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The Ministers Black Veil

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Nathaniel Hawthorne's, " The Ministers Black Veil", is regarded to one of the first and greatest examples of American Short Fiction. Like many of Hawthorne's novels and stories the story is developed around a single around a single symbol; in this case, the black veil. There are ambiguous ways of explaining why Mr. Hooper wears the black veil? Mr. Hooper wears the black veil to signify he is wearing the sins of the puritans in the village. Mr. Hooper is a reverend, making one of his roles to listen to the puritans sins. In article two it states; "Mr. Hooper wears the veil to symbolize his mourning for the secret sins of many of the Puritans who fear the severe punishments for transgressions and live as hypocrites becomes apparent in the denouement of Hawthorne's story" clearly stating that he wears this black veil to symbolize the sins of the puritans rather than himself. Mr. Hooper wishes to teach a moral …show more content…

In the Article Two it supports the fact that Mr. Hooper wears the veil to signify the sins of the puritans. In Article Three is states; "people have speculations that Mr. Hooper committed adultery with the young girl that died at the beginning of the story. The black veil was simply Hooper's admission of his own humanity, that he was not a perfect, sinless being". This meaning he could be wearing the veil to show he his not perfect and that he has his own sins. "He wore the veil to hide his face from the world and what he did". This being another reason he his wearing the black veil, although it is never clearly stated why he is wearing the black veil. In the "Ministers Black Veil", I believe Mr. Hooper wears the black veil to show the sins of the puritans in the village. I believe this because there are more facts to support this reason. It is stated throughout all of Article Two and throughout some of Article One. But the question will never be answered; Why does Mr. Hooper wear the black

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The Minister's Black Veil Rhetorical Analysis

469 Words | 2 Pages

The black veil is thought to represent secret sin. Hooper exposed himself through the veil which caused him to banish himself because he upholds the community's sins. Hooper upheld the sins for the entire community and felt it would be seen as an ethical fluctuation by wearing the veil. He does not give specific reason into why he refuses to remove the veil but imagery used in the parable convinces readers that Hooper has beliefs that he is some kind of

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The Minister's Black Veil Analysis

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Hooper understands that in life people sin. Everyone has something in their past, they are not proud of. He placed the veil as a symbol of this. He tried to explain his reasoning behind wearing it to the people, and his Fiancée. They could not see his face any longer and felt there was something wrong with him.

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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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560 Words | 3 Pages

By reading the text, you can tell that Reverend Hooper has done something that he awfully regrets and he is wearing this veil out of shame and to detach himself from society and people seeing him. I think he feels like he has let his God and the people of his congregation down and to make up for it, he should use this as a lesson and platform to preaching to his congregation. This is where irony can be picked up on in the story because the reverend is preaching a sermon to the congregation when he is battling his own demons and issues related to the sins he preaches about. The wearing of the black veil also makes me think about those who put on a poker face for people everyday and you never really know what they have going on in their life, good or bad. Many people are good at smiling everyday and pretending everything is okay when deep down they have personal issues or they are hiding secrets like the reverend did.

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808 Words | 4 Pages

(Hawthorne 481). He is keeping the veil on him because taking off the veil off would be worse. He feels keeping the sin inside him will serve him better. In addition, the author explains, “no attempts were made to remove Mr. Hooper’s black

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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.

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What Does The Veil Symbolize In The Minister's Black Veil

522 Words | 3 Pages

Hooper wearing the veil this makes everyone consider him an outcast to society. Before the service and old woman said “I don’t like it” and she hobbled into the meeting-house”(Hawthorne 1). As a result of Hooper wearing the veil he makes this old lady avoid his service because she is scared of him. At the close of the service many people went straight home by themselves and the other huddled in small groups and ignored Mr. Hooper and instead talked about him. Nothing, not the pleas of the elders, nor the nudging of Elizabeth , nor his own loneliness can persuade Hooper to remove the piece of black crape that separates him so dramatically from society (Boone).

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What Is The Reason In The Minister's Black Veil

559 Words | 3 Pages

Hooper was wearing the veil to make people that actually did sin feel better about themselves. He was looked at as an idol by everyone so why would he wear a veil for people who did wrong? Mr. Hooper did something someone of his position was sacred to do and he was scared for his fiancée and his church to find out. As a reverend he was not supposed to sin, and that is why everyone looked at him differently and judged him without knowing why he wore the veil. By wearing the veil, he had to commit another sin and lie to his fiancée about why he was wearing it and he broke their vows as a result.

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497 Words | 2 Pages

In a community of metaphoric veils only the veil seen by the public eye is known as obstructive or harmful. Throughout the story, Hooper was portrayed as a monster for publicly wearing the veil as a symbol of his sins. “To surrender or give up, or permit injury or disadvantage to, for the sake of something else” (Dictionary.com). “The Minister’s Black Veil” by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Reverend Hooper sacrificed his love, his dignity, his own happiness, and his position in the community by wearing a veil, which led to his alienation.

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The Minister's Black Veil Symbolism

1158 Words | 5 Pages

The wearing of the veil is a confession of guilt and a suggestion that everyone should do the same. Mr. Hooper really did not understand how much this black veil was going to affect the congregation until raising his glass in a toast for a newlywed couple and catching a glimpse of himself in the looking glass. Right then and there is when Mr. Hooper realized, "the Earth, too, had on her black veil” (Hawthorne 2145). This means that everyone is hiding; most people would not wear a black veil and have no reason in doing so. Is it that the people afraid of what the veil represents to Mr. Hooper or are they afraid of what it represents to themselves?

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Isolation In The Minister's Black Veil

668 Words | 3 Pages

Mr.Hooper new that throughout his life of trying to get many people to understand why he did such thing like of the black veil. They would never understand why so and/or overpass through the negative reactions of the people towards him for wearing the

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1265 Words | 6 Pages

The traits and actions of the townspeople throughout the story show their opinions on Mr. Hooper’s actions. All over the town their first instinct was to avoid Mr. Hooper as much as possible. In response to the veil,“ None, as on former occasions, aspired to the honor of walking by their pastor’s side”(Hawthorne 2). This is significant to the theme of the story because rather than branching out and asking Mr. Hooper about his veil, the town begins to make their own assumption which could potentially lead them into trouble. As the townspeople avoided Mr. Hooper, they failed to get to know the story behind the veil.

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1277 Words | 6 Pages

In the Minister’s Black Veil, the black veil has a great significance to the story. The black veil symbolizes the secret sin in society. The sins of humanity are the greatest sin which society hides and ignores. People do not take account of the bad deeds that are going on every single day. This Parable does an outstanding job of doing that because Mr. Hooper goes on with his day normally, but by having that veil on his face it exemplifies that sin is occurring.

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1358 Words | 6 Pages

Throughout the story, Mr. Hooper is covered by a black veil which masks his face. He continuously prevents anyone from seeing his face or persuading him to take it off. Through the use of the veil, Hawthorne paints a picture which shows how sin ruled over the Puritan communities and controlled each person among them. The veil itself becomes the center of attention for all members of Hooper’s Puritan congregation. The entire population of the town become scared of Hooper and believe that this man who was so high among their values, now has a horrid sinful past that he is trying to hide.

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993 Words | 4 Pages

In the “Minister’s Black Veil”, Hawthorne displays Hooper and the symbol of the veil as a representation of how judgmental society can become when faced with situations they don’t understand even though they have no right to judge. The “Minister’s Black Veil” was written as a parable in order to teach us a moral lesson stating that you should never judge someone. In Paul J. Emmett’s literary criticism he tells of a point in the story when Hooper explains his reasoning for wearing the veil, Emmett says, “After exhausting life in his efforts for mankind’s spiritual good, he had made the manner of his death a parable, in order to impress on his admirers the mighty and mournful lesson, that, in the view of infinite purity, we

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