Assignment IV: Theme and Symbolism Analysis

The Minister's Black Veil: Hawthorn's Representation of Sin & Secrets

Written by Preme Namfar (Subject: ENC1001 ID: 152)

Nathaniel Hawthorne's "The Minister's Black Veil" plays with the faith in humankind, like
other stories of his. The protagonist, Reverend Parson Hooper, has the persistent attempt to
keep the 'black veil' on him until the last minute of his life as an indirect way to show the
genuine remorse of his guilt as well as to portrays how everyone has their secret sins. Since
the large part of the story has been focusing on the hypocrisy via the judgmental reactions of
the Churchgoer community, it does not matter if Hawthorn stated that Hooper commits or did
not commit a sin. The reactions and how people chose to perceive his choice upon seeing the
veil did show the extent of sins inside the community that considered themselves to be an
excellent Christian and God-loving people. We can see the paradox in the way Hawthorn
wrote of how townspeople hypocritically perceive Mr. Hooper at the beginning as "mad,"
"changing into something awful," and "fearful," although he paid his respects, blessed
children, and greeted everyone. The people are more than ready to turn their backs on the
poor reverend upon a small difference in appearance, even though the reverend character and
demeanors have not changed. However, Mr. Hooper's sermon topic evolves passionately
around the secret sin, the congregation, and the readers quickly ponder if he commits the
secret sin himself in the beginning. The whole atmosphere of the story beginning sets the
tone of the rest of the story as a story about secret sins hidden from others' perceptions.

The veil itself may have hidden the Minister's face, but it sure reveals the true nature of all
the others. The black veil has lessened Hooper's sociability while people socialize and gossip
about his veil. He does not change his actions, and this shows that he believed he deserved
isolation and ostracization. Succinctly he had put himself in purgatory even before death as
he was sure of his crime and guilt. The only time he has shown his face was to a dead girl
whose funeral he officiates and when he is questioned by his beloved he responds by alluding
to a "special bond" between the reverend and the girl who dies and this bond is so strong that
the townspeople actually see him walking hand in hand with the girl after her funeral. The
incident shows that the righteous reverend was not so decent after all, and he and the girl
were probably intimate. The girl was allowed to see the reverend's face because he and the
girl were accomplices in a grave crime that was committed against God, making her his
confidant. Hooper's fiancée, Elizabeth, cannot live with the rumors and voices of doubt, so
she asked Parson Hooper to lift the veil, take it off, but he refused, so Elizabeth left him. That
was when the veil had cost him of his happiness. As shown in his last words to her, "Have
patience with me, Elizabeth!" cried he, passionately. "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. Oh, 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."

Once Hooper says that "When the friend shows his inmost heart to his friend; the lover to his
best beloved; when man does not vainly shrink from the eye of his Creator, loathsomely
treasuring up the secret of his sin; then deem me a monster, for the symbol beneath which I
have lived, and die! I look around me, and, lo! on every visage a Black Veil!" His passion in
the phrase reveals the fact that Hooper wears a veil because even though he may have hidden
things from the congregation, there is nothing between him and God. So, the sinners came to
him. As they feel that Hooper can relate to them whence treated in the manner in which the
townspeople have treated them. These sinners believe that Hooper will not judge them
because he has also have sinned, and he continuously punished for it. Effect of Hooper's
black veil was such that everyone felt that he could be able to sympathize with their own
deepest and darkest secret sins. They dare to speak their truth before the veil because they
knew what they had worn something between themselves and God throughout their life, and
there was no fear of the unknown because Hooper was symbolizing the sins onto himself.