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What Does The Minister's Black Veil Symbolize

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Symbolism in “The Minister’s Black Veil”

How can a single piece of cloth influence and change the expanse of a man’s life? “The Minister’s Black Veil”, a short story that is a perfect representation of this, was written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, and is primarily about a minister who dons a black veil, causing conflict with those around him. Symbolism plays the major role in the story development of “The Minister’s Black Veil, influencing the other elements in the story and enhancing the message being expressed. In “The Minister’s Black Veil”, symbolism is progressively involved in the provocation of conflict. All the problem that occur in the story are a direct result of the main character, Parson Hooper, donning the veil. For example, Hooper’s …show more content…

It is this very point that Hooper is trying to make when he first wears the veil. While on his death-bed, Hooper remarks that he should only be deemed monster for wearing the veil only when man no longer hides his sin. Through this statement, he finally reveals the meaning of the cloth he wears; it represents those evil deeds men have hidden deep inside, away from the visible world. Supporting this, Sarah Wright remarks, “The veil...becomes an emblem of the passion for concealment that afflicts all humans to a greater or lesser degree” (Wright 167). With his last spoken words, Hooper emphasizes that everyone has a form of secret sin. He says, “[He looks]around [him] and lo! on every visage a black veil” (Hawthorne 307). This was Hooper’s legacy, to prove that even though they do not wear a black veil, everyone has done evils of the darkest nature, known only by God and themselves. The symbol of his veil is the focal point of the theme and plays a part in contributing to the Puritan setting. Through the use of symbols, Hawthorne exhibits the Puritan attitude toward change in his story. At this period in time, those belonging to the Puritan religion were not exactly prone to abandoning tradition. An old woman in the story states, “He has changed himself into something awful, only by hiding his face” (Hawthorne 300). Her statement is a perfect example of how behaving in an

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'Symbolism In Minister's Black Veil'

754 Words | 4 Pages

In Hawthorne’s short story, the minister walks out of the rectory one morning with a black veil covering his face. In this story, it is heavily debated what that black veil actually symbolizes. Could it be a symbol of sin and guilt, or is it rather a barrier between the minister and the rest of society? The story takes place in winter at Milford, Connecticut, where it focuses on Parson Hooper, the town’s minister.

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Minister's Black Veil Thesis

1606 Words | 7 Pages

Maybe the black veil somewhat mentally feeds him and keeps him going as a sense of persistence to overcome the foreshadows of the real world that he lives in. The symbolization for the black veil doesn't just stick to one topic, it intrigues you to want to keep knowing more and more about this wicked black veil. The black veil can symbolize death, sorrow, and sin. “The motive for Hooper’s wearing of the veil is ambiguous. Hooper tells his fiancé, Elizabeth (the name of both Hawthorne’s mother and sister), “If I hide my face for sorrow, there is cause enough . . .

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Analysis Of The Minister's Black Veil: A Parable

108 Words | 1 Pages

The Minister’s Black Veil: A Parable, by Nathaniel Hawthorne is a tale that may seem dark, but rings with a haunting amount of truth. The dominant symbol that Hawthorne uses in this short story is Minister Hooper’s black veil. In this essay, the veil will be recognized as a symbol for the barrier between an individual and those around them. This barrier works to create fear and distrust in the characters throughout the work and greatly influences their actions and behavior toward Hooper. The symbol of the veil also opens the readers’ eyes to the fact that there is a barrier between themselves and the world around them.

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Use Of Diction In The Minister's Black Veil

1096 Words | 5 Pages

In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s, “The Minister’s Black Veil,” he uses enthralling diction in order to captivate the reader’s attention on how sins and secrets can ruin one’s life, socially and intimately. Hawthorne continuously dwells on how the main character, Parson Hooper, feels the need to withhold some sort of duplicitous falsehood. He demonstrates this by creating a visual of alienation from Reverend Hooper by his congregation and himself. Hawthorne also includes how the crape represents a dark enigma within itself, leaving the reader puzzled on the truth behind the mysterious fabric upon Hooper’s face. Hooper’s unorthodox facial apparel sparked suspicion amongst his entire congregation, which projected their alienation from him.

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The Minister's Black Veil By Nathaniel Hawthorne

1191 Words | 5 Pages

How willing are you to give up your whole life and reputation to help others by proving a point? In “The Minister 's Black Veil” Nathaniel Hawthorne writes about a minister named Mr. Hooper who changes his whole life to try to show the people in his congregation that they are living in sin and need to change their ways. The author Nathaniel Hawthorne was born around the time when Puritan life was the norm and everyone was a Puritan. Hawthorne also admired his ancestor’s ways and their lifestyles as much as he felt the need for people to have the freedom to strongly disagree about something (Grant). Grant says, “ It is this rich combination of his ancestral soil, a strong sense of the richness of the American past, and that moral quality” which

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Sinners The Hands Of An Angry God And The Minister's Black Veil

682 Words | 3 Pages

In contrast, “The Minister’s Black Veil,” incorporates a narrative style, with the theme that one cannot hide from their own sins. Hawthorne writes, “There is an hour to come when all of us shall cast aside our veils.” The veil symbolizes sin, so the quote explains that one lives with their sins until death. This is a key line that ties the story’s theme

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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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Examples Of Alienation In The Minister's Black Veil

1555 Words | 7 Pages

Hooper wears the veil for a reason, but it is unknown. Hawthorne describes the veil as mysterious and the talk of the town. He says “that and the mystery concealed behind it, supplied a topic for discussion between acquaintances meeting in the street, and good women, gossipping at their own windows” (Hawthorne, par.15). By Hooper wearing the veil, it causes him to isolate himself because he does not tell the people why he wears it. By Hooper wearing the veil he can not love his fiance because it gets in the way of their love.

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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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Examples Of Alienation In The Minister's Black Veil

497 Words | 2 Pages

Many people of the community were afraid of Reverend Hooper and his black veil. “But from the...over his face” (Hawthorne 2-4). Although Hooper’s empirically observable behavior is uniformly kind and gentle, he remains unloved and dimly feared. Later on, the community realized that the veil was not a symbol of evil and decided the effects were not all that bad.

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The Minister's Black Veil Symbolism

1158 Words | 5 Pages

Mr. Hooper was forcing all of the people to look deeper within themselves and try to understand the veils true meaning “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 707) In reality, the veil represents the secrets everyone is hiding within himself or herself. The theme of the veil is the conflict between the dark, hidden side of man.

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Isolation In The Minister's Black Veil

668 Words | 3 Pages

What can you expect from a minister from changing persona where people use to see him as a “gentlemanly men, of about thirty, though still a bachelor, was dressed with due clerical neatness.” Then have a change in his appearance where it drastically changes his life. By a piece of cloth over his head accounts reactions of the congregation to it, the veil, a black veil that changed the image and the reactions of the people from Westbury. It is just a man, Mr.Hooper, who Hawthorne is modulating between dramatic incidents involving the black veil and Mr.Hooper approaches dramatic reactions towards it, in the short story the “Minister’s Black Veil”. The key symbol of the short story is the black veil it represented the spiritual isolation between

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Significance Of The Parable In The Minister's Black Veil

1277 Words | 6 Pages

Just because he didn’t show his bare face to Elizabeth, she ended their relationship. “...material emblem had separated him from happiness, though the horrors, which it shadowed forth, must be drawn darkly between the fondest of lovers.” (Hawthorne 12) Hooper is thinking about what he has done but still doesn’t do anything about it because the black veil signified something more important to him. “Each character, then, is faced with the prospect of assuming mature responsibilities, and each story is an account of how he responds to this crucial psychological situation.” (Askew 2)

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Analysis Of Minister's Black Veil By Nathaniel Hawthorne

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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The Minister's Black Veil Literary Analysis

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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