In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Minister’s Black Veil”, we are presented with Reverend Parson Hooper, an admirable Puritan preacher who decides to start wearing a black veil. Mr. Hooper’s decision to cover his face almost entirely, except for the mouth and chin with that “mysterious emblem” (#) agitated the town of Milford. It incited gossip within the community about him and the reason why he chose to wear the black veil in the first place, which the townspeople thought represented the Reverend’s sins. This gossiping and the rumors that the people created could be considered a way of hypocrisy, due to the fact that they are judging someone else’s sins rather than acknowledging their own sins, which is the message that Mr. Hooper is trying to
In The Minister’s Black Veil, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, tells a story about Reverend Hooper, he lives in a small town in New England, called Milford. One Sabbath morning, Reverend Hooper chooses to give a sermon while wearing a black veil. Rumors instantly started to go around among his Puritan audience about reasons for him for wearing the veil. The story is developed around a specific symbol which, in this case, was the black veil that the Reverend wears to cover his face from the world. The Minister's Black Veil shows the mindset that Puritans had toward human nature in a way that shows it is loaded with pessimism.
Have you ever judged someone,but said you don’t judge people on the way they look. I’m going to be getting examples from “The Minister’s Black Veil” that will show when people judge others. In the story Mr.Hooper began to wear a black veil and people began to judge him. In real life when someone does something out of the ordinary people begin to judge them. The moral of the story is that everyone is judgemental.
Puritan Portrayal A religious group of protestors originated in 16th century in England. They fled to the New World to receive their demands. They were known as the puritans and demanded the simplification of doctrine and worship with greater strictness in the discipline of religion. Their roles have been critically viewed by many and are of a typical interest for writers.
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!
He says, “[He looks]around [him] and lo! on every visage a black veil” (Hawthorne 307). This was Hooper’s legacy, to prove that even though they do not wear a black veil, everyone has done evils of the darkest nature, known only by God and themselves. The symbol of his veil is the focal point of the theme and plays a part in contributing to the Puritan setting. Through the use of symbols, Hawthorne exhibits the Puritan attitude toward change in his story.
On his deathbed, Hooper refuses to remove the black viel until “‘Man does not vainly shrink from the eye of his Creator, loathsomely treasuring up the secret of his sin; then deem me a monster, for the symbol beneath which I have lived, and die! I look around me, and, lo! on every visage a Black Veil’" (Hawthorne). Hooper admits that he wore the black veil physically to reflect individuals’ sins and their unwillingness to accept them. Instead of society accepting the meaning of the black veil, they only express judgment for Hooper’s ability to express his sins in his physical appearance.
Hooper wearing the veil this makes everyone consider him an outcast to society. Before the service and old woman said “I don’t like it” and she hobbled into the meeting-house”(Hawthorne 1). As a result of Hooper wearing the veil he makes this old lady avoid his service because she is scared of him. At the close of the service many people went straight home by themselves and the other huddled in small groups and ignored Mr. Hooper and instead talked about him. Nothing, not the pleas of the elders, nor the nudging of Elizabeth , nor his own loneliness can persuade Hooper to remove the piece of black crape that separates him so dramatically from society (Boone).
The Minister and The Black Veil The short story “The Minister’s Black Veil” by Nathaniel Hawthorne, reverend Hooper, the town's minister, was seen walking in the small community of Milford towards the church with a black veil that covered his entire face without including his mouth and chin. The town people murmured the appearance of Mr. Hooper and the reason why he was wearing the piece of cloth. This affects the relationship between Mr. Hooper and his community in a negative way because the black veil creates a barrier between himself and the townspeople. The town people began developing a different perspective of how they view the town's pastor.
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
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.
This week discussion was very difficult for me to understand because I have never been taught how to really understand poems or literature. The short story I choose to discuss is “The Minister’s Black Veil” (Hawthorne). When I first started to read this prose piece of literature, I thought it was about a minister dealing with several funerals and a lot of sermons (Editors). After, reading the story several times, I started to see more of what I believe to be an approach to sin and how it affects people’s views in a small town. I believe the theme of this story is about sin and guilt and how the minister wore the black veil on his face as a symbol of hiding our sins and how people never really want to face them or see their own sins.
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.
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
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