Minister's Black Veil Tone

What do the words demeaning, direct, empathetic, enthusiastic and derisive all have in common? Although the words' meanings span across a large spectrum, they are all words that could be used to describe the tone of an author's writing. In The Minister's Black Veil by Nathaniel Hawthorne, tone plays a tremendous role into how the story eventually sends its message to the reader. The tone that The Minister's Black Veil is trying to project is wretched. This is because of two contributing messages that come across during the story: how the characters associated with Mr. Hooper and him himself feel sorrowful, and how distressed Mr. Hooper, his wife, and even the townspeople become. The analysis of this tone is being conducted using the literary

Distress is another message, and can be seen from Mr. Hooper, his wife and even the townspeople around them. After Mr. Hooper's wife, Elizabeth, begs of him to take off the veil or explain why it is there, "Mr. Hooper's smile glimmered faintly." (). Often times, smiling is a natural response to being in a situation of stressful, uneasy, or tensional events. It is understandable that if someone as important to him as his wife wants to know the the reasoning or have him take it off for her, he smiles faintly, not quite bright enough to prove it is a real smile. Another occurrence in The Minister's Black Veil is "The next day, the whole village of Milford talked of little else than Parson Hooper's black veil." (). The reason for the black veil that Mr. Hooper has been wearing is still unknown. Since Mr. Hooper was once a highly respected minister, it is putting everyone surrounding him in distress that he has begun to wear this and not explain its appearance. This is an example of external conflict on Mr. Hooper In conclusion, The Minister's Black Veil by Nathaniel Hawthorne projects a wretched tone. The combined efforts of literary elements such as external conflict, dialog and imagery bring forth messages of sorrow and distress implemented by