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. Hawthorne seems to be saying that the minister’s perception of the sin in all people puts up a barrier between himself and everyone else and ruins his life. At first the veil causes confusion among the people in the minister 's congregation. They speculate that he had developed some mental issue, that his eyes could not handle the light, or that it was simply a random impulse. This confusion soon turns to great fear and horror. The author writes that people are shocked, that they wonder whether their minister is even behind …show more content…
When talking to his fiancee, he says that like most other mortals, he has “sorrows dark enough to be typified by a black veil.” He also says that he may be covering his face “for secret sin,” and asks,“what mortal might not do the same?” In his last statement before he dies, the minister asks why everyone is afraid of only him and his veil. He says that they should look the same way at each other and that he sees “on every visage a black veil!” In these, his final words, he makes it clear that everyone is hiding sin and
The symbolism of the black veil gives a eerie, mysterious tone in the minister’s black veil. As story goes on, the meaning of the black veil becomes clear. Mr. Hooper suggested that every mortal people should cover their faces with the black veil because everyone has a secret or sin behind them. Covering face with the black veil also meant that it is revealing their short come to the others that will make them lonely or fall in sorrow. It also represents scary feeling to the others.
Two topics that heavily relate to the outcome of “The Ministers Black Veil” are Secrecy and Forgiveness. Reverend Hopper seeks to teach his congregation a lesson. He uses the secrecy of the veil to teach them this. What they do not realize is what the veil might actually symbolize, the secret sin of behind each person. This secrecy was what the Minister was trying to teach them about.
Also, the Minister moved around cautiously because he thought people would find out what sin he had. Whenever he moved around people, they would act all sad and terrible all because of the black veil. From people’s point of view, the characters change their mood for the day, just by their presence and
They cannot look at him without seeing the veil, and thus seeing their own sins staring back at them, so they avoid him and no longer treat him with the same kindness and openness from the past. The article "Beyond the Veil: A Reading of Hawthorne’s ‘The Minister’s Black Veil’,” by Elaine Barry further supports this view. Barry claims that “the veil…incorporates the paradox of Mr Hooper's role in the story so that he is simultaneously the black veil and sin.” (125) Barry is claiming that the veil brings in a paradox, which is a statement or situation that may be true but seems impossible or difficult to understand because it contains two opposite facts or characteristics, between the minister and the black veil. This paradox that Barry is referencing is that the black veil represents secret sin, and that the minister represents secret sin while also representing the black veil.
Before he wore the veil, everybody in the congregation regarded him as a respectable man and minister. However, all of this changes when he starts wearing the veil. The first day Mr. Hooper walks into the church members of the church become uncomfortable with the veil, which leads some to even end up leaving the gathering. One woman exclaims, “He has changed himself into something awful, only by hiding his face.” This quote shows the uncomfortability that the people have towards the veil, and how the congregation believe the minister has set a dark tone upon the day.
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).
This quote is from Mr. Hooper, and is saying that he will not take off his literal veil, until everyone else takes off their symbolic veil. The symbolic veil represents what people hide from from everyone else. When Mr. Hooper lay dying, Hawthorne wrote, “ ‘I look around me, and, lo! On every visage a black veil’ “ (Hawthorne XXX). This quote is even more
In the “Minister's Black Veil” by Nathaniel Hawthorne, the main character named Mr. Hooper who wears a black veil. Hawthorne uses symbolism to represent secret sin and shows the theme is death. In the story Hooper wears a black veil which symbolizes hiding sin.
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 First of all, Mr. Hooper is hiding behind the veil to ensconce his sins is because it is bigger than all the other sins everyone else has admitted. The article said that it could be him hiding a inclination he is having for a female.
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.
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!
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
On the first page, the veil is presented as a bizarre object, sparking controversy in Mr. Hooper's village. A church custodian first
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
In the Minister’s Black Veil, the black veil has a great significance to the story. The black veil symbolizes the secret sin in society. The sins of humanity are the greatest sin which society hides and ignores. People do not take account of the bad deeds that are going on every single day. This Parable does an outstanding job of doing that because Mr. Hooper goes on with his day normally, but by having that veil on his face it exemplifies that sin is occurring.