Danielle Norman. Professor Karsak. Enc 1102. March 19 2016.

The black veil represents, covering the face in shame. Reverend Hooper enters the church with a black veil over his face, causing quite a disturbance among his congregation. He preached a sermon on secret sin and what we hide from those closest to us. The Reverend Clark tries to talk Hooper, on his deathbed, to take the veil off. He claimed it was a sign of his sadness and refused. The phrase “He has changed himself into something awful, only by hiding his face” (338). The Reverend Hooper points out on his deathbed that the only difference between himself and the people is that they conceal their sins.

The Minister’s Black Veil was written by Nathaniel Hawthorne. The story is about a man named Parson Hooper who puts a veil on his face to cover it up. The townspeople were confused and scared for their minister. He tells why he is wearing it during the whole story..The story talks about right and wrong.

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

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.

Whatever his reason for his odd clothing, Reverend Hooper's veil caused more than a physical separation from the people of his town. The people felt the veil was "the symbol of a fearful secret between him and them" (Hawthorne 256). Their fear and confusion of the minister's motives caused strange behavior and unnatural withdrawal from their spiritual leader.

McCarthy also stated that “the veil is the manifestation of Christ’s efficacy over sin, of man’s urgent need of that efficacy, and of the perilous future without Christ’s efficacy”, which may give support that Hooper did commit a horrible sin. Because Minister Hooper though he is a man of God is wearing the veil to repent for his sins, but a more logical interpretation is that God forgives sins and that the future without God is not one with great satisfaction..

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

In “The Minister’s Black Veil” Minister Hooper hides his face with a black veil one day and does not remove it, because, he says everyone has a secret sin. The veil makes him seem more dark to the people attending the church. He refuses to remove the veil for anyone and will not give a reason as to why he is wearing it. People start to think that since he isn’t removing or giving a reason why he is wearing the veil that he is hiding an extremely dark sin.

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

Hardly anyone would have sympathy for Mr. Hooper because it seems crazy to be wearing a veil especially for a man or a parson. And it is hard to get some logical reasons why Mr. Hooper got a veil on his face. One couple seeing the veil judged: “’How strange,’ said a lady, ‘that a simple black veil, such as any woman might wear on her bonnet, should become such a terrible thing on Mr. Hooper’s face!’”. People in the town could not find out why Mr. Hooper is covering up his face. Goodman Gray of the sexton when saw Parson Hooper said: “’Are you sure it is our parson?’”. The story tell us what the people think about the veil: “But that piece of crap, to their imagination, seemed to hang down before his heart, the symbol of a fearful secret between him and

Contrastingly enough, Father Hooper perceives sin through real experiences. "The Minister 's Black Veil" begins with Hooper exiting his home and walking to church to preach the Sunday morning sermon. People cry out in astonishment, question his identity, forget to greet him, move about uncomfortably, and whisper upon seeing a black veil over his face (Hawthorne 1311-12). Hooper 's fiancée Elizabeth informs him of rumors spreading throughout the town and asks him to remove the veil, but he refuses to do so. Hooper responds, "If I cover it for secret sin, what mortal might not do the same?" (Hawthorne 1317). Edgar Allan Poe concurs with the idea of a secret sin in his criticism of Hawthorne 's work. Poe attributes the veil to a need to hide remorse for a crime related to a young woman whose funeral Hooper

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.

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.

The black veil brings up confusion and interest to the Puritan society because everyone has a different view as to why Mr. Hooper is walking around with his face covered with a veil. To the townspeople, Hooper’s veil is a clear sign that he is trying to atone for a grave sin. “There was but one thing remarkable about his appearance. Swathed about his forehead, and hanging down over his face so low as to be shaken by his breath, Mr. Hooper had on a black veil. On a nearer view it seemed to consist of two folds of crape, which entirely concealed his features, except the mouth and chin, but probably did not intercept his sight, further than to give a darkened aspect to all living and inanimate things” (Hawthorne 369). Although Hooper identifies the veil in a different manner, the townspeople use the veil to focus exclusively on Hooper’s sinfulness because, deep