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Examples Of Alienation In The Minister's Black Veil

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In a community of metaphoric veils only the veil seen by the public eye is known as obstructive or harmful. Throughout the story, Hooper was portrayed as a monster for publicly wearing the veil as a symbol of his sins. “To surrender or give up, or permit injury or disadvantage to, for the sake of something else” (Dictionary.com). “The Minister’s Black Veil” by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Reverend Hooper sacrificed his love, his dignity, his own happiness, and his position in the community by wearing a veil, which led to his alienation.
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 …show more content…

People now looked at him oddly as he was seen as a crazy man and he soon lost his friends and families attention. He was very lonely and lost all happiness. “Do not leave...obscurity forever” (Hawthorne 311). The community would gather in groups and talk about Hooper behind his back, this alienated him. “Some gathered in...in the center” (Hawthorne 177). Many people of the community were afraid of Reverend Hooper and his black veil. “But from the...over his face” (Hawthorne 2-4). Although Hooper’s empirically observable behavior is uniformly kind and gentle, he remains unloved and dimly feared. Later on, the community realized that the veil was not a symbol of evil and decided the effects were not all that bad. “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. Even though the townspeople saw the veil as a symbol of wickedness and evil, Reverend Hooper used it to his advantage in spreading the word of God and the Puritan

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In a literary critique written by N.S. Boone, he discusses Hooper’s reaction to the people’s asking to remove the veil. He wrote, “Nothing, not he pleas of the elders, nor the nudging of Elizabeth, nor his own loneliness can persuade Hooper to remove that piece of black crape that separates him so dramatically from society,” (Boone 6). His refusal to remove the veil angers several people in the short story. They care nothing about the dying man, but about the secret behind the black

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He no longer fit in with the people in the village and he didn’t meet their expectations of what a minister should be like so they started saying things about Mr.Hooper. At the beginning of the story when they were in the church and Mr.Hooper began wearing the veil a person

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In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Minister’s Black Veil, Hawthorne reveals how sacrifice illuminates a person’s values by allowing Mr.Hooper to lose his dignity to prove a point to his community about his beliefs, through wearing a veil over his eyes to symbolize not only his sin but the sin of his community.

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Throughout the short story, Hooper feels as if the veil projects his sin rather than keeping it secret; “...[A]lthough its function is concealment of sin, it actually, in the minister’s case, functions to expose sin” (Boone 1). Sin is displayed in many ways, some ways are stranger than others. It is up to the sinner to decide if they are willing to protect themselves through withdrawal from society, or by exposing themselves freely to the world while there is something symbolizing their sin on their body. In the midst of Hooper’s alleged sin, individuals became obsessed with what he was hiding, rather than the sins they have been committing. One tends to shun another to take away attention from their own sins; “...they should see their own veils instead of fixating on what is possibly behind his” (Boone 1).

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“ “Venerable Father Hooper,” said he, “the moment of your release is at hand. Are you ready for the lifting of the veil that shuts in time from eternity?” ” (351). Mr. Hooper yet about to die has not allowed for his veil to be lifted. Since he didn’t want the veil to be lifted, he was most likely truly hiding something from everyone who loved

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you know not how lonely I am, and how frightened to be alone behind my black veil. Do not leave me in this miserable obscurity forever!” The black veil caused for Mr. Hooper to lose his love. Both were really close but the black veil inferred in their relationship. However,

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The story The Minister's Black Veil (a parable) by Nathaniel Hawthorne has dark deep sides which show the real sides of the characters. The meaning of the black veil means that it´s a secret of sin and how terrible human nature can be. This may represent that all people carry in their hearts , or it could be a representation of Mr.Hooper's sin. In conclusion, Mr.Hooper tries to represent who he really is by wearing the black veil although he was different before he started wearing it and once he started wearing this Mr.Hooper became someone else which was surprising to all the people in town. ¨A rumor of some unaccountable phenomenon had preceded Mr. Hooper into the meeting-house and set all the congregation astir.¨

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This is very different from Hawthorne’s story, Minister Hooper veiled his face though no one asked him to and that is what scared his congregation. For Hooper the veil embodied sin itself, upon exposing it, he was claiming himself guilty, but his intention was for all of his congregation to wear one, so that they too could understand the truth; judgement will come for everyone because we are all sinners. This cost Hooper dearly, he felt isolated he lost friends, Elizabeth, and the rapport he had with the children. He became lonely, a recluse, fearful of his own image. Even though he suffered in self- loathing it could also be said that he fell into the sin of pride because he could have ended his suffering and Elizabeth’s had he removed in private the veil in her presence.

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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

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In the literary critic by Nancy L. Bunge, she talks about how Hooper isolates himself. She says “By turning himself into an unrelenting example of depravity, Hooper demonstrates a lack of generosity, most of all toward himself. His veil shuts out happiness, giving “a darkened aspect to all living and inanimate things” (Bunge,par.50 ). Hooper wearing the veil results in the lack generosity not only to the community but also he losses it for himself.

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The black veil hides a message of betrayal and a man that changes his original religion to anti-Christianity. The theme of this parable is that the black veil is worn to indicate that all those wearing the black veil have attempted a sin or have dark past. As a parsonage Mr. Hooper has to hide his feelings but most already accept that him as a sinner, he has to wear the veil so, he is known to be lonely because of a dark past. Therefore, for those sins, he is paying the

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Mr. Hooper was forcing all of the people to look deeper within themselves and try to understand the veils true meaning “Such was the effect of this simple piece of crape, that more than one woman of delicate nerves was forced to leave the meeting-house. Yet perhaps the pale-faced congregation was almost as fearful a sight to the minister, as his black veil to them.” (Hawthorne 707) In reality, the veil represents the secrets everyone is hiding within himself or herself. The theme of the veil is the conflict between the dark, hidden side of man.

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Mr.Hooper new that throughout his life of trying to get many people to understand why he did such thing like of the black veil. They would never understand why so and/or overpass through the negative reactions of the people towards him for wearing the

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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.

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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

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