The Minister's Black Veil

When his fiancée Elizabeth asks Mr. Hooper to remove his veil because there may be "whispers" that he hides "under the consciousness of secret sin" rather than the "type of an innocent sorrow," as...

As Mr. Hooper is dying in his bed near the end of the story, another minister attempts to remove Mr. Hooper's black veil. He wants people to see Hooper's "triumphant" face as he passes over into...

A parable is a kind of story, typically a fictional one, that contains a moral or religious principle. This story seems to qualify doubly because it has both. It demonstrates a theme common to...

Mr. Hooper wears the black veil because he has come to understand a certain truth about humanity: that we are all sinful, but we attempt to hide our sinfulness from one another by holding up a...

Nathaniel Hawthorne was known for his stories based in New England and dealing with Puritan religion. His works of literature have become synonymous with sin and righteousness, and the judgments of...

The Puritans, of course, were historically a repressive religious (Protestant) group that left England for the New World in hopes of living a life free of the persecution at the hands of those who...

During this exchange, Mr. Hooper reveals his own secret sinfulness (without actually naming it as that). To explain the veil, he says, "this veil is a type and a symbol, and I am bound to wear...

Yes, the setting of the story is identified in the first line of the text: "The sexton stood in the porch of Milford meeting-house, pulling busily at the bell-rope." Milford is a town in...

"The Minister's Black Veil" has puzzled readers and critics since it was published in 1836 because Hawthorne does not make it clear what Reverend Hooper's reasons were for wearing the veil....

Because Hawthorne's theme is secret sin, it is likely that he deliberately chooses to not reveal Mr. Hooper's reason(s) for wearing the black veil. The author has, however, borrowed the idea of...

In the story, Mr. Hooper's fiance begs him to take off his veil. She states that the veil hides the face that she is always glad to look upon. However, no matter how much she protests at his...

While Mr. Hooper doesn't explicitly state the reason he wears the veil, he certainly gives a number of clues. He tells Elizabeth, "There is an hour to come . . . when all of us shall cast aside...

From the time that he dons the black veil and ascends the pulpit, the congregation of Mr. Hooper becomes unnerved, sensing that "the minister's veil is a fearful secret between him and them."...

In addition to the dark and gloomy tone pointed out by other commenters, this story is also characterized by an immense sadness. Hawthorne validates Mr. Hooper's belief that each of us hides a...

I agree with the previous answer. I do not believe that Mr. Hooper's smile is symbolic of anything. The veil is the predominant symbolic image throughout this story. Mr. Hooper's smile is not an...

One further example of external conflict you might like to consider is man v society. In refusing to take off his black veil the minister is pitting himself against his congregation. His stubborn...

One way in which Mr. Hooper benefits from the veil is that he can now affect his parishioners to a much greater extent than he ever did before he put it on. The narrator tells us that, on the day...

In the sin-obsessed atmosphere of the Puritan era, the Reverend Mr. Hooper's black veil, which hides the lower portion of his face and casts doubt in the minds of his congregation that their...

Before he donned the black veil, the Reverend Mr. Hooper had been known as a pleasant and popular clergyman but not a particularly effective one. His previous preaching was mild and inoffensive but...

Reverend Hooper is characterized directly and indirectly in the story, so it is helpful to understand a definition for each type of characterization. In direct characterization, a narrator makes a...

Nathaniel Hawthorne's "The Minister's Black Veil" is, like his novel The Scarlet Letter, an expose of the hypocrisy of the Puritans and the destructive power of secret sin. Thus, the action that...

The theme of "The Minister's Black Veil" is that secret sin exists in people, and they are hypocritical about their sins, pretending that they are guileless. This condition is especially true in...

As narrator of "The Minister's Black Veil," Nathaniel Hawthorne writes, Among all its bad influences, the black veil had the one desirable effect, of making its wearer a very efficient clergyman....

When Mr. Hooper arrives to officiate at the funeral for a young maiden, the mood is already sad and somber. Thus, the "black veil. . . was now an appropriate emblem." It is black, the color of...

In Hawthorne's classic short story, Reverend Hooper wears a black veil, which symbolically represents the various ways presumably righteous citizens conceal their dark secrets and sins. Whenever...

Late in his life, Father Hooper has become something of a celebrity within the religious community as a powerful and effective minister, but also for his peculiar black veil and the rumors that...

In Nathaniel Hawthorne's "The Minister's Black Veil," it is the ambiguity of the veil that creates the "Parable"; it is the doubt and ambiguity of the veil that most disturbs the congregation, and...

At first, the congregation is "wonder-struck" as the Reverend Mr. Hooper greets them on the way to the pulpit inside the church. In the exposition of "The Minister's Black Veil," the sexton awaits...

The main symbol in Hawthorne's short story "The Minister's Black Veil" is Reverend Mr. Hooper's black veil. The ominous black veil symbolically represents the various ways people conceal and hide...

This story conveys the message that what unites all human beings is both our propensity to sin as well as our insistence on concealing our sinful natures from our peers. In this way, then, we can...

Ambiguity in "The Minister's Black Veil" centers around the reasons that the Reverend Mr. Hooper has donned the black veil and why he refuses to remove it, even for his fiancée and, in the end, as...

The narrator in this excellent short story is clear to present events in a detached manner, but there is also a clearly tragic tone added when the veil is referred to. Consider, for example, the...

The subject of Mr. Hooper's sermon is secret sin—that sin which is hidden from others as well as from oneself. This would seem to be a condition of which Mr. Hooper has direct personal experience:...

Mr. Hooper’s first sermon in “The Minister’s Black Veil” is about the notion of guilt or “secret sin,” a familiar idea in Hawthorne’s work. Hawthorne establishes this theme early on with the minute...

When Mr. Hooper walks past the sexton, he is amazed; then, as he mounts the pulpit with a black veil, his parishioners are astonished, frightened, unnerved, confused, and appalled. Ironically,...

At the first service, the parishioners are unnerved by the Minister's veil and most feel a sense of dread, something foreboding. The narrator notes that Mr. Hooper's sermons had always been mildly...

Additionally, The Minister's Black Veil has characteristics that are unique to the Romantic period, particularly those which are directly connected with Gothic literature. In Gothic literature...

The townspeople definitely do not like the black veil that hangs in front of Hooper's face. Some think it is a gimmick or a way to protect his eyes from the sun. Others said there was no mystery...

On the day that Mr. Hooper begins to wear the black veil, he first delivers his sermon, and the topic is "secret sin, and those sad mysteries which we hide from our nearest and dearest, and would...

Father Hooper addresses the "pale spectators" encircling his death bed with the question "Why do you tremble at me alone?" and the exhortation "Tremble also at each other!" His point is that he...

Initially, Mr. Hooper's veil perturbs his congregation, as people find the black veil to be ominous and foreboding. However, Mr. Hooper's messages seem to be more direct and influential to his...

Let us remember that a metaphor is an example of figurative language, that compares one thing to something else completely different but forces us to see the comparison. However, metaphors differ...

The most important character in "The Minister's Black Veil" is the Reverend Hooper (the minister of the title); his fiance, Elizabeth, also plays into the story significantly as she, in some ways,...

"Setting" comprises not just a geographical location, but also the historical/ social context and the time period when the story takes place. The geographical setting of "The Minister's Black...

On a really basic level, one reason the townspeople react so strongly to the black veil Mr. Hooper wears is that it is odd. It is a strange thing to do to cover one's face as he has done, and it...

In "The Minister's Black Veil", the Reverend Mr. Hooper begins to wear a black veil that obscures most of his face, suprising and confusing his congregation. It is strongly suggested that Hooper is...

In the story, Nathaniel Hawthorne alternates narrative with dialogue. He employs a third-person narrator who provides background, insights into the characters, and plot points. The dialogue shows...

It is important to remember that Hawthorne was considered a "Dark Romantic" rather than just a Romantic author. The Dark Romantics, as they were named, consisted of authors such as Hawthorne, Poe...

"The Minister's Black Veil" conveys the idea that we are all sinful by nature, and yet we hide our sinful natures from one another in an attempt to portray ourselves as sinless. In this way, we...

Reverend Hooper's disturbing black veil is described as an "appropriate emblem" for the funeral that he attends in the afternoon. The somber atmosphere surrounding the black veil corresponds to the...