The Haunted Mind Analysis

“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 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.

"The Minister's Black Veil" by Nathaniel Hawthorne is a parable written to ponder the mind of the reader and to make them realize many aspects of life. A parable is a simple story used to illustrate a moral or spiritual lesson. This early American Romanticism story is about a Minister named Parson Hooper who, wore a black veil on his face, covering it entirely. He lived in a small little village, where he was the Minister and soon he started to wear a black veil for the multiple reasons but the most important reason is articulated several times in the parable. American Romanticism is an artistic, literary, musical and intellectual movement.

He sets a somber and self-pitying tone towards the audience. Hooper believes,like most other human beings, that he has sorrow strong enough to be epitomized by a black veil. Hooper states that he is not at ease with seeing a reflection of himself in a mirror, which apprises that he is not happy with himself substituting for others sins. Hooper is an ironic character because as well as he affecting the community’s outlook of him, he is also immensely affecting himself. Hawthorne uses imagery to depict how Rev. Hooper sacrificed the representation of the veil.

People from other places wanting to see him just to see the “minister with the black veil”. Many other dying sinners were always welcoming him to preach all their sins to him before they left their dying beds. “In this manner, Mr.Hooper spent a long life, irreproachable in outward act, yet shrouded in dismal suspicions; kind and loving, though unloved, and dimly feared; a man apart from men, shunned in their health and joy, but ever summoned to their aid of mortal anguish.” (14, Hawthorne) Eventually, all those stares and reactions towards his black veil made his life miserable and everywhere he sees himself in the glass mirror Mr.Hooper is unable to see himself again like he uses to do before. Among his death bed, his beloved Elizabeth came to take care of him and Reverend Mr.Clark to seek him into conclusion and to help him leave those sins so much he had attached himself to liberate him to the spiritual light.

Hooper represents sinfulness and wears it to cover himself from what he has done, although it is left a mystery and taken with him to the grave. The people who have done bad things look toward Mr.Hooper as a person who they can share common thoughts with without feeling left behind and still treated as a person, but truly in the end it represents depression, darkness, sin and death. The physician thought men feel alone sometimes and Mr.Hooper was at this experience. There are three levels of symbolism of the black veil and they are: The first and most obvious one is the black veil, with that being said, it is known that he wore it to hide a secret sin, but is told by himself that all of mankind 's sins the only difference is they do not physically wear the black veil but on the inside, they do. Followed by, the black veil doesn’t necessarily change anything, only his appearance has changed and has simply been calm.

In the parable "The Minister 's Black Veil,” Nathaniel Hawthorne aims to expose the deceitful pretense that members of society base their lives on. Hawthorne discloses the way people hastily judge one another based on looks, appearances, and behavior. He unveils the hypocrisy of society and the way it alienates whoever defy the norms or risk to uncover the covert. He reveals the moral of his allegory in a very ambiguous way through Reverend Hooper belief that everyone has a secret sin that he keeps to himself hidden from others, but certainly not from God. He uses The Black Veil on Reverend Hooper’s face as an emblem to provide evidence to support the notion that all humans are sinners in disguise.

Imagine darkness, sin, and the desire to keep it all hidden from yourself and the outside world. Together Poe and Hawthorne paint this picture of traits which consist of suspense and darkness. Within the stories “Tell Tale Heart” and “Ministers Black Veil”, the two authors writing styles are vividly comparable. With the comparison of these short stories, it becomes more than feasible to feel the true emotion and movement that Poe and Hawthorne wished to give to their readers.

Dialogue evidence can be found in a conversation between Mr. Hooper and Elizabeth, and what is said at Mr. Hooper’s death bed. Evidence from character actions is seen in how Elizabeth hides her love from Mr. Hooper, and how the whole town treats him with his black veil on. Through clear character dialogue and textual evidence, Hawthorne’s story says everyone has a Black Veil that they are hiding under. Hawthorne writes, “ ‘There is an hour to come,’ said he, ‘when all of us shall cast aside our veils. Take it not amiss, beloved friend, if I wear this piece of crape till then’ “ (Hawthorne XXX).

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.

“The Minister’s Black Veil” by Nathaniel Hawthorne is full of many different symbols, but the most notable one is the veil itself. Throughout the story, Hawthorne presents many instances where the veil could mean several things. Some may see only one meaning, however, others may see a number of them. Hawthorne may have been the only one who truly knew what the veil symbolized, but at the same time the fact that the story makes the reader think even after reading it is what makes it all the more interesting to analyze. The veil itself could symbolize things such as rebirth, secrecy, ambiguity.

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

A certain darkness encompasses each of these stories and helps represent the recurring themes of evil and sin throughout them. In conclusion, “The Minister’s Black Veil” and “Young Goodman Brown” are both strongly based in religion, contain symbolism, and share a dark mood. These elements enrich the stories by conveying the important points included in each one. Hawthorne synthesizes these elements in much of his literature, which explains how these stories are beautifully woven together like a well-crafted

Wakefield showed two different types of lifestyles: the responsibility to family and the want for freedom. Hawthorne presented the view of human nature in “The Minster’s Black Veil” with the minster spending years wearing the black cloth, without ever giving anyone a true inclination why. Reverend Hooper wearing the veil gives the impression that he could be hiding some sort of sin he committed. Hawthorne deliberately leaves this ambiguous, just like why Wakefield left and decided to come back, to mirror reality and the uncertainty of it. Both Poe and Hawthorne present characters who are complex and intricate.

It is presented in the veil and the effects it has on its surroundings. When there are others in Mr. Hooper’s presence, they feel the veil as if it’s a storm cloud approaching on what would otherwise be a sunny or cheerful day. This is most prevalent in the situations of the marriage and the funeral. The funeral is the only part of the story where the veil seems to be appropriate and would seem ordinary to one who is not part of the community. Though it may be appropriate, others still see it as a bad omen and claim to see even the corpse shudder under it.