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Similarities Between The Scarlet Letter And The Minister's Black Veil

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Guilt: God’s Gift that Keeps on Giving The Puritan religion’s view on sin consists of the belief that all puritans should live a sanctified life. In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s works, The Scarlet Letter, and “The Minister’s Black Veil”, Reverend Dimmesdale (The Scarlet Letter), and Minister Hooper (“The Minister’s Black Veil”) are both leaders in the Puritan church. Amongst their superior roles, they both committed sin against God’s will. Consequently, for their inappropriate acts, Dimmesdale and Hooper both live the rest of their lives striving for redemption. Dimmesdale and Hooper might show several similarities, but on the aspects of publicity, contrition, and the symbolism of the sin itself, they have incredibly distinct qualities. To start off, in The Scarlet Letter, Reverend Dimmesdale commits the …show more content…

In The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne makes the reader fully aware of Dimmesdale’s relations with Hester by dropping important hints. For example, in chapter three, when Dimmesdale speaks to Hester, Pearl who is clutching to Hester’s breast “turns her gaze towards Dimmesdale, and holds up her littler arms with a half pleased, half plaintive murmur” (The Scarlet Letter 47). This reaction indicated that Peal had been held by him before; she seems to be acquainted with the minister. However, the sin committed by Hooper is not disclosed to the readers, instead, they are left with a short story and an imagination to come up with it on their own. In “The Minister’s Black Veil” the veil is meant to symbolize a secret sin and conceals the true face of all men from God. It has the purpose of conveying the theme that “there is an hour to come when all of us shall cast aside our veils” where the veil in its purest form is merely a representation of dishonesty and wickedness that stops all individuals from truly coming to terms with themselves (“The Minister’s Black Veil”

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The adoration for the young minister is conveyed in a scene wherein Dimmesdale encounters a young woman while walking through town. In the scene, Hawthorne reveals, “The minister knew she had enshrined him in her heart, where she hung pure white curtains around his image—giving religion the warmth of love, and love the purity of religion” () While one could argue that this view of Dimmesdale is evidence that revealing sin is not

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