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What Does The Minister's Black Veil Symbolize

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“The Minister’s Black Veil:” The Morals of Sinning
The central themes of The Minister's Black Veil by Nathaniel Hawthorne is presented with a parable, a simple story illustrating a moral or religious lesson that makes the truth have a deeper meaning and easy to understand. Having to read both Nathaniel Hawthorne and Edgar Allen Poe was very interesting but, I decided to choose Nathaniel Hawthorne, "The Minister's Black Veil" because Nathaniel's story was more interesting, mysterious, and easier to understand than The House of Usher in my opinion since Nathaniel's character, Mr. Hooper, was mysterious throughout the whole story and had many different themes to his parable that involves his veil that can symbolize many reasons.
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Hooper wears the black veil throughout his whole life until death throughout the story. The black veil can symbolize many possible reasons. First symbolism is, it could be representative of Mr. Hooper's specific sin of his own since many people believe he might had a relationship with the dead maiden before she died since a lady saw them walking hand-in-hand, "Why do you look back?" said one in the procession to his partner. 'I had a fancy,' she replies, 'that the minister and the maiden's spirit were walking hand-in-hand.' 'And so had I, at the same moment,' said the other." (Hawthorne 7). Second symbolism is the secret sins that all people carry in their hearts because Mr. Hooper accepted wearing the veil in the real world but, many people wear black veils just not physically. As explained by Elaine Barry, "Suffice it to say that the mainstream of the argument has moved, in logical sequence, from one polarity (seeing the veil as an honestly accepted symbol of human limitation, and Mr, Hooper thus as an Everyman figure, humbly embodying the fate of all of us who must see life through a veil darkly). The third and final symbolism is the secret sins and the darkness of humanity. According to Sue Cording, "He intends the story to teach a moral lesson, to carry a didactic message to his readers, illustrating an important truth about the human condition." Why? well because when Mr. Hooper began to wear the black veil many people of the village began to make up …show more content…

The first lesson is to avoid the sin of secret sin because there is always a consequence to our sins or secret faults. Mr. Hooper wore the black veil throughout his whole life, the consequences that came with it was that he was left alone when his fiancee walked out on him because he wouldn't at least show his face to her no matter what, leading Elizabeth to believe he didn't really love her and at the end he was buried with veil seeing the world through the black veil. The second lesson is the veil can be compared to man's way of trying to hide the hideous acts of a sin by trying to cover it up with a "fig leaf" as in the case of Adam and Eve. Sue Cording pointed out that, "Dark veils make it harder to understand what others mean in the discussion, that being unable to see the eyes of the person with whom one is talking creates a serious barrier to communication. We then talk about why this is so. I remind them of the popular adage that 'the eyes are the windows of the soul.' The essence of what we communicate is not so much in our words but, in our eyes. No other part of the body has the eloquence of language that the eyes command. Now the stage is set for them to read about what happens when a highly regarded religious leader of a small Puritan town decides that no one will ever see his eyes again." When someone is looking at your eyes it's like they can see everything you done and every lie you

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It is a close knit town where everybody knows each other. As the story progresses, it is seen how people will avoid even the most loved friends and family once there is a mysterious barrier in between them. So, throughout the story, the minister’s black veil symbolizes a variety of things such as: secret sins, a barrier, and even sorrow. First off, I think that Father Hooper’s black veil symbolizes everyone’s secret sins. In the beginning of the story, church begins and Hooper appears concealed by a black veil, and everybody is mystified.

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He sets a somber and self-pitying tone towards the audience. Hooper believes,like most other human beings, that he has sorrow strong enough to be epitomized by a black veil. Hooper states that he is not at ease with seeing a reflection of himself in a mirror, which apprises that he is not happy with himself substituting for others sins. Hooper is an ironic character because as well as he affecting the community’s outlook of him, he is also immensely affecting himself. Hawthorne uses imagery to depict how Rev. Hooper sacrificed the representation of the veil.

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The motif and the symbols basically balance eachother out, from what i interpret is because they both have to do with the veil. The veil gets emphasized roughly, it is such a huge piece of context in the story and it is really a matter of life or death in the story because when Hooper dies, he gets buried with the veil on still and that's what leads the story on insane as

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In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Minister’s Black Veil”, we are presented with Reverend Parson Hooper, an admirable Puritan preacher who decides to start wearing a black veil. Mr. Hooper’s decision to cover his face almost entirely, except for the mouth and chin with that “mysterious emblem” (#) agitated the town of Milford. It incited gossip within the community about him and the reason why he chose to wear the black veil in the first place, which the townspeople thought represented the Reverend’s sins. This gossiping and the rumors that the people created could be considered a way of hypocrisy, due to the fact that they are judging someone else’s sins rather than acknowledging their own sins, which is the message that Mr. Hooper is trying to

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Mr. Hooper knew that his image is frightening to some and was fearful to find that same image looking back at him. This presence he now has attached to his being lasts for years up to and after his death, where the questions of why he wore the black veil are still asked and follow his

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Mr.Hooper wears the veil because he knows good will come out of it in the end. Mr.Hooper dedicates his whole life to this one calling. By Hooper putting on the veil he is accepting that he will never be able to participate in any joys in the world and he will have to keep an image that is appropriate with the black veil (Montbriand). He essentially gave up his whole life for this one purpose. Mr.Hooper lets his fiance hurt because she has lost the man she loves just because he will not take off the one thing that could keep them happy and together (Stouck 559+).

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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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543 Words | 3 Pages

Another occurrence in The Minister's Black Veil is "The next day, the whole village of Milford talked of little else than Parson Hooper's black veil." (). The reason for the black veil that Mr. Hooper has been wearing is still unknown. Since Mr. Hooper was once a highly respected minister, it is putting everyone surrounding him in distress that he has begun to wear this and not explain its appearance. This is an example of external conflict on Mr. Hooper

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522 Words | 3 Pages

Since Mr. Hooper will not break to these cries and pleas he is only separating himself from everyone else and society. Throughout the story “Minister’s Black Veil” Mr. Hooper sacrifices many thing by him wearing the black veil. As a result of Mr. Hooper’s actions he sacrifices his social life, he sacrifices his relationship with his wife Elizabeth, and he is separating himself from society by wearing the black

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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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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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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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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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1277 Words | 6 Pages

Secret sin is important because the only reason Minister Hooper wears the black veil is the secret sin of humanity and himself. Sorrow is another theme because it occurs often when Mr. Hooper went to the funeral. “From the coffin Mr. Hooper passed into the chamber of the mourners, and thence to head of the staircase, to make the funeral prayer. It was a tender and heart-dissolving prayer, full of sorrow, yet so imbued with celestial hopes, that the music of a heavenly harp, swept by the fingers of the dead, seemed faintly to be heard among the saddest accents of the minister.” (Hawthorne 6)

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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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