The Minister's Black Veil

Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Minister’s Black Veil” is a story that is engrossed by a central symbol. It is a black veil that is worn by a sexton. A short summary of the plot would be that there is a minister who puts on a black veil, and, while suspense is building for what it hides throughout the entire story, he never takes it off, not even when he dies. Of course there is more of a thematic meaning because it is written by Hawthorne. It implements elements of the Romanticism and Dark Romanticism writing styles along with some psychological importance.

The Romanticism concentrates on emotion and intuition over reason, so it emphasizes on looking inward for the truth, and it usually focuses on God. The Dark Romanticism focuses more on tragedy, sin, evil, mystery, and human nature (Dark). This story is more or less a tragedy because the main character does die, but it is more of a peaceful death. Although, the minister was sort of secluded from living a normal life in society because of his black veil. This crepe kept him from love and made people avoid him, but it has hidden his sin. As Wright says, the story is based on an actual minister who wore a handkerchief instead of a veil over his face to hide the guilt of killing a friend. The same is presumed about Father Hooper. He is thought to have done something awful, and now he has to hide his face or his guilt and sin. The story is fairly open to interpretation because there are not many answers. The veil is not removed at all, so anyone can weigh in. One possibility is that it is supposed to represent not the sins of Hooper, but of everyone else. He isolates himself from everyone else in a way where he has almost sacrificed his life so that everyone else can live normally. In this way he could be acting like Jesus, which makes sense considering he is a minister.

“The Minister’s Black Veil” is a very interesting story psychologically. A man has simply put a piece of cloth over his face but above his mouth, but people cannot get beyond this. They see him as a monster, but, if anything, the black veil has only made him a better person. So what is making these people fear this man? The veil is such a mystery that everyone talks about it, but nobody ever sees behind it. I think if I was in this situation I would run up and remove the veil, but apparently no one in the story thought of that. The veil is just such an extreme manifestation of almost supernatural power that “Even the lawless wind, it was believed, respected his dreadful secret, and never blew aside the veil” (Hawthorne 287). In that case, if someone did try to snatch the veil then maybe some unknown force would prevent it from happening. Because the people have shunned the minister his whole life he finally retaliates on his death bed. He says “I look around me, and lo! on every visage a Black Veil!” (Hawthorne 289). In deeming the minister as a monster, they have showed themselves to be just as monstrous themselves.

"Dark Romanticism - ArticleWorld." Main Page - ArticleWorld. Web. 19 Jan. 2012.

Hawthorne, Nathaniel. “The Minister’s Black Veil.” Comp. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Ph.D. and Douglas Fisher, Ph.D. Glencoe Literature. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw-Hill Companies, 2009. 280-289. Print.

Wright, Sarah Bird. "'The Minister's Black Veil'." Critical Companion to Nathaniel Hawthorne: A Literary Reference to His Life and Work, Critical Companion. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2006. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=5&iPin= CCNH403&SingleRecord=True (accessed January 23, 2012).