What are the names of the minister and his fiancée in "The Minister's Black Veil"?
The minister’s name is Reverend Hooper, and he is the main protagonist of the short story, “The Minister’s Black Veil”. Reverend Hooper appears at church one Sunday wearing a black veil hiding his face as he gives a sermon about sin. His appearance is odd to the congregation who begins to wonder why their minister is hiding his face from them. Rumors begin to spread about what secret Hooper is hiding and an unrequited love is a speculation. However, Reverend Hooper is engaged to Elizabeth who tries to get him to remove the veil, and he refuses. Elizabeth breaks off the engagement because of Hooper’s behavior and because he will not confide in her about his reasons for wearing the veil. Hooper becomes more and more ostracized from society, and he later becomes ill. However, the nice and caring Elizabeth is his deathbed nurse who implores him to once again...
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take off the mask. Reverend Hooper, however, dies with the veil on saying, “. . . deem me a monster, for the symbol beneath which I have lived, and die! I look around me, and, lo! on every visage a Black Veil!" It is at the end of the story that we learn that Hooper’s black veil is not only a symbol of his own sin, but a symbol of everyone’s sin.
What are the names of the minister and his fiancee in "The Minister's Black Veil"?
In "The Minister's Black Veil," the minister's name is the Reverend Mr. Hooper, also called Parson Hooper, or just plain Mr. Hooper. We learn his name on the first page, for as the sexton is tolling the bell for the worship service, his cue to stop is when he sees Mr. Hooper step from his door. Further, the first line of dialogue in the story comes from this sexton, the first to see the minister, when he asks what "good Parson Hooper [has] upon his face?"
Mr. Hooper's fiancee is Elizabeth, apparently a woman of some fortitude, because -- even when a committee of church members cannot bring themselves to address Mr. Hooper directly about the veil -- she feels "unappalled" and confronts him lovingly and straightforwardly. He addresses her as "'Elizabeth,'" and explains that he cannot now nor ever remove the veil during his lifetime.