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Individuality In The Minister's Black Veil

902 Words4 Pages

Everyone says it. Your mom, your teachers, even your friends. Everyone encourages you to just be yourself, but if you think about how individuals are shunned, does anyone actually want you to be different? While society claims to encourage individuality, in reality it compels people to conform, causing most people to sacrifice their individuality to fit in.
Everybody is unique in their own way, but society tries to make clones of people to cover up their differences. In “The Minister’s Black Veil,” Mr. Hooper, a parson, decides to wear a black veil. His wife Elizabeth exclaims, “‘...there may be whispers, that you hide your face under the consciousness of secret sin. For the sake of your holy office, do away with this scandal!’” (Hawthorne …show more content…

Emily Dickinson’s “The Soul selects her own Society” is about how we choose our friends and influences. We can ignore society when it comes knocking on our door: “Unmoved-she notes the chariots-pausing- / At her low Gate- / Unmoved- an Emperor be kneeling” (Dickinson lines 5-7). Emily Dickinson tends to write about radical ideas, such as being a nonconformist in society. In these few lines, she talks about how society will try to get you to conform, but you have the choice to ignore them. There are very few non-conformists in society, since most people submit to the pressure of society. Society claims to encourage everybody to be unique, but then it wants everybody to share the same beliefs, trading their individuality for acceptance. In the poem “Song of the Open Road” by Walt Whitman, he warns against society: “You shall not allow the hold of those who spread their reach’d hands toward you” (Whitman line 148). Whitman is talking about how society is trying to get you to conform to them and how you shouldn’t let society determine your opinions. The majority of the poem has a very carefree tone about how joyous life is, but it becomes darker when he brings up society and its influence on individuals. Whitman uses this shift in tone to emphasize the positivity of individuals, which is a stark contrast to his tone when he brings up society’s hold on you. Whitman stresses the importance of remaining an individual despite society’s constant pressure to

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We all put on a facade to hide our true selves. People are constantly being judged by others on anything and everything people find strange. If you look different from everyone else they will begin to judge you. In the story “The Minister’s Black Veil” the people in the village started to judge Mr.Hooper because of the veil. They all wanted to know why their minister suddenly began to wear a black veil hiding his face from them.

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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!

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No one wants to be different but, everyone is. One of the main reason is culture. There are so many cultures that it makes it seem you are different from everyone else. In “Fish Cheeks” by Amy Tan, and “Taco Head” by Viola Candales both narrators face internal conflict with their culture and how people see them. They struggle with who they are, and who they want to be.

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People hide their true emotions on the inside. This theme is clear when Mr. Hooper is talking to his wife about the veil in “The Minister’s Black Veil.” “‘If I hide my face from sorrow, there is cause enough,’ he merely replied; ‘and if I cover it for secret sin, what mortal might not do the same?’” In this scene, Mr. Hopper tells that he is hiding his sorrow behind the black veil. That shows that people hide their true emotions inside and do not show them to others.

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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.

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In both of Hawthorne’s works there is a familiar theme, sin, which ties both of the stories together. The short story expresses, “It was tinged, rather more darkly than usual, with the gentle gloom of Mr. Hooper’s temperament. The subject had reference to secret sin, and those sad mysteries which we hide from our nearest and dearest, and would fain conceal from our own consciousness, even forgetting that the Omniscient can detect them” (“The Minister’s Black Veil” 3). Although Hawthorne did not make it clear, “The Minister’s Black Veil” has a relation with sin. Mr. Hooper was hiding something considering he was wearing a veil to cover his face, and the author was suggesting he had committed a sin.

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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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In the story “The Minister's Black Veil” by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Mr. Hooper the church's minister is judged by this appearance. He is a minister in a church his job is about faith, and when being a minister appearance has a big part in it because when you are talking to someone you want to be able to see their face. The minister is young, good looking and always looking really put together there was nothing odd about him. It was time for church and a sexton stated, " But what has good Parson Hooper got upon his face?”

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Hawthorne describes the position of the veil as “upon his face”, preventing others from seeing his disposition as one’s face is a pathway to determining and understanding one’s emotions. As a result, the others cannot understand the effect that their remarks have on Mr. Hooper. His mental health declines and he becomes more isolated and distressed. Lack of validation and support from others is often linked to higher feelings of distress and depression, which can lead to mortality. Hawthorne continues describing Mr. Hooper’s physical attributes: “With this gloomy

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“ We magnify the flaws in others that we secretly see in ourselves” -Baylor Barbee. In “ The Minister’s Black Veil” by Nathaniel Hawthorne, the main character Reverend Hooper is alienated by his community because he is the wearer of a mysterious black veil. Reverend Hooper is the reverend of his community’s church and has always been well respected by his surrounding peers. One day, Hooper shows up to his church and preaches the sermon wearing a mysterious black veil causing his peers to alienate him. Throughout the story, Hooper’s actions portray just how judgmental our society really is.

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The Story Behind the Veil “The Minister’s Black Veil” is arguably one of the most famous short stories in the history of American Literature. The author, Nathaniel Hawthorne, is an extremely well known writer who is recognized for his many works. From The Scarlet Letter to The House of the Seven Gables, Hawthorne’s exceptional literary skills are portrayed in each and every one of his stories.

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