The Minister's Black Veil: A Paradigm Group

Question:

poem
poem
Student
High School - 12th Grade

In "The Minister's Black Veil, what are the symbolic implications of looking at the world through a black veil?

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Posted by poem on Thursday November 6, 2008 at 7:25 AM and tagged with black veil, symbolism, the minister's black veil: a paradigm, themes.

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  1. gbeatty Teacher
    College - Freshman

    eNotes Editor

    In explaining the meaning of the black veil, start with the meaning of its two parts. Blackness refers to darkness, both literal and symbolic. It refers to night, death, sin, depression, and loss. A veil hides someone and sets him or her off from the world. Combine them, and you get someone who is set off from the world through a barrier of pain, loss, sin, and death. For some in his congregation, this produces, we are told " a feeling of dread."  People tell stories about him.


    However, Hawthorne notes, "Among all its bad influences, the black veil had the one desirable effect, of making its wearer a very efficient clergyman. By the aid of his mysterious emblem--for there was no other apparent cause--he became a man of awful power over souls that were in agony for sin."


    He knows the dark, and so can counsel those there.

    Sources:
    http://www.enotes.com/ministers-black/themes

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    Posted by gbeatty on Thursday November 6, 2008 at 7:33 AM