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

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Have you ever felt guilty for something you have done and you feel like you just want to hide? In the parable, “ The Minister's Black Veil” by Nathaniel Hawthorne gives forth that everyone has something they don’t like to speak of. People say that the significance of the story is to not judge others but that’s only part of it, primarily, it’s about how we hide our sins from the world and whisper our wicked secrets in the dark. Just like everyone else, we always mask something to hush our immoral acts. Mr. Hooper hides his face for a reason, although many people judge him for it without knowing what the situation is. The first time people saw the black veil, they were intrigued. They’ve never seen anything like it. In paragraph 3 of the story, …show more content…

It caused him to lose much of what he had. Elizabeth, his wife, wanted to understand why he wore that veil and what it meant. The minister spoke, “There is an hour to come, when all of us shall cast aside our veils. Take it not amiss, beloved friend, if I wear this piece of crape till then." No matter what his wife had said, he would not take off the veil as it was a symbol for him. He says, “ this veil is a type and a symbol, and I am bound to wear it ever, both in light and darkness, in solitude and before the gaze of multitudes, and as with strangers, so with my familiar friends. No mortal eye will see it withdrawn. This dismal shade must separate me from the world: even you, Elizabeth, can never come behind it!” After that his wife had left him, and the main moral of the story starting …show more content…

Hooper had on. People would try to get him to take it off as it was the gossip of the town. It is stated, “ He could not walk the street with any peace of mind, so conscious was he that the gentle and timid would turn aside to avoid him, and that others would make it a point of hardihood to throw themselves in his way.” Some people were scared of Mr. Hooper and others just wanted to make a scene, but soon after he felt sad that people would run off when he was seen, he had a kind heart but no one could see that. In Paragraph 16 of the parable, it explains, “It grieved him, to the very depth of his kind heart, to observe how the children fled from his approach, breaking up their merriest sports, while his melancholy figure was yet afar off.” The black veil seemed to be taking his life away from him, causing him to be

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