The Minister's Black Veil Essay

Essential Question #1 The morale of the story, The Minister's Black Veil, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne is people judge others by how they look or appear to them then how the person acts. Mr. Hooper, a reverend from the story, goes through this same experience and he gets judged for being different. In the paragraphs I will describe what the people in the story say to him before and after he wears his veil. I will also write about how the people act differently towards Mr. Hooper before and after he wears his black veil. Before Mr. Hooper wore his veil, the people in the article describes him as, “ a gentlemanly person, of about thirty, though still a bachelor, was dressed with due clerical neatness, as if a careful wife had starched his

Hooper’s veil was stated in this quote, “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). They felt weird around Mr. Hooper because no man has ever worn a veil on his face before, let alone in front of a huge crowd of people. The reverend, Mr. Hooper, now has everyone's eyes on him, but that doesn’t stop him from teaching, in fact it helps him get more respect and gets the congregation to listen to him more. In the article I found that his sermons now have a little flare to what he says now because of the black veil he weirs. For example, the article states, “The sermon which he now delivered was marked by the same characteristics of style and manner as the general series of his pulpit oratory. But there was something, either in the sentiment of the discourse itself, or in the imagination of the auditors, which made it greatly the most powerful effort that they had ever heard from their pastor's lips.” (Hawthorne). This proves that with the veil, Mr. Hooper gets more attention and authority by being different than he did by being his standard self. I believe this relates to my thesis because society judges more from the looks of people, than on how the person acts or behaves towards other