Verified Document

Minister's Black Veil By Nathaniel Hawthorne The Essay

¶ … MINISTER'S BLACK VEIL" BY NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE The purpose of this paper is to discuss and analyze "The Minister's Black Veil," written by Nathaniel Hawthorne.

Hawthorne's short story is deceptively simple. He tells the tale of a minister, Parson Hooper, who comes to church one Sunday wearing a black veil over his face. Nothing else about him has changed, but this veil frightens the worshippers, and sets off all kinds of rumors, including that Parson Hooper has gone mad.

"Such was the effect of this simple piece of crepe, that more than one woman of delicate nerves was forced to leave the meetinghouse. Yet perhaps the pale-faced congregation was almost as fearful a sight to the minister, as his black veil to them."

As he preaches his sermon, the congregation seems to find this sermon special, and somehow it touches each one. Hawthorne says that Hooper was normally a rather "uninspired" preacher, and today was no exception, but the people perceive his words differently. They frighten many of them. "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." Perhaps Hooper's words are hitting a little close to home, and people are seeing some of the things they cover up in their own lives, as Hooper covers his face...

"Old Squire Saunders, doubtless by an accidental lapse of memory, neglected to invite Mr. Hooper to his table, where the good clergyman had been won't to bless the food, almost every Sunday since his settlement."
Hooper understands their unease, and seems to pity them for it, as he goes to his parsonage, and gives them a "sad smile." He tells the woman that he loves, "Do not desert me, though this veil must be between us here on earth. Be mine, and hereafter there shall be no veil over my face, no darkness between our souls! It is but a mortal veil -- it is not for eternity! O! you know not how lonely I am, and how frightened, to be alone behind my black veil. Do not leave me in this miserable obscurity forever!" She tells him that she cannot live with him that way, and he spends his life alone, always wearing the black veil.

As he goes about his life, he becomes more respected as a clergyman, but the people pretty much shun him. They begin to call him "Father Hooper." The people and his peers respect him, but he is still misunderstood. He spends most of his time alone. "From that time no attempts were made to remove Mr. Hooper's black veil, or, by a direct appeal, to discover the secret which it was supposed…

Sources used in this document:
Hawthorne's story, and the veil itself, is a metaphor for all of our sins and transgressions. It is an example of the Bible passage which says, "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone." No one in Hooper's small town is without sin, and his veil is a living example to them. They somehow know deep down what the veil represents, and so no one will be the one to "unveil" the parson, and therefore "unveil" their own sins.

Wearing the veil makes Hooper a better man, even if he is a more lonely man. He hopes to make the citizens of his town better people too, but they are too afraid. It is easier for them to look at the parson as "mad," or "odd," anything but the person who is making them aware of their own weaknesses.

Hawthorne writes of man's weakness -- not only sins, but also the fears that guide each of us through our lives. This is a story of one strong man who lived a good life, and how he was ostracized simply because he was a little bit different. Hawthorne wrote this story in 1836. Our society has really changed very little in those nearly 200 years. We still ostracize those who are different, even if they can teach us more about ourselves.
Cite this Document:
Copy Bibliography Citation

Related Documents

Hawthorne the Scarlet Letter and the Minister's Black Veil Plus Three...
Words: 2404 Length: 8 Document Type: Term Paper

Nathaniel Hawthorne The Scarlet Letter and the Minister's Black Veil Born in Salem, Massachusetts, Nathaniel Hawthorne, 1804-1864, is considered one of the great masters of American fiction, with tales and novels that reflect deep explorations of moral and spiritual conflicts (Hawthorne pp). He descended from a prominent Puritan family, and when he was fourteen years old, he and his widowed mother moved to a remote farm in Maine (Hawthorne pp). Hawthorne attended

Nathaniel Hawthorne the Objective of This Work
Words: 2831 Length: 10 Document Type: Research Paper

Nathaniel Hawthorne The objective of this work is to examine Nathaniel Hawthorne's works and to conduct a comparison of the life of Hawthorne to his short stories and to examine how his life and his works paralleled one another. The life of Nathaniel Hawthorne many times was played out in his stories as his life events and experiences bled forth into his works demonstrating the struggles that the writer faced within himself

Hawthorne Author Nathaniel Hawthorne's Literary Works Constantly
Words: 1649 Length: 5 Document Type: Essay

Hawthorne Author Nathaniel Hawthorne's literary works constantly reference ideas of the supernatural and the religious ideas of the Puritans who colonized the United States. Of particular interest to Hawthorne is how these two things work together in that time period. Many of Nathaniel Hawthorne's works take place in Colonial times, a good century before the author himself was born. His own ancestors were active participants in Puritan society, even serving as

Nathaniel Hawthorne Life Imitates Were All the
Words: 3290 Length: 10 Document Type: Research Paper

Nathaniel Hawthorne Life Imitates Were all the literary works of Nathaniel Hawthorne compiled into a single manuscript, then appropriately filtered to include only works of prose and fiction, and if an attempt were then made to uncover a single motif spanning through the vast majority of the remaining text, it would read something like the following. A protagonist is haunted by a vague, strangely preternatural feeling of foreboding and doom that eventually

Nathanial Hawthorne: The Ministers Black
Words: 935 Length: 3 Document Type: Essay

Mr. Hooper states that he is no better or worse than the other members of his community, who he believes also harbor secret sins, even though they act as though they do not. The anti-Transcendentalist concept, like Transcendentalism, suggests that society harbors a false surface, but it believes this is due to an innate sinfulness of humankind, not because human beings outside of society are better. Anti-transcendentalists believed that humans are

Nathaniel Hawthorne's Beliefs Concerning Ethics, Morality, and
Words: 1388 Length: 4 Document Type: Term Paper

Nathaniel Hawthorne's beliefs concerning ethics, morality, and guilt as made evident in one of these stories. Consider how beliefs affect characterization, setting, plotting, and theme. In the story of Rappaccini's daughter, the narrator becomes infatuated with a young woman whose life literally has become poisoned, because of her father's influence. Unlike a conventional Christian system of morality, as is typical of most of the author's other tales, the girl is

Sign Up for Unlimited Study Help

Our semester plans gives you unlimited, unrestricted access to our entire library of resources —writing tools, guides, example essays, tutorials, class notes, and more.

Get Started Now