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Minister's Black Veil

            Hawthorne's Criticism of the Puritan Way of life:.
            
             A black veil symbolizes the gate between mortal life and the spiritual life. It is the wall that separates Minister Hooper and the rest of society. Why does Nathaniel Hawthorne choose to show his readers such self-imposed chastisement of the protagonist? Is Hawthorne criticizing the Puritan way of life? Evidence of cruelty within the Puritan society is one way Hawthorne disparages the Puritan culture. He also shows how judgmental the Puritan view of humanity really is. Fear of the unknown and death is unmistakably another tool that Hawthorne employs to criticize the Puritans in "The Minister's Black Veil."" To further establish that "The Minister's Black Veil- is evidence of Hawthorne's disapproval of the Puritan culture, a comparison of Hawthorne's tales prove helpful when a repetitive theme arises. The major theme in every case is the suffering and separation of the protagonist from the Puritan way of life due to the unfair rulings of such a society. .
             Hawthorne critic of the unkindness within the Puritan society is very subtle, but yet very clear. The main events of "The Minister's Black Veil- revolve around the opinions and actions of the Puritan society that Minister Hooper is a part of. When Hawthorne first reveals the black veil to the readers, he creates a mysterious mood as to put the reader in the same perspective as the Puritans in Mr. Hooper's meetinghouse. Hawthorne is smart to use this approach so that he does not seem to be convincing his readers, but rather guiding them unknowingly to the conclusion of his choice. "'I can't really feel as if good Mr. Hooper's face was behind that piece of crape, said the sexton. I don't like it' muttered an old lady He has changed himself into something awful, only by hiding his face. Our parson has gone mad! cried Goodman Gray (Hawthorne 1281). Hawthorne's detailed description of the gossip that the black veil produces, invites the reader to create his or her own opinion of the veil and it provokes the reader to follow the crowd's attitude.


Essays Related to Minister's Black Veil

1. The Minister's Black Objectives

... His position as a minister holds him responsible for three key duties, to be described herein. His exceptional reputation that precedes his donning of the veil shows that he has come through in all of these tasks. Moreover, such eminence has been purchased not by simply using the force of harsh ... minister. This undertaking asks that he do this to the full extent of his intellectual capabilities, which will of course vary among different ministers. While nobody except the minister himself can ever assess if he has truly made every effort to reach his intellectual potential, his faith an...

  • Word Count: 2074
  • Approx Pages: 8
  • Grade Level: Undergraduate

2. Emotion in the Works of Nathaniel Hawthorne

... shows how they have reverted back to their old naive selves. He does all this while teaching a lesson about life. Also in "The Ministers Black Veil," Hawthorne goes into great detail on how the people react emotionally to the black veil the minister was wearing. His emotional backbone to his stories is what makes them work and is what makes his writing romantic.Many ... shows how they have reverted back to their old naive selves. He does all this while teaching a lesson about life. Also in "The Ministers Black Veil," Hawthorne goes into great detail on how the people react emotionally t...

  • Word Count: 1368
  • Approx Pages: 5
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: High School

3. The Works of Nathaniel Hawthorne

... of preachers. He achieves this by developing plot lines focusing on interactions between ignorant and often malevolent religious characters and sinful but relatable protagonists. The novel The Scarlet Letter, The Ministers Black Veil and Young Goodman Brown all unite upon this common thread. The opening scene of chapter 2 in The Scarlet Letter describes a gaggle of gossiping women viewing Hester Prynne's punishment. Hawthorne writes ... misgivings about the protagonist, or vice versa. Two places where this is expressed include the final paragraph of Young Goodman Brown and an instance f...

  • Word Count: 1379
  • Approx Pages: 6
  • Grade Level: High School

4. The Scarlet Letter

... been. Even in the time Hawthorne wrote of in The Scarlet Letter and in "The Ministers Black Veil" people judged before they knew the truth. Objects were judged even though they had no relevance on what really happened. In "The Ministers Black Veil" no one knew why the minister wore the veil but everyone assumed it meant shame and that he had something to hide. I think that ... the minister thought that it was his mission to show how superficial the people were. The ministers own fiancee left him because no one knew anything about the ... veil he wore. Again in The Scarlet Letter, I can...

  • Word Count: 498
  • Approx Pages: 2
  • Grade Level: High School

5. Similarities in Hawthorne's Short Stories

... his text. Hawthorne commonly wrote stories that explored the evil and sin in man and the short stories, "Young Goodman Brown" and "The Ministers Black Veil," provide excellent examples of this. In "Young Goodman Brown," Brown goes into the forest and meets a man that looks like himself. The ... of where they stand religiously or morally. Another example Hawthorne's examination of sin and evil in mankind is in "The Ministers Black Veil." The veil in this story symbolizes sin. It is evident in this quote that Father Hooper said, "I look around me, and lo! On every visage ... a Black Veil!...

  • Word Count: 676
  • Approx Pages: 3
  • Grade Level: High School

6. Analysis of Hawthorne's

... 's tale, why does the minister wear a black veil? The minister in Nathaniel Hawthorne's "The Minister's Black Veil- wears a black veil because Hawthorne is trying to communicate to the reader that all people, whether we can actually see it or not, have a veil that separating them from eternal goodness. The color black is an obvious allusion to several facets of the above hypothesis: black represents evil, of which we all ... a manner of speaking, we are all dead until, according to the Christian way of looking at things, "born again,"" in a belief in Christ as savior. By having a ministe...

  • Word Count: 288
  • Approx Pages: 1

7. Who Should Punish a Sinner?

... with us!" As we know the conclusion Hester did indeed die and lay next to the one she loved, the minister. In the story The Ministers Black Veil anothor story by Hawthorne, Minister Hooper by putting this veil over his face is hurting his wife by not letting her see the man she loves "there is nothing terrible in this peice of crepe except ... that is hides a face which I am always glad to look upon. Come good sir, let the sun shine from behind the cloud. First lay aside your black veil: then tell me why you put it on" in this quote Minister Hooper's wife wants to see her husbands face ...

  • Word Count: 727
  • Approx Pages: 3
  • Grade Level: High School

8. Edgar Allan Poe's literature lead to Gothic Romance Movement

... of the house is very eerie and diseased with a small break in the front, "upon the bleak walls upon a few white trunks of decayed trees hideous dropping off of the veil iciness, a sinking, a sickening of the heart." The narrator describes the inside of the house just as uncanny as the outside; the narrator must walk through long spine-chilling passages to ... horror of evil. This was an idea that was different from that of the other Romantics. More writing like Poe's arrived afterwards such as Mary Shelly's "Frankenstein" and Nathaniel Hawthorne's "Ministers of the Black Veil." These ne...

  • Word Count: 963
  • Approx Pages: 4

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