Black Veil Symbolism In Scarlet Letter

In the short story, "The Minister's Black Veil," Nathaniel Hawthorne presents a similar theme to that of The Scarlet Letter through the usage of the black veil that the Reverend Mr. Hooper drapes across his face to hide his secret transgressions from the world. The veil the clergyman wears is voluntary punishment, in contrast to the scarlet letter that Hester was forced to wear, though it's consequences are similar for Reverend Hooper, as he becomes an outcast of society as well. Though everyone knows Hester's sin, no one can even find the courage to ask Father Hooper why he wears his veil. When his wife, Elizabeth, finally does ask him, he gives her no clear answer and thus the veil's meaning is ambiguous and the townspeople all have their different theories for it including sin, sorrow, and weak eyes; though most fingers pointed towards a secret sin. The ambiguity of the black veil is similar to the ambiguity of the scarlet letter. At first the letter stood for the sin of adultery

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 Eva. The townspeople assume that Hooper has committed a specific crime, and because their Puritan community recognizes the danger of sin, they’re horrified that Hooper seems to be showing his sin to the public. Puritans believe that sin must be defeated at all costs, it’s also possible that the townspeople of Milford do understand what Hooper’s veil means. It reminds them of their own secret sins. the story seems to suggest that it’s impossible to know to a certainty if another person is innocent or guilty of a specific crime. This might suggest that people shouldn’t obsess over others’ sins, but respect others and allow them to work through their own guilt. By wearing the veil, Hooper brings misery to himself, but also to Elizabeth, his fiancée, and the townspeople, who are newly frightened by his

Nathaniel Hawthorne's "The Minister's Black Veil" embodies the hidden sins that we all hide and that in turn distance us from the ones we love most. Reverend Hooper dons a black veil throughout this story, and never takes it off. He has discerned in everyone a dark, hidden self of secret sin. In wearing the veil Hooper dramatizes the isolation that each person experiences when they are chained down by their own sinful deeds. He has realizes that symbolically everyone can be found in the shadow of their own dark veil. Hooper in wearing this shroud across his face is only amplifying the dark side of people and the truth of human existence and nature.

Mr. Hooper has an effect on people by wearing the veil and he uses it to express his original purpose. Everyone on Earth has sinned, “for the Earth, too, had on her Black Veil.” This shows that Mr. Hooper believed that sin is a part of nature and it is a natural thing to be sinners. Even Earth, His own creation, is hiding her secret under a black veil. Hawthorne says this to show Mr. Hooper’s point that people have an inborn sinful nature and it is not always represented by literally wearing a black veil. In other words, he says that even people who do not wear a black veil equally have secret sins, “If I hide my face for sorrow, there is a cause enough…and if I cover it for secret sin, what mortal might not do the same?” People hide their real self to prevent being criticized by society and because they are ashamed of what they have done. He pays a high price in the attempt of teaching society the nature of sins. The people who used to admire him are now afraid and confused so he is forced to live a lonely live. Following this further, he influences people to believe the moral lesson behind his decision of wearing the veil. He wants people to

In reality the veil represents the secrets everyone is hiding within themselves. The unifying theme is the conflict between the dark, hidden side of man and the standards imposed by his puritanical heritage. Hawthorne brings evil and unauthorized desire into the way of puritan life, and in so doing suggests a insightful truth that is disturbing in its implication, that is to say that we can never hope to know each other's true selves. The themes in the story are suggested by the veil-symbol, the tension between the minister and the community. Every person has something to hide from the world. The veil is symbolic for the cover up of peoples secrets. Although most people would not wear a veil, the minister is proving a point. By wearing a simple black veil Mr. Hooper is making all the villagers evaluate their everyday actions in life. The symbolic value of the black veil lies in the physical and mental dilemma that it creates between the minister and his environment, and the guilt it conveys. Many people believe that the face provides information about a person's primary characteristics, therefore, predicting a persons possible behavior. As a result, by

The theme of the passage is everyone has a secret sin, even if they don't have a black veil, people shouldn’t be quick to judge based on appearance. He developed his theme by using third person omniscient and his diction choice is archaic, puritan culture. There are two quotes to support this theme. From line 275, Hawthorne writes “There is an hour to come”, said he, “which all of us shall cast aside our veils.” This quote proves that one day everyone will show their sin. Together with everyone having sin, from lines 485-86, Hawthorne writes “Have men avoided me, and women shown no pity, and children screamed and fled, only for my black veil.” This quote shows how everyone he, Mr.Hooper, associated with, ran from him because of his black

In Nathaniel Hawthorne's "The Minister's Black Veil," Mr. Hooper, a Reverend in the town of Milford, surprises his parishioners by donning a conspicuous black veil one Sunday. The town is visibly spooked, yet still curious, about his eerie appearance and profoundly affected by his sermon on secret sin. "A subtle power was breathed into his words. Each member of the congregation, the most innocent girl, and the man of hardened breast, felt as if the preacher had crept upon them, behind his awful veil, and discovered their hoarded iniquity of deed or thought" (2432). The parishioner's expect that Hooper will only don the veil for one day and then remove it, having used the visage to make his point on secret sin, but they are taken aback to

Moreover, the symbol of secret sin also appears in “The Minister’s Black Veil.” When the people of the town first saw Mr. Hooper wearing the black veil, they were all wondering why he would wear such thing. To Mr. Hooper, the black veil means deceit and sins to those who can not separate themselves from their sins. One example is when he is wearing the black veil to the wedding, and everyone is kind of skeptic about why he is wearing it but in reality, he wore it to remind everyone of their sins. Because of this, people call him evil, and he soon became an outcast. The black veil can also represent his own sin that he committed in the past in which he can never forgive himself. Symbols for secret sin are once again used in Nathanial Hawthorne’s works.

The author of The Scarlet Letter, Nathanial Hawthorne, is constantly using symbolism to keep the reader engaged and curious. A symbol can stand for one thing but mean another. These include symbolism’s of light and dark, variations of the letter “A”, weeds and flowers, as well as the scaffold. Because Nathanial Hawthorne wrote portraying a lot of symbolism, he created a new style of writing.

If we take “The Minister’s Black Veil” as a horror story, it leads us to certain conclusions about the nature of the veil and Hooper’s refusal to take it off. If horror is something that centers upon the horrifying or macabre, especially concerning the supernatural, one can see that this story could belong. Hooper never divulges the exact nature of the veil, and we are left to speculate about what it could possibly mean. Several possibilities present themselves if we think of this story as a horror story; it could be that the veil is covering Hooper’s face to be a constant reminder to his congregation and all who see him of secret sin. It seems that the idea that he could possibly know someone’s secret sin is terrifying to the townspeople. Indeed, this veil does give Hooper “awful power over souls that were in agony for sin” (943). Sinners fear him, because they feel that the black veil is a reference to their own personal secret sins. And the veil gives him an association with the dead and ghostly qualities; after the girl’s funeral at the beginning of the story, one woman remarks that she thought she saw Hooper walking hand in hand with the ghost of the dead girl. Such things would not have been imagined if he had never donned the veil.

Hawthorne uses the story as a parable to expose the truth about human nature. Usually, people are fearful to things they do not understand. When Father Hooper enters the parsonage with a black veil, townspeople's reactions are: "A rumor of some unaccountable phenomenon had preceded Mr. Hooper into the meeting-house, and set all the congregation astir. " The veil causes the townspeople to gossip about Mr. Hooper, and he has become a strange oddity. Their fear continues to manifest as the day goes on.

To start off with, Mr. Hooper wore the veil because he wanted to hide the burdens which he has committed. In the story Mr. Hooper was being suspected of the cause of death of a young girl. Whom he committed adultery with. The congregations thought this was the reason he wore the black veil. In the text it says “The

The 17th century Puritan society represented in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel, the Scarlet Letter, is one in which the confession of sins is encouraged, yet those who share their mistakes are forever isolated and condemned by both town authorities and common neighbors. After a secret affair with the esteemed Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale, Hester Prynne is pregnant and quickly becomes victim to Boston’s strict ways of humiliation, including being labeled with a scarlet letter and thrown in prison. However, throughout the story, Hawthorne pushes the idea that the Puritans’ notions of judgement and condemnation are wrong and ineffective on the soul. This idea is most clearly expressed through three symbols: Pearl, the child Hester and Dimmesdale conceive

When Mr. Hooper first came from his home wearing the black veil many people, who even knew him well, began to whisper of him and avoid him. As if he was death himself. During church hours he would lose followers. He wouldn’t get invited to Sunday dinners. No child or soul wanted to be near him, not even his own promised wife Elizabeth. Though the black veil didn’t change his persona, he was the

I feel like the story was making the black veil look as it represented sin. Mr. Hooper being a minister, so everyone thinks that they are pure and never sin, to me I feel like the author tries to focus the black veil on it representing sin. Nobody is perfect in this world, and by the minister wearing this black veil over his face makes the reader think about what they are reading and try to interpret what is going on in the story. That is a big lesson that I learned from reading this story. At first I didn’t get it but I re-read it and I was able to get a better understanding on what it was about and what Hawthorne was talking about here. This was a real mystery for me because Hawthorne does not tell us why specifically he is wearing the black veil over his face. It makes you actually think about what is going and I really did enjoy that about the story. It has you thinking what did he do to have that, because it must have been a really big sin that he commited to wear that all the time and not take it off when asked to, even by his own finance. He wears it until his death bed which gave the whole mysterious feel to the whole story which I