The Minister's Black Veil Literary Analysis

Elizabeth tries to explain this to Mr. Hooper when she says, “But what if the world will not believe that it is the type of an innocent sorrow … Beloved and respected as you are, there may be whispers that you hide your face under the consciousness of secret sin. For the sake of your holy office, do away this scandal!” (Hawthorne 182) People are starting to not want to be around Mr. Hooper anymore because of the vibe that is given off when he approaches. At the funeral, everyone feels like his demeanor is only acceptable for a funeral based on the feelings that are brought to others when he is around (Denies 179+).

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.

In Hawthorn’s short story of “The Minister’s Black Veil”, rumors surround Minister Hooper when the minister shows to church wearing a black veil, for unknown reasons, people start making up assumptions as to why he is wearing the veil to the point that he becomes an infamously famous outcast. The mystery behind the veil and what was beneath became the town’s “topic for discussion between acquaintances meeting in the streets, and good women gossiping at their windows” (Hawthorn 393). Everyone in the town of Milford found themselves question the mystery, always wondering and assuming what is hidden underneath or why Mr. Hooper is hiding behind the veil. These rumors continue to grow, and as he continues to wear the black veil the people start to question him, and their image of him starts to change. Not only were the townspeople’s thoughts on Mr. Hooper changed, but also his personal thoughts were affected to the point that “he never willingly passed before a mirror… least, in its peaceful bosom, he should be affrighted by himself” (Hawthorn 395).

In The Minister’s Black Veil, the veil holds different meanings for the minister and for the people in his congregation. The congregation starts out confused about the meaning, and even though they get hints of the meaning over the years, they never understand it fully, and their obsessive fear of the minister continues even though he remains a good and harmless person. The minister seems to know what the symbolic meaning of the veil is, although he only reveals it slowly in bits and pieces until the climactic scene on his deathbed. He, too, views the veil with fear, because he sees it as a symbol of the secret sin in himself and everyone. In addition to the meaning the veil holds for the congregation and for the minister, it is important to consider the effect of the veil on the relationship between the two.

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. ”

“Gabriel had never seen such a look on John's face before; Satan, at that moment, stared out of John's eyes while the Spirit spoke.” Here, Gabriel sees Satan through the eyes of his son John, and believes it could be a warning. Gabriel understands his sins of the past, and will never be able to escape it. Also, what Florence says about her brother Gabriel, "Being a preacher ain't never stopped a nigger from doing his dirt. "

In black theology the goal is to discern what God is up to and how God is working on behalf of the downtrodden and fighting for them against their oppressors. This line of thinking led Cone to make the bold claim, which must have been quite shocking and offensive, especially to white Christians in the late 60s and early 70s, that “any message that is not related to the liberation of the poor in the society is not Christ 's message,” which for him meant that “Christian theology must become Black Theology” that has as its primary consideration the needs of the oppressed and marginalized in society

Hooper is the main character of the story and he is the one who represents a Romantic character in this story, he experiences sadness and depression. Mr. Hooper represents secret sin and humans’ fallen nature. Even if people are scared of him wear the veil, Mr. Hooper never takes it off, he even wears it to his funeral. All he goes through is truly is what the other people also look like, whether they acknowledge it or not. Mr. Hooper uses the veil to hide his face from the world because he knows the sin he did was wrong and if people were to find out, people would look at him and he would be full of more shame.

The veil that the minister wears in "The Ministers Black Veil", by Nathanial Hawthorne represents both the minister’s isolation from society and also his connection to society through sin. This symbolism of the veil is no immediately obvious, but later on throughout the story becomes noticeable. In the story when the minister, Mr. Hooper first walks out of his house wearing the black veil, everyone was startled. No one quite understood why the minister would be wearing this veil for no specific reason.

Their communities began to have churches while slavery was going on. Their churches continued to pray and sing the same way, with soul that could be traced their ancestors who were chained and forced into labor by horrid men who beat them every chance given. Due to the absolute depression their lives were because of the gruesome life they led they turned to their Almighty God for help and hope in the darkest moments. Within these churches great leaders were born and raised who would fight even to their deaths until their people held the same rights as those given to the whites, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. being one of them. Churches during the Civil Rights Movement had so much to do with the how everything played out as the “spirit” of the church kept them going, at this point it was not even about religion, it was the hope that held so many hearts captive and faithful that one day things would change and equality would be shouted off of every rooftop and mountain side in the nation.

A Sinner Black Veil In the story “The Minister’s Black Veil” by Nathaniel Hawthorne, the reader can infer that Mr. Hooper teaches his community the lesson that everyone wears a black veil and has secret sins that are hidden from others. The author states that “if I cover it for secret sin, what mortal might not do the same?” In addition, Mr. Hooper wearing the black veil puzzles his community. The reason for that is that a priest does not wear a black veil and preaches in front of everyone in an act of betrayal of the belief in Jesus.

During the 17th century, the Puritans crossed the sea to grace America with their presence. In an astounding example of foreshadowing, the Puritans set up a patriarchal, semi-authoritarian society based on strangely unforgiving laws interpreted from the Holy Bible. Generations later, Nathaniel Hawthorne is raised in a post-Salem witch trial society amongst Puritans. Hawthorne is devout; however, the unjustifiable actions of his ancestors disturbs him. Hawthorne grew to have deep criticisms of Puritan society, and this became evident in his works.

Nathaniel Hawthorne's, " The Ministers Black Veil", is regarded to one of the first and greatest examples of American Short Fiction. Like many of Hawthorne's novels and stories the story is developed around a single around a single symbol; in this case, the black veil. There are ambiguous ways of explaining why Mr. Hooper wears the black veil? Mr. Hooper wears the black veil to signify he is wearing the sins of the puritans in the village. Mr. Hooper is a reverend, making one of his roles to listen to the puritans sins.

What do the words demeaning, direct, empathetic, enthusiastic and derisive all have in common? Although the words' meanings span across a large spectrum, they are all words that could be used to describe the tone of an author's writing. In The Minister's Black Veil by Nathaniel Hawthorne, tone plays a tremendous role into how the story eventually sends its message to the reader. The tone that The Minister's Black Veil is trying to project is wretched. This is because of two contributing messages that come across during the story: how the characters associated with Mr. Hooper and him himself feel sorrowful, and how distressed Mr. Hooper, his wife, and even the townspeople become.

“The Minister’s Black Veil:” The Morals of Sinning The central themes of The Minister's Black Veil by Nathaniel Hawthorne is presented with a parable, a simple story illustrating a moral or religious lesson that makes the truth have a deeper meaning and easy to understand. Having to read both Nathaniel Hawthorne and Edgar Allen Poe was very interesting but, I decided to choose Nathaniel Hawthorne, "The Minister's Black Veil" because Nathaniel's story was more interesting, mysterious, and easier to understand than The House of Usher in my opinion since Nathaniel's character, Mr. Hooper, was mysterious throughout the whole story and had many different themes to his parable that involves his veil that can symbolize many reasons. There is an American