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 No mortal eye will see it withdrawn.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
The people were frightened because the veil made them look at the minister in a dark way wondering what secrets he might be hiding behind the veil. The Minister was trying to get the people to look at there own secret sins for one reason. He wanted the people to seek forgiveness for these sins. He wanted them to remove there own personal veil and realize the
It is a close knit town where everybody knows each other. As the story progresses, it is seen how people will avoid even the most loved friends and family once there is a mysterious barrier in between them. So, throughout the story, the minister’s black veil symbolizes a variety of things such as: secret sins, a barrier, and even sorrow. First off, I think that Father Hooper’s black veil symbolizes everyone’s secret sins. In the beginning of the story, church begins and Hooper appears concealed by a black veil, and everybody is mystified.
When he is wearing the black veil he feels like that is the best for him to hide from his past sins. In the passage his wife was begging him to take off the black veil and to be forgiving for his sin, but the
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
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.
In the short story The Minister’s Black Veil by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Mr. Hooper, the town parson, begins wearing a black veil that obscures his face. The town begins gossiping that he might be hiding a secret sin. Hawthorne uses Nathaniel Hawthorne was an outstanding writer who wrote very intricate and frightening stories. The inspiration for these dark and depressing tales came from his tragic childhood. When Hawthorne was four years old his father died.
Since Mr. Hooper will not break to these cries and pleas he is only separating himself from everyone else and society. Throughout the story “Minister’s Black Veil” Mr. Hooper sacrifices many thing by him wearing the black veil. As a result of Mr. Hooper’s actions he sacrifices his social life, he sacrifices his relationship with his wife Elizabeth, and he is separating himself from society by wearing the black
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).
Mr. Hooper is also a romantic character on his protagonist in The Minister’s Black Veil because he tried to do his best for the people who surrounded him. Hawthorne also use romanticism by using emotion, the supernatural and mystery. It was a big mystery because no one knew about him, no one knew why was he wearing the black veil and many other things that happened there in the story that people won’t even knew about. He also showed emotion he did in word about how passionate he was for the things that he did and also by his facial expressions. Not everything on him locked fine his facial expressions looked like something serious was going on with him and the black veil demonstrated.
Elizabeth warns Mr. Hooper that she will not marry him if he wears the veil; however, he does not take it off even for love. “It had separated [Mr. Hooper] from cheerful brotherhood and woman’s love, and kept him in the saddest of prisons, his own heart ;…”( 312) is a quote that justifies how the veil caused him great grief. His secret beneath the veil had restricted him from loving again. Elizabeth
Hooper was wearing the veil to make people that actually did sin feel better about themselves. He was looked at as an idol by everyone so why would he wear a veil for people who did wrong? Mr. Hooper did something someone of his position was sacred to do and he was scared for his fiancée and his church to find out. As a reverend he was not supposed to sin, and that is why everyone looked at him differently and judged him without knowing why he wore the veil. By wearing the veil, he had to commit another sin and lie to his fiancée about why he was wearing it and he broke their vows as a result.
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!
One of Hooper's greatest losses was his love and sympathy. “Have men avoided… my black veil” (Hawthorne 188). Hooper no longer has anyone to support him as he spreads his message and people wouldn't listen to him anymore
Nancy L. Bunge is talking on the topic of how the veil was seen to others, Bunge says, “His veil shuts out happiness, giving a darkened aspect to all living and inanimate things” (Bunge-19). This quote shows that Hooper’s veil brought darkness and unhappiness to many people. In life, we naturally want to be happy, but if something or someone is making us unhappy then we naturally alienate that someone or something from our lives. The veil’s darkness and unhappiness play a big role in the cause of Hooper’s alienation by his surrounding