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The Minister's Black Veil

by Nathaniel Hawthorne

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The Minister's Black Veil: Effects, Description, and Ambiguity

Summary:

In Nathaniel Hawthorne's "The Minister's Black Veil," the black veil worn by Reverend Hooper has both positive and negative effects, creating a powerful symbolism of secret sin and personal isolation. Positively, it enhances his sermons, drawing people to reflect on their own sins and making him a sought-after spiritual guide for the dying. Negatively, it alienates him from the community, raises suspicions, and ultimately isolates him, even from his fiancée. The veil's ambiguity lies in its unclear symbolism, with interpretations ranging from personal guilt to a broader commentary on universal human sinfulness. Its description as a "gloomy shade" further emphasizes its mysterious and ominous presence, affecting both Hooper and his congregation.

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What are the positive and negative effects of the minister's veil in "The Minister's Black Veil"?

As Nathaniel Hawthorne presents the situation, the minister’s veil has primarily negative effects. Although the townspeople and members of his congregation are initially captivated by his unusual appearance, they soon turn away from him. The power of the symbol, as emphasized in his sermons, is eroded as he becomes stubborn, inflexible, and self-righteous.

The idea that the veil symbolizes a mask or false front that people present to the world is appealing when the minister delivers his first sermon while wearing the veil. The congregants can identify with the secret sins that everyone hides away. The veil seems to be a prop that he is employing to get their attention and makes the message and his style of delivery seem more powerful.

However, this novelty is not a one-time attention-catcher but a fixture of the minister’s daily garb. Rather than look into their own souls for secret sins, they increasingly...

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speculate about secrets the minister might be hiding. While he intended the veil to draw people together and engage in altering their sinful behavior, instead it drives a wedge between him and the other members of his community. Further, the issue divides his supporters and his opponents, and then the number of supporters dwindles.

On a personal level, the minister is actually operating in opposition to his stated aims. He is acting out the sin of pride, as he insists that his own path of behavior is the correct one. Finally, his inflexibility and mistrust of his fiancée costs him his engagement and, Hawthorne implies, his future happiness.

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Positive Effects of the Minister's Veil

Mr. Hooper's sermon after donning the veil becomes more powerful as it "was tinged, rather more darkly than usual, with the gentle gloom of Mr. Hooper's temperament."

It causes the congregation to become uneasy as they examine their own guilty consciences.

Mr. Hooper becomes an "awful power" over people in the agony for sin.  His converts say that they were previously "behind him" with the veil.

The dying cry out for him so that they can confess.

When Mr. Hooper delivers the election sermon, the legislators pass measure that possess the "gloom and piety" of their ancestors.

He acquires a fame throughout New England and is known as Father Hooper.

Father Hooper is considered "venerable, holy in deed and thought."

Negative Effects of the Minister's Veil

The members of Mr. Hooper's congregation suspect him of trying to hide something, wondering if he seeks to keep "the dread Being whom he was addressing" from knowing.

Some of the members of the church leave; "more than one woman of delicate nerves was forced to leave the meetinghouse."

Each member of the congregation, even the innocent, feel as though the peacher "had crept upon them,...and discovered their hoarded iniquity of deed or thought." They feel as if their private thoughts have been invaded.

Mr. Hooper is not invited to share Sunday dinner at anyone's home.

Members of the congregation wonder if there is or is not some mystery.

The congregation begins to gossip and become suspicious of Mr. Hooper

When Mr. Hooper greets people, "strange and bewildered looks" repay his courtesy.

Mr. Hooper is never invited to weddings either as the minister or as a guest.  When he does come to one, the veil is interpreted as having only the power "to portend nothing but evil to the wedding."

The veil separates him from the "cheerful brotherhood and woman's love."

When Mr. Hooper catches his reflection in a mirror at the wedding, his body shudders and he spills his glass of wine; he rushes into the darkness.

A sad smile flickers upon Mr. Hooper's mouth as he passes people.

The veil "throws its influence over his whole person, and makes him ghostlike from head to foot."

Superstitions are raised about the minister's ability to affect even corpse.

No one approaches him to ask about the veil, or to remonstrate against it as it causes dread.

The veil becomes a symbol "of a fearful secret between him and them."

Mr. Hooper loses his fiance, Elizabeth, because he will not remove the veil.

Rumors begin that Mr. Hooper's conscience tortured him for some "great crime, too horrible to be entirely concealed."

Mr. Hooper spends the rest of his life shrouded in suspicion, and is separated from his fellow men.

When Mr. Hooper refuses to remove the veil even in death, the thought of his wearing the veil remains an awful and frightening one.

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What positive effect does the minister's black veil have?

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. 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.

Within the Puritan community, people hoped that they were among the "elect"; however, since there was no way of knowing with certainty, they tried to live as exemplary a life as they could.  With this ideological condition of being sinless, those who did transgress kept their sins a secret.

Now, when the Reverend Hooper dons the black veil, the congregation begin to doubt his sinlessness and become uncomfortable around him for this reason and for the probability that he may recognize sin in themselves.Thus, the veil becomes "the symbol of a fearful secret between him and them."  But, the veil "enabled him to sympathize with all dark affections."  The dying call for him as a brother before whom they can confess their hidden transgressions; he is "ever summoned to their aid in mortal anguish."

Ironically, the Puritan minister comes to be called Father Hooper; for, much like the Catholic priest, he is summoned to hear one's confession before he dies.

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What are some examples of ambiguity in "The Minister's Black Veil"?

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 he lies dying.

When Parson Hooper mysteriously appears with a black veil upon his face as he walks toward the meetinghouse, members of his congregation are startled by his appearance. At first, some of the people are not sure that they have really seen their minister; others feel that he has "changed himself into something awful" in the act of hiding much of his face. Goodman Gray cries out, "Our parson has gone mad!" Certainly, there is a general "perturbation" when the minister enters the meetinghouse. For a black veil itself has an ambiguity: it can be worn to signify the mourning of an individual, or it can be donned to hide one's shame. 

Because of this ambiguity of the meaning of a black veil, as well as the ambiguity surrounding Parson Hooper's motivation for wearing it, the congregation becomes uncomfortable. They wonder if the minister is guilty of a particular sin that weighs upon his soul, or if he has a desire to suggest that he is aware of their sins and the inherent sinfulness of humanity. Perhaps, too, his face has been disfigured in some way, and he feels the need to hide it.

There is no question that Reverend Mr. Hooper's wearing of the veil influences the thoughts and feelings of his congregation. Furthermore, the influence of the black veil falls upon the Reverend Mr. Hooper himself as his sermon becomes 

...tinged more darkly...with the gentle gloom of Mr. Hooper's temperament....The subject had reference to secret sin and those sad mysteries that we hide from our nearest and dearest...even forgetting that the Omniscient can detect them.

With the added appearance of "a subtle power that was breathed into his words," by the black veil, Mr. Hooper's sermon has a powerful impact on his congregation. The people secretly wonder if he has been able to discover their own "hoarded iniquity of deed or thought." Also, because they cannot see his facial expression, it is difficult for the members of the congregation to determine Mr. Hooper's intentions with "the symbol of a fearful secret between him and them." 

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How is the veil described in "The Minister's Black Veil" by Hawthorne?

The veil is described as,"Swathed about his forehead, and hanging down over his face, so low as to be shaken by his breath. . . On a nearer view it seemed to consist of two folds of crape, which entirely concealed his features except the mouth and chin, but probably did not intercept his sight, further than to give a darkened aspect to all living and inanimate things."  It is also described as a "gloomy shade." One parishioner says that, "He has changed himself into something awful, only by hiding his face."

The veil becomes a symbol for the guilt and sin that Reverend Hooper wants to hide from his congregation.  He can't face the sin he committed with a young woman and hides under a mask lest other's detect something in his eyes.  The veil becomes a much talked about phenomena in the town.  It scares children and creates distance between the Reverend and his congregation.  The Reverend dies and is buried with the veil on after he declares that the veil is a representative of the sins man hides from each other and God.

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What metaphors are in "The Minister's Black Veil" by Hawthorne?

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 from similes in that they assert a direct comparison without the words "like" or "as," that are always a characteristic of similes. Examining this great story then, we see that metaphors are uses to describe the veil that Mr. Hooper dons and its effect on those who see him. Note how Mr. Hooper himself, when he is having his interview with his fiancée, describes the veil as a "dismal shade," comparing what is just a simple layer of crepe to something more menacing and threatening. Note how this is repeated again in the text:

On a nearer view, it seemed to consist of two folds of crepe, which entirely concealed his features, except the mouth and chin, but probably did not intercept his sight, farther than to give a darkened aspect to all living and inanimate things. With this gloomy shade before him, good Mr. hooper walked onward...

Here, again, the veil is compared to a "gloomy shade," which, in spite of the way that the veil is described, gives it a greater, more sinister significance than the actual simplicity of the veil suggests.

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What is the ambiguity of the black veil in "The Minister's Black Veil"?

The ambiguity of the black veil is that its meaning is unclear to virtually everyone in Mr. Hooper's village.  His first sermon wearing the veil gives some clues as to its significance: "The subject had reference to secret sin, and those sad mysteries which we hide from our nearest and dearest, and would fain conceal from our own consciousness, even forgetting that the Omniscient can detect them."  Each member of his congregation begins to feel as though the minister had "discovered their hoarded iniquity of deed or thought."  The veil, then, appears to signify the idea that each of us has secret sins, although we pretend, to all the world and even ourselves, to be sinless.  Each of us, then, wears a figurative veil which we use to hide our true, sinful natures from everyone else; Mr. Hooper's veil is symbolic of this state.  However, his congregation cannot fully realize this because, to do so, they would have to admit openly that they are secretly sinful, and this is the thing we most wish to hide.  Although they all feel the same way, nobody knows it because nobody says it.  They remain in doubt as to the precise meaning of the veil, even sending a delegation from the church to ask about it (although even those folks cannot bring themselves to just come right out and ask).  Therefore, the veil's meaning remains in doubt until Mr. Hooper dies.  His final words are the most explicit clue to the veil's meaning, but because the story ends with his words, we cannot know if his auditors understood.

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What is a positive aspect of wearing a veil in "The Minister's Black Veil"?

There are several benefits to wearing a veil, some of which apply in this case and some of which do not.

In several cultures, a veil is used to signify and symbolize innocence and purity. You can see this in the tradition of the bridal veil, and in the Islamic tradition of women wearing veils. Since the minister in this story is Christian, that would definitely apply.

In the cultures practicing this kind of veil use, the innocence is also related to a kind of privacy. To put it bluntly, if you are wearing a veil, no one can see your face or features, or tell your expressions. That definitely applies here.

Veils and other ceremonial clothing works to isolate the wearer from the rest of society: they mark the wearer as other, special, or distant from the rest of life. That too would apply here.

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How is the veil described in Hawthorne's "The Minister's Black Veil," besides its color?

Nathaniel Hawthorne's "The Minister's Black Veil" illustrates many different themes illuminated in the text through the use of the veil worn by Reverend Hooper. The veil represents sin, guilt, doubt, ambiguity, alienation and loneliness. That said, while the veil is representative of many things (which the reader and some congregation members come to understand by the end of the text), the veil's physical appearance is directly described.

The veil is black, as denoted by the title and text alike. It is made of "two folds" of crepe (or "crape" as it appears in the text). Crepe is a thin fabric, usually made of a lightweight material, like silk. It has a wrinkled texture. The veil is not large enough to cover the minister's entire face; instead, it only covers everything except his chin and mouth.

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