This is the case for Mr. Hooper in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story, “The Minister’s Black Veil.” But the reverend takes this act of hiding sins to a literal level. One Sunday he shows up for church with a black veil draped around his head. Coincidentally or not, it happened to be the Sunday the he was going to preaching on “secret sin, and those sad mysteries we hide from our nearest and dearest” (373). There is a slight chance he starts wearing the veil to prove a point that everyone has sin they are hiding and that if they saw the veils everyone wore, they would act different. However, I believe that he really does have enormous sin that he is trying to hide. What kind of se

Not only is his business life is changed by the veil, but also his social life is changed. His social life is actually non-existent when he wears the veil. He is very isolated from the community. “He could not walk down the street with any peace of mind, so conscious was he that the gentle and timid would turn aside to avoid him…”, “It grieved him, to the very depth of his kind heart, to observe how the children fled from his approach, breaking up their merriest sports, while his melancholy figure was yet afar off” (380). Even his wife leaves him because she can not stand the fact that he wears the veil all the time and will not tell her why he wears it (379). To the day of his death he keeps the veil on. So for his whole life he must have an intense feeling of loneliness.

cret sin is it though? I think the reason is hinted to in the footnote in the beginning of the story. But whatever the actual reason is, the veil still has the same affect on the parishioners. They are completely terrified by the minister now that he wears a simple black veil covering his eyes and nose. On the plus side though, his sermons are now more intense and soul rattling.

Along those lines, there also happens to be a young woman who has just died. When Hooper views the body before the funeral ceremony, he makes sure to hold the veil so it does not swing down and reveal his face to the dead body (375). Why would he care so much to not let a dead person “see” his face? Perhaps he was getting emotional seeing her one last time and did not want the other people present to see. I am not saying he killed the young lady, but he could have been a cause for her death.

Some topics in this essay:
Black Veil”, Veil Sin, secret sin, Nathaniel Hawthorne’s, black veil, wears veil, wearing veil, social life, life changed, sin hiding,