Similarities Between Walter Mitty And The Minister's Black Veil

Time can cause literary elements to evolve from lessons of past eras, creating a sense of similarity. This similarity is present in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Minister’s Black Veil” and James Thruber’s “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty,” although written a hundred and seven years apart. Hawthorne was a significant catalyst in the Gothic era, best known for cautionary tales about inherent human qualities. Thurber was an important individual in the Modernism era, best known for his use of humor in short stories. Throughout the Gothic and Modernism era pieces, unique similarities can be found through the concealment of characters, symbolism, and ambiguity.
Hawthorne and Thurber both use false facades to conceal their characters to develop the

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. In addition, as Mitty and his wife set out into town, she begins to attack him for “‘[Forgetting] the what’s-its-name.’ A newsboy went by shouting something about the Waterbury trial. . . ‘Perhaps this will refresh your memory’” (Thurber). Mrs.Mitty harassing Mitty for forgetting the name of something, although she did too, leads him to escape into a fantasy. Mitty develops a new life as a coping mechanism for his wife's scrutiny of his life in reality. His fantasies represent freedom and the human desire to explore other options in life. Both symbols regard the judgment from society; however, the veil uses the judgment to reflect a higher lesson on them. Hawthorne develops the black veil to reflect man’s sins and wrongdoings onto society and does not want to acknowledge that it is there. However, Thurber uses his message as

Hawthorne leaves the facts of the purpose of the black veil unknown so “The mystery concealed behind it, supplied a topic for discussion between acquaintances meeting in the street, and good women gossiping at their open windows” (Hawthorne). The society in the novel is unaware of the black veil's purpose and message. In addition, leading up to the end, the reader is left in the dark because the mystery behind the veil can have more than one perception. Although, there is never a true answer to the purpose because Hawthorne ends the story with Hooper’s death and the veil. Thurber ends his story with an open interpretation of Mitty’s death, illustrating, “[Mitty’s] faint, fleeting smile playing about his lips, he faced the firing squad; erect and motionless, proud and disdainful, Walter Mitty the Undefeated, inscrutable to the last” (Thruber). The constant change between fantasy and reality cause the reader to question the meaning of the end of the story. The constant change causes an open interpretation as to if Mitty dies in reality or is living out a fantasy where he escapes finally as a realization. Thurber not explicitly stating the meaning of inexplicable to that last causes the openness of what is the last and how Mitty is uninterpretable. While both authors utilize uncertainty, Hawthorne allows society to question Hooper’s purpose using ambiguity to