ipl-logo

What Does The Minister's Black Veil Symbolize

145 Words1 Page

Nathan Hawthorne often developed his short stories around a symbolism. This is clearly the case in “The Minister’s Black Veil” because Hooper’s black veil is a symbol of isolation. When he wears it in public for the first time, he feels an immediate barrier go up between him and his parishioners. Hawthorne cultivates an air of mystery around Hooper’s black veil. By refusing to give access to Hopper’s reason for wearing the veil, he allows us, the readers, to speculate about his motivation. This was fascinating to me because the black veil is clearly a symbolic device that Hawthorne had used in his story. There is a strong suggestion in the story that it also hides a secret sin or crime committed by the Reverend Mr. Hooper. The mystery fuels

Show More
Related

  • Sinners The Hands Of An Angry God And The Minister's Black Veil

    682 Words  | 3 Pages

    In contrast, “The Minister’s Black Veil,” incorporates a narrative style, with the theme that one cannot hide from their own sins. Hawthorne writes, “There is an hour to come when all of us shall cast aside our veils.” The veil symbolizes sin, so the quote explains that one lives with their sins until death. This is a key line that ties the story’s theme

    Read More

  • The Ministers Black Veil

    468 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Examples Of Ambiguity In The Minister's Black Veil

    472 Words  | 2 Pages

    Through allegory and his intentional vocabulary in ‘the Minister’s Black Veil’, Nathaniel Hawthorne parallels the literal veiling of Minister Hooper’s face with his own withholding of details within the plot. Hawthorne is deliberate in his word choice throughout, keeping with the theme of concealing. By purposeful ambiguity, both the minister and Hawthorne are demonstrating a point to their congregation or reader. In a review of Hawthorne’s book “Twice-Told Tales” in Graham's Magazine, Edgar Allan Poe insinuates that Hooper’s “secret sin” and the cause of the veil is an affair he had with the young woman whose funeral is mentioned, being “a crime of dark dye”.

    Read More

  • What Is The Key Talking Point In The Minister's Black Veil

    199 Words  | 1 Pages

    “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

    Read More

  • What Does The Veil Symbolize In The Minister's Black Veil

    522 Words  | 3 Pages

    Throughout the short story “Minister's Black Veil” by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Reverend Hooper sacrifices many things by wearing the black veil. Through his choice in wearing the black veil he sacrifices his social life, his relationship with his wife, and he’s now considered an outcast in his community. By wearing the black veil Mr. Hooper sacrificed many things, one of these things is his social life. In the story a woman says “ ‘Truly do I,’ replied the lady; and I would not be alone with him for the world”(Hawthorne 3).

    Read More

  • Irony In The Minister's Black Veil

    1499 Words  | 6 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Symbolism In The Raven And The Minister's

    1296 Words  | 6 Pages

    In “The Minister’s Black Veil,” Nathaniel Hawthorne used the black veil to cover Mr. Hooper’s face to symbolize his sorrows or secret sins. Hooper said, “I, perhaps, like most other mortals, have sorrows dark enough to be typified by a dark veil” (641). The black veil also becomes a symbol of Hooper's sin of excessive pride when he continues to wear it and gets caught up in thinking that he is morally superior because he is the one who conveys such a significant message. The greatest criticism of Hooper, leveled by those who see the veil as a symbol of pride, is that he is a bad shepherd to his flock because he neglects them as he becomes more and more preoccupied with his moral mission. Symbolically, the veil denies him meaningful and complete admission to God's presence in both Scripture and prayer and realizing that he can never be certain whether God has elected or damned him to hell, he taints a clear and uncomplicated view of worldly and spiritual things.

    Read More

  • The Minister's Black Veil Analysis

    451 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Minister Black Veil Mr. Hooper put on the black veil, which changed his life until death. Although, the town knew him before the veil, their feeling changed drastically after the veil. It is human nature to judge one’s feelings by someone’s facial expressions and body language. Mr. Hooper was trying thorough symbolism to show that everyone has something to cover up. In the end, Mr. Hooper life was lonely and sacrificed, by choosing to wear the veil.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Minister's Black Veil By Nathaniel Hawthorne

    1358 Words  | 6 Pages

    Throughout the story, Mr. Hooper is covered by a black veil which masks his face. He continuously prevents anyone from seeing his face or persuading him to take it off. Through the use of the veil, Hawthorne paints a picture which shows how sin ruled over the Puritan communities and controlled each person among them. The veil itself becomes the center of attention for all members of Hooper’s Puritan congregation. The entire population of the town become scared of Hooper and believe that this man who was so high among their values, now has a horrid sinful past that he is trying to hide.

    Read More

  • The Minister's Black Veil Symbolism

    1158 Words  | 5 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Examples Of Isolation In The Minister's Black Veil

    279 Words  | 2 Pages

    In “The Minister’s Black Veil”, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, the minister, Mr. Hooper wear a black veil which affects his relationship with his community negatively because the people distanced themselves and isolated Mr. Hooper. For example, Elizabeth, Mr. Hooper’s fiancee distances herself from Mr. Hooper. Hawthorne writes, “Then, farewell!” said Elizabeth. She withdrew her arm from his grasp and slowly departed...”. Elizabeth is heading out upset when Mr. Hooper says to her, “Oh!

    Read More

  • Ambiguity In The Minister's Black Veil

    781 Words  | 4 Pages

    The ambiguity of the symbolism of the veil in Nathaniel Hawthorne's parable of The Minister's Black Veil, not only leaves the congregation guessing what the veil means, but it leaves the reader wondering what exactly the veil represents too. While giving a sermon on secret sins that people hide away, minister Hooper wears a black veil that conceals his face. He then wears it to a funeral and a wedding, making his congregation question what his motive is. The minister never takes off the veil even refusing to take it off at his death-bed. Throughout the story, Hawthorn offers indications of what the veil could symbolize, but there is never full disclosure of what exactly the veil represents, leaving readers to come up with their own hypothesis

    Read More

  • Examples Of Alienation In The Minister's Black Veil

    497 Words  | 2 Pages

    “Having all it’s... efficient clergyman” (Hawthorne 185). This show how Hawthorne conveys Hoopers position in the community before and after wearing the veil. Throughout the “The Minister’s Black Veil” Nathaniel Hawthorne uses fiction to show how Mr. Hooper’s love, dignity, happiness, and position in the community was sacrificed.

    Read More

  • Isolation In The Minister's Black Veil

    668 Words  | 3 Pages

    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

    Read More

  • The Minister's Black Veil Literary Analysis

    993 Words  | 4 Pages

    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

    Read More

More about What Does The Minister's Black Veil Symbolize

Open Document