The Minister's Black Veil Romanticism Analysis

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 Minister’s Black Veil” entails a key talking point which can be used in deliberate action to sway people into thinking that by changing personal looks with one simple object, this does not change their attitude, persona, and many other attributes. This key talking point represents the idea of judging a person based on looks, clothes, hobbies, etc. to draw conclusions about a person before others get to know them. In “The Minister’s Black Veil”, this object is a black veil which Mr. Hooper uses to prove a point amongst the townsfolk that, even though he may have this mysterious object covering his face, he is still the same person in and out. Mr Hooper did all of the same tasks which he had been doing for many years, such as: going to

In the community, the townspeople believe that since the minister is wearing this veil he has something to hide. These people don’t want anyone to know their sins, causing them to wear a “mask”. Since they are living in a Puritan community they believe that no one should do anything wrong, and if they do, no one should know about it. When people hide who they really are, they become scared of what will happen when people find out that they have sinned. Being true to yourself and to others is the main theme in this

The Minister’s Black Veil is a story written by Nathaniel Hawthorne. It tells the story of a minister named Parson Hooper. He shows up to church on the Sabbath with a black veil covering his eyes. The townspeople begin to spread rumors about Mr. Hooper. They assume he is wearing the black veil due to sorrow or a secret sin. Hooper tells his girlfriend that the veil is for neither of those reasons; the veil must never come off, not even for her. Hooper continues to do what he always does, such as: preach sermons, greet the children, and chat with the neighbors. The veil gets Hooper some weird looks and the people that once adored him, now avoid him. The only thing seen under the veil is a sad smile that creeps its way in.

However, even with his claims of holiness, he puts on the veil; this is ironic, because the veil symbolizes the opposite of holiness. Also, the Minister shows that he has very limited understanding of true Christianity (Freedman). It is ironic that Parson Hooper tears his face and makes such a big scene about the secret sin we are all hiding. Yes, this sin is bad, and no, we should not hide it. However, true Christianity comes with knowing that we are and never will be perfect, but that God is strong in our weaknesses. Therefore, there is really no reason for the minister to be hiding behind his veil. Another example of irony in “The Minister’s Black Veil” comes with the initial reaction of the people. At first, they look at their own minister and the veil he is wearing in horror (Hawthorne 281). The community then proceeds to treat him as an outcast of society; nobody will talk to him, and everyone avoids him out of fear. However, they continue to talk about him behind his back (Hawthorne 282). They want to know things such as why is he even wearing the veil, what their own minister is trying to hide,

Puritans hate mysteries and their imaginations go straight to the gothic and the forbidden. Many people contemplated the dark mystery of the veil upon themselves."He seemed not fully to partake of the prevailing wonder, till Mr. Hooper had ascended the stairs, and showed himself in the pulpit, face to face with his congregation, except for the black veil. That mysterious emblem was never once withdrawn."(Hawthorne 3) The townspeople were curious why he wore a veil while he was going down the stairs. Which made him mysterious to the people because they did not know what he had done to wear that "crape". It seems that they never truly understood or apologized for their actions, towards the end, it closes with the frightful thought that the minister’s face still lays behind the veil even when dead. Other insights believe the veil acted as a mirror, making the townspeople more apprehensive of their own sins. As well as, not judging another human being immediately for their mistakes and focusing on

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. Reverend Hooper’s veil symbolizes the wall

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. Mr.Hooper new that throughout his life of trying to get many people to understand why he did such thing like of the black veil. They would never understand why so and/or overpass through the negative reactions of the people towards him for wearing the

Throughout the story, we saw how seriously he took the black veil and the meaning as to why he wore it. We see why it was a big deal to wear the sins and we get to see what the people thought of it. As for the people, during the time that they were talking about Mr. Hooper and the veil they too were committing a sin by judging him for wearing the veil. They judged him without knowing the reason as to why Mr. Hooper wore the black veil. There were many hidden reasons and symbols to why he wore the veil and it causes a lot of controversy among the people. Thus, this has been a parable that has had a lot of exaggeration, imagination and meaning it is, in fact, an American

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

“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

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

"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.

The black veil in the story symbolizes a great thing that everyone carries with them, secret sins. Mr. Hooper being the only one to wear one and show the true nature of human. That is why many people are scared of him because they know that he has a secret sin that he will not tell to anyone. In reality everyone wears a black veil they just don’t want to admit it, because it is in humans nature to do something wrong and have sins. You walk around and everyone, on the inside, wears the black veil going about their day normally like if they never created that

Hooper negatively not only excluding him from events, but also talking about him with others as well as being afraid of him when they knew him for years. An example of the negative judgement being directed towards Mr. Hooper can be seen when Mr. Hooper’s parishioners “neglected to invite Mr. Hooper to his table” (Hawthorne 7). You can already see how Mr. Hoopers friends are excluding Mr. Hooper from events such as not inviting him to sit with them and eat. By Mr. Hoopers friends doing this, you can see how they have taken into consideration only the appearance of Mr. Hooper thinking he is hiding something dark and sinful, in which led them to excluding and being afraid of Mr. Hooper. Another example of appearance defining who you are can also be seen in the parable,“The black veil, though it covers only our pastor's face, throws its influence over his whole person, and makes him ghostlike from head to foot” (Hawthorne 7). This shows how 1 small piece of cloth that you are wearing can make a huge impact on the type of person you are. As stated in the quote, it can get you from being a nice and gentle pastor to being a scary and frightening pastor that no one wants to be around. Essentially, it can be seen that appearance does link to the type of person you are in the Minister's Black Veil by the actions the people took towards Mr. Hooper's new