The Black Veil : The Presence Of Sin Essay

Nathaniel Hawthorne strongly believed that all people have a dark side and a sinful nature. According to Mark Barna, Hawthorne wrote, “In the depths of every heart, there is a tomb and a dungeon, though the lights, the music, and the revelry above may cause us to forget their existence, and the buried ones, or the prisoners whom they hide” (para. 12). In The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne presents a situation filled with sin—secret and public—when a minister and a young married woman commit adultery and each character has to deal with consequences in his or her own way. Because so much debauchery is happening, it is controversial whether the novel’s biggest sinner is Hester Prynne, Arthur Dimmesdale, or Roger Chillingworth.

Nathaniel Hawthorne's “ The Minister's Black Veil “ and Jonathan Edwards “ Sinners In The Hands of An Angry God” are writings that have much significance to religion, having a strong belief in god. “The Minister's black veil “ and “Sinners In The Hands of an angry god: may seem similar since they talk on the behalf of religion, they have differences such as the punishment, damnation, and who the sinners are. Edwards agrees that everyone is predestined and anyone no matter who you are can go to hell. However, Hawthorne believes that everyone carries a secret sin in their hearts and how terrible humans can be on the inside. These two authors have different ties but their main ideas still have ties.

The Minister 's Black veil is a Romanticism. A romanticism is a movement in the art which sprung during the eighteenth and nineteenth century.Romantic is used to describe literature. It is defined as a depicting emotional matter in an imaginative form. As well as the imagination and emotion and the freedom embraced are all focus points of romanticism. Characteristics Of this literature piece would include subjectivity and an emphasis on individualism. Solitary life rather than life in society. The beliefs that imagination is superior than the reason and devotion to beauty, the love and worship of nature as well as the fascination with the past.

American Romanticism was a literary and artistic movement that placed emphasis on strong emotions. Emotions intensified most were ones such as horror and terror, as well as awe. In, “The Minister’s Black Veil,” by Nathaniel Hawthorne, the emotions of horror, terror, and awe are drawn upon throughout the story, which follows the events and reactions of the citizens of a village after their resident minister suddenly starts to wear a black veil, which invokes discomfort and fear into the people. As with many of his stories, Hawthorne developed “The Minister’s Black Veil” around a symbol, which in this case is the veil. The veil represents that even the people that seem like they have nothing to hide or be ashamed of do, just as everyone else does. Hawthorne also makes the point of saying that although people do have secrets that they wish to not make a matter of, others still do not respect their privacy, and may even go out of their way to wonder and discuss the subject of the secret, without confronting the person themselves about it.

‘The Minister's Black Veil’ by Nathaniel Hawthorne is an American Romantic story published in 1832. Themes such as secret sin, and in short, everyone has a somewhat erroneous character are conferred in The Minister's Black Veil.

    Henry Seidel Canby in “A Skeptic Incompatible with His Time and His Past” explains regarding the solitude of Nathaniel Hawthorne: “His reserve and love of solitude were the defenses of an imagination formed by peculiar circumstances and playing upon circumstances still more peculiar” (55). Let us explore in this essay the solitude within “The Minister’s Black Veil” and its author.

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

In “Sinners of the hand of an Angry God” by Jonathan Edward and “The minister’s black veil” by Nathaniel Hawthorne both explain the importance of religion and the effects of it. Also both stories give different perspectives on how to handle sins and God. While I would characterize Jonathan Edwards as harsh and overwhelming, the character of Parson Hooper changes the reader’s understanding of Puritan ideals of religion by showing the effects of sins on a person and how the person can handle and be affected by their sins.

With the texts side by side it may be obvious to some that The Minister’s Black Veil seems much more humble than Sinners in the hands of an angry god. Nathaniel Hawthorne, the author of Minister’s Black Veil tells a story of a man who took a vole to wear a veil over his face for the entirety of his life. It brought the character down to earth and made it so the audience can relate to Hawthorne’s writing on a personal level. Jonathan Edward the author of Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God on the other hand shouted through his text like the god he so envies, his goal is ever clear but his delivery puts a sour taste in the audience’s mouth.

Nathaniel Hawthorne's bold novel, The Scarlet Letter, revolves around sin and punishment.  The main characters of the novel sharply contrast each other in the way they react to the sin that has been committed

In the text The Minister’s Black Veil by Jonathan Edwards, and Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God by Nathaniel Hawthorne develop their themes in many ways. The text by Nathaniel Hawthorne was more sensible. Hawthorne and Edwards both say secret sin is getting people one step closer to hell. The themes of The Minister’s Black Veil are stick to what you believe in, everyone has a secret sin, and don’t judge people by the way they look. The style of this text is an older dialect and was hard to read.

These two wonderfully written short stories by Nathaniel Hawthorne, “Young Goodman Brown” and The Minister’s Black Veil”, both have great ways of bringing up the topic of secret sin. They show the readers two different ways to handle the situation. Both main characters in these short stories handle their own secret sin in a different manner. Goodman Brown takes his situation and adds negativity onto himself by hiding his sin, meanwhile Reverend Hooper admits to his mistakes and reveals to all of his peers that he has sinned and he now has nothing to hide from. These short stories are great examples to prove there is a positive way and negative way to handle not only the situation the two men were in, but in all difficult situations in life.

Nathaniel Hawthorne was a nineteenth century American writer that was born in Massachusetts with a Puritan Heritage. “Born in Massachusetts on the Fourth of July, 1804, he was the descendant of Puritan worthies and the son of a ship’s captain who died at sea in 1808” (Gollin). Allegories are portrayed in his writings to depict a vivid outlook of his moral themes. Many of his works describe the human conscience and how it deals with guilt. Hawthorne’s works describe his contemplation on sin and guilt. He believed it had an effect on one’s social behavior, as well

The Holocaust was the murder of approximately six million European Jews and others by the Nazi regime in 1933. Many people should question the morals of human beings considering the past events of mass genocide. Human nature is flawed and has a lot of capacity for evil. This idea is reinforced through the writings of Anti-Transcendentalists dating back to the early 1800’s. A key writing of this time include “The Ministers Black Veil” by Nathaniel Hawthorne. While giving a sermon to his puritan church, Reverend Hooper wears a black vail that strikes people as peculiar. The townspeople quickly assume that Hooper is hiding behind the cloth because he has secret sin. He refuses to take it off after begged by his wife and dies wearing the veil. Another story by this author includes “Young Goodman Brown,” the main characters faith in humanity is lost after talking to the devil in the woods and seeing his family and friends as devil worshippers. He lives in suspicion and believes that all people are evil. The use of symbolism in the literary works of Hawthorne indicates his view on human nature, which is man is inherently sinful.

in Nathaniel Hawthorne's anecdote the "Pastor's Black Veil" his subject of the story is that no one can get away from a wrongdoing. An examination on the surface of the story is one day Mr. Hooper clergyman of an assemblage in Milford, MA, a little settlement of puritans, buckling down just to manage life.