Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Minister's Black Veil
Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote the novel The Minister's Black Veil. It is a tale of how the inhabitants of the town become puzzled and perplexed as their Reverend begins to wear a black veil to cover his identity without explanation. The author introduces a protagonist and protagonists who are struggling with a range of human feelings, remorse, and secrets. This novel depicts the protagonists' literal and metaphorical secrets and sinister sides. The allegory or parable of the veil is used by Hawthorne to portray characters from a quiet Puritan town with various secretive facets of darkness and sin. The author uses the life of the protagonist and the other characters to develop the central theme of the story by using a veil as a disguise, and this changes the lives of the Reverend and the town people.
The Protagonist's Black Veil
Hawthorne presents a protagonist who dresses in a black veil, which "conceals all his features except his mouth and chin" (Hawthorne 15). Mr. Hooper is a minister in Milford Connecticut and the fact that he dons a black veil covering him brings speculations from the congregation. The minister wears the black veil at all times whether at the funeral or while ministering to the people. Mr. Hooper made a choice to wear the black veil despite knowing how the people in the society would react. He isolated himself from the people in the community, and they did the same because they feared the face behind the veil. Morsberger notes that the veil was a symbol that separated Mr. Hooper from the people and it isolated him from the sins the world emitted (458).
The Veil's Impact on the Congregation
The protagonist's veil caused both physical and mental separation from the people who trusted him in the community. Mr. Hooper made the congregation feel that the veil he was wearing was a "symbol of a fearful secret" he was hiding from them (Hawthorne 256). The veil separated him from the congregation and the people he loved, yet nothing was clear as to why he was wearing it. However, as he preached the message on secret sin to the congregation, they all felt that he was talking about their hidden secrets. They had tried to convince him to take off the veil, but he refused because he knew why he was wearing the veil (McFarland 551). Despite the distance from the people, the Reverend was a melancholy man who smiled at everything, for instance, even during the death of Elizabeth and his death because he knew the importance of wearing the veil.
The Congregation's Response and Symbolism of the Veil
Apart from Mr. Hooper, Hawthorne uses the congregation to show how people can hide behind a veil to hide their dark secrets. In the society today, people do bad things every day, and they hide away from the shame. Therefore, the author uses the veil to let the congregation realize their darker side and the secrets they are hiding. To the congregation, the perturbed black veil became a wall between them and their minister because they feared and neglected him. In fact, they separated themselves from him because of the thought that he was hiding a dangerous sin. This is evident when they say, "our Parson is going mad" (Hawthorne 294). However, as the story progresses, Hooper preaches about secret sins and how everyone has a dark side, and it dawns on them that the black veil presented a more complex issue about their lives.
Mr. Hooper's Choice and Symbolism of the Veil
Mr. Hooper chose an eccentric life of living in the shadow of a veil without any explanations to his congregation. There were ongoing speculations about the veil, and this left him into isolation. This is evident when he says "have men avoided me and women shown no pity and children screamed and fled because of my black veil?" (Hawthorne 606). The people were scared of the reasons why he was wearing the black veil. However, despite people shunning away from him, Santangelo notes that the veil was a symbol that anyone has a veil that disguises their sins from the people and this is the message the minister was passing across (66). Therefore, the author uses the veil to reveal how people can hide their sins from the public.
Different Interpretations and Mr. Hooper's Intentions
Critics insist that the protagonist in the story was hiding a fearful secret, for instance, Edgar Allan Poe insists that he might have committed adultery (Carnochan 183). In addition, Von Abele argues that maybe he was a hypocrite like the rest of the town people and that he was pretending to be holy to hide his identity (Von Abele 29). On the other hand, Stibitz in "Ironic Unity in Hawthorne's 'The Minister's Black Veil' notes that Mr. Hooper could be using the veil to teach morality to the people at the cost of his happiness or as a sign of guilt (184). I tend to disagree with these authors because I support Mr. Parson Hooper for donning the veil because he showed honesty in his guilt compared to the rest of the characters' hypocrisy. The people claimed to love their minister, but their hypocritical nature is displayed when they shun away from him upon him changing his appearance. Even though the protagonist donned a black veil, his character did not change because he used it as a symbol to pass a moral message to the people.
The Loneliness and Final Message of the Protagonist
Nonetheless, even though I agree with the protagonist wearing the black veil, I could not stop thinking why he had to don the veil if it was to cost him his happiness. Initially, the people loved Mr. Hooper, but after he had started wearing the black veil, the people started gossiping about him, and this made him "unloved and shrouded" (Hawthorne). He was all alone as the people started treating him as a stranger they could not identify with.
As the story ends, the protagonist gives clues about the veil. For instance, his final words when he emphasizes the moral meaning of a veil. According to Mr. Hooper, everyone is confined in the shadows of their black veils whereby they do not show their faces to the outside world. According to Hooper, people live in disguise just to hide their sins from the public eye and this is evident when he says, "there is an hour to come when all of us shall cast aside our veils" (Hawthorne 602). According to him, many people might feel confused and terrorized with the veil not because of it being black, but because of what it reminds them or rather represents in their lives. Mr. Hooper is able to pass a moral message to the people with his final message when he makes it clear that in life, everyone wears a veil to "conceal their sins/secrets" and this made the crowd realize that everyone has a dark side. The Minister's Black Veil is a piece of literature that demonstrates how people can hide in their sins in a veil disguise.
Works Cited
Carnochan, W. B. “” The Minister’s Black Veil”: Symbol, Meaning, and the Context of Hawthorne’s Art.” Nineteenth-Century Fiction 24.2 (1969): 182-192. Print.
Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The Minister’s Black Veil. NY: Booklassic, 2015. Print.
McFarland, Ronald E. “Community and Interpretive Communities in Stories by Hawthorne, Kafka and García Márquez.” Studies in Short Fiction 29.4 (1992): 551.
Morsberger, Robert E. “The Minister’s Black Veil”:” Shrouded in a Blackness, Ten Times Black.” New England Quarterly (1973): 454-463. Print.
Stibitz, E. Earle. “Ironic Unity in Hawthorne’s” The Minister’s Black Veil”.” American Literature 34.2 (1962): 182-190. Print.
Santangelo, G. A. “The Absurdity of” The Minister’s Black Veil”.” Pacific Coast Philology (1970): 61-66. Print.
Von Abele, Rudolph Radama. The Death of the Artist: A Study of Hawthorne’s Disintegration. Vol. 2. Springer Science & Business Media, 2013. Print.
