyone is cognizant of that fact.

In "The Ministers Black Veil" by Nathaniel Hawthorne "The reason that it is difficult for the congregation and even his fiancée to look upon him is that they only see the veil. "The minister is hiding his face because he is afraid that what he is hiding will show to the people of the church and his fiancée. Mr. Hooper is wearing the veil because he committed a sin; and is hiding it from the town and his church