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Does Nathaniel Hawthorne Use Dramatic Irony In The Minister's Black Veil

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Everyone has secrets they can hide in mortal life, but no secret is off-limits in the hereafter. In analyzing this idea, Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Minister’s Black Veil” utilizes dramatic irony to reveal the inner hypocrisy within a congregation of Puritans. The story follows a small town minister’s surprising choice to arrive on the Sabbath dressed in a black veil. There is not a word of explanation, to the congregation's confusion and fear—leading them to believe their minister possesses some secret sin. As the story progresses, it is revealed that nobody in the town is as pure as they appear. Nathaniel Hawthorne applies dramatic irony within “The Minister’s Black Veil” to prompt readers’ attention towards the hypocrisy of judgement, …show more content…

Hooper’s aim, readers can presume, was to show his followers that everyone possesses sin—the original and otherwise—but ultimately, the minister gives himself a reputation of having a scandalous secret. The townspeople fear Minister Hooper, scared that somehow if he were to come near them, their own sins would be exposed; staying away from the black veil shields them from having to confront their wrongdoings and sins. They observed that the veil “...seemed to hang down before his heart, the symbol of a fearful secret between him and them…they sat a considerable time, speechless, confused, and shrinking uneasily from Mr. Hooper’s eye, which they felt to be fixed upon them with an invisible glance” (Hawthorne 7). Hooper’s “invisible glace” from beneath the veil is representative of the eyes of God, which the townspeople feel is now upon them. Witnessing their minister’s apparent fall from grace gave the congregation a shock, and pushed their realization that there is no hiding in the eyes of God—a “secret” sin may well be public knowledge. Rather than teaching his town a lesson of love and acceptance, Minister Hooper creates an environment of secrecy, fear, and determined judgement while also embodying the very antithesis of his reasons for donning the veil. The decision to wear a black veil, as simply as the decision to wear a white one, would define Minister Hooper as a secretive, repellant, and sinful man until his

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