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The Black Veil In The Scarlet Letter

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The mystery and curiosity that a typical old man can bring to himself with wearing a black veil that covers half his appearance. Mr. Hooper the minister with a black veil following him everywhere, has everyone wondering what he has to hide and why he began to wear it in the first place. The black veil itself brought many consequences to his life, specifically, his wife, friends, the people, and the children have a fear. "In this manner, Mr. Hooper spent a long life, irreproachable in outward act, yet shrouded in dismal suspicions; kind and loving..."(Hawthorne 14), but yet the protagonist does not remove the veil at all. Mr. Hooper keeps the veil on to demonstrate that the black veil is the item that keeps their secrets hidden. He wears the veil as a representation of not only his secret sins, but also to represent the darkness that humanity has committed. "He had changed himself into something awful, only by hiding his face"(Hawthorne 2). He did make him look utterly different just by wearing a black veil, but it is to show that he is trying to redeem himself from his secret sin and not only that but also make himself carry the sins that humanity has created as well. This also proves the American Romanticism characteristics found in the story. "The subject had reference to secret sin and those sad …show more content…

Perhaps the black veil is the symbol of sin and proves that no human is perfect. Moreover, comes the thought that everyone has a symbolic veil, similar to Mr. Hooper. The final theme in The Minister's Black Veil would be that people should focus on their own sins before focusing on others and therefore judge. To sum up, the main theme is that every human commits sin "the perfect person" does not exist at all. We have all done actions that we regret and wish to have never accomplished. One day as Mr. Hooper said, "There is an hour to come when all of us shall cast aside our veils" (Hawthorne

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