Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Minister’s Black is considered to be a parable. A parable is simple didactic story used to illustrate and teach a moral or spiritual lesson. The story is considered to be a parable since it contains a moral message. When the character Hooper from the story first puts on the black veil, everyone of his congregation begins to question the purpose of why he’s wearing it. They all began to ostracize him without knowing the deeper meaning of Hooper’s intentions. When the people first see him in the veil, they noted that it gave a new energy to his sermon. The subject of the sermon was that of reference to secret sin and the deplorable secrets that people hide from their loved ones. As the story goes on, tensions begin
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 “Minister’s Black Veil” was written as a parable in order to teach us a moral lesson stating that you should never judge someone. In Paul J. Emmett’s literary criticism he tells of a point in the story when Hooper explains his reasoning for wearing the veil, Emmett says, “After exhausting life in his efforts for mankind’s spiritual good, he had made the manner of his death a parable, in order to impress on his admirers the mighty and mournful lesson, that, in the view of infinite purity, we
Hooper being so close to them with his face veiled, the people felt as if their sins were dangling over them. Nobody wants others to know about the shameful things that they have done or are doing, especially not a minister. Hooper
In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Minister’s Black Veil”, we are presented with Reverend Parson Hooper, an admirable Puritan preacher who decides to start wearing a black veil. Mr. Hooper’s decision to cover his face almost entirely, except for the mouth and chin with that “mysterious emblem” (#) agitated the town of Milford. It incited gossip within the community about him and the reason why he chose to wear the black veil in the first place, which the townspeople thought represented the Reverend’s sins. This gossiping and the rumors that the people created could be considered a way of hypocrisy, due to the fact that they are judging someone else’s sins rather than acknowledging their own sins, which is the message that Mr. Hooper is trying to
In this essay, the poem “ The Minister’s Black Veil ” by Nathaniel Hawthorne unravels the story of a man who was judged and thought to have committed a terrible sin. The key aspect discussed in “The Minister’s Black Veil” is of secret sin and how Mr. Hooper the communities reverend must carry the burden of these sins like how Jesus died for our sins. Mr. Hooper incites fear in his community after he starts wearing a black veil, but they don’t understand why. Everyone wants to ask Mr. Hooper why he wears a black veil but the community was craven. No one asked Mr.Hooper about the veil until his fiancee brazenly asked him.
In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s parody “The Black Veil,” the reader is introduced to Minister Hooper as he steps out with a black veil over his face to begin a church service. The immediate response of confusion and fear takes over his congregation. Minister Hooper uses the veil as a symbol for the hidden/secret sins that each one of us carries. The irony in this is that the veil is just that, a double folded crape. Hooper’s congregation proved to be harsh and judgmental of the minister not fully understanding why he was veiled.
“A person, who watched the interview between the dead and the living, scrupled not to the affirm that, at the instant when the clergyman’s features were disclosed, the corpse had slightly shuddered, rustling the shroud and muslin cap, though the countenance retained the composure of death.” Nathaniel Hawthorne, born in 1804, had been a descendant of Puritan settlers and had grown up with society constantly beating down on him, because of his family history. After he went to college at Bowdoin College, he had a desire of writing and soon composed a very famous story called The Minister’s Black Veil, This short story depicts two major themes that one can gather from reading this story, them being; standing up to your beliefs or morals can be
In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s story, “The Minister’s Black Veil”, Mr. Hooper wears a black veil during his message of secret sin. People understood his message, but then they noticed that he never took off his black veil. Since he never took the veil off, people started judging him, he became secluded from those around him, and his fiancee breaks up with him. This affected Mr. Hooper’s life greatly. No one really liked him.
The black veil is thought to represent secret sin. Hooper exposed himself through the veil which caused him to banish himself because he upholds the community's sins. Hooper upheld the sins for the entire community and felt it would be seen as an ethical fluctuation by wearing the veil. He does not give specific reason into why he refuses to remove the veil but imagery used in the parable convinces readers that Hooper has beliefs that he is some kind of
In the Minister’s Black Veil, Nathaniel Hawthorne's purpose was to reveal how acknowledging one's sin leads to ostracization of an individual and uncovers they hypocritical nature of an individual. Indeed, once Mr. Hooper, a well known compassionate person, dons a black veil to symbolize his own sin, he becomes ostracized and heavily criticized by his fellow villagers despite the fact that their judgement is a sin of its own. Not once did the villagers attempt to uncover the symbolization of the veil, but instead speculated, gossiped, what possible crime Revered Hooper must have committed. Thus, Hooper’s decision to make his sin visible leads to the Parishioners to fear him, withdraw their companionship, and effectively ostracized him from
The Story Behind the Veil “The Minister’s Black Veil” is arguably one of the most famous short stories in the history of American Literature. The author, Nathaniel Hawthorne, is an extremely well known writer who is recognized for his many works. From The Scarlet Letter to The House of the Seven Gables, Hawthorne’s exceptional literary skills are portrayed in each and every one of his stories.
“‘On every visage a Black Veil!’” (Hawthorne 188). The majority of people prefers to keep their secrets hidden from others, but they do not mind passing judgment onto someone else. Writers often highlight the values of a society or community by using characters who are alienated because of gender, race, or creed. In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Minister’s Black Veil,” Reverend Hooper is subjugated to alienation from his community because of the black veil that covers their minister’s face.
He no longer fit in with the people in the village and he didn’t meet their expectations of what a minister should be like so they started saying things about Mr.Hooper. At the beginning of the story when they were in the church and Mr.Hooper began wearing the veil a person
Mr. Hooper was forcing all of the people to look deeper within themselves and try to understand the veils true meaning “Such was the effect of this simple piece of crape, that more than one woman of delicate nerves was forced to leave the meeting-house. Yet perhaps the pale-faced congregation was almost as fearful a sight to the minister, as his black veil to them.” (Hawthorne 707) In reality, the veil represents the secrets everyone is hiding within himself or herself. The theme of the veil is the conflict between the dark, hidden side of man.
Initially in the story, Mr. Hooper (Who is the Minister of a Church) became an odd character which came to question the people because he began to wear a black veil over himself and knowing that he represents the church, the attention stood at a shock towards the people. To certain individuals, it appeared more odd towards them such as a woman who said “He has changed himself into something awful, only by hiding his face.” Although this seemed as such a difference to the people, Mr. Hooper did not seem to see what his people had seen him. As if he was blinded to what he had done himself. His attitude was not changed, After all he was known as a good preacher but not an energetic one.
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