Student Question
What is an allegory? Is "The Minister's Black Veil" an allegory?
Quick answer:
An allegory is a narrative where characters and events symbolize real-world concepts, often conveying moral themes. "The Minister's Black Veil" can be interpreted as an allegory, with Mr. Hooper representing all Christians, highlighting humanity's secret sinfulness. The veil symbolizes the hidden sins everyone carries, and the story critiques societal hypocrisy. Though complex like a parable, it leaves readers pondering its symbolism, teaching about human nature and sin in a fallen world.
An allegory is a text in which the characters, events, and so forth all symbolize something in the real world, and its purpose is to convey some moral or theme. It often makes something that is intangible tangible, and thus somewhat easier to understand.
We can read this story as an allegory in which the minister represents a sort of "every man" Christian character. He is faithful, and pious, and he tries to do the right thing by wearing the veil, a symbol of humankind's secret sinfulness. His congregation, then, might represent Christendom; if so, this is not a particularly positive depiction. They are hypocrites: they hear Mr. Hooper's sermon and understand its truthfulness, but they care more about maintaining the appearance of sinlessness than they do about actually striving to be sinless. In fact, they lie each time they present themselves as without sin, committing a sin anew.
Mr....
Unlock
This Answer NowStart your 48-hour free trial and get ahead in class. Boost your grades with access to expert answers and top-tier study guides. Thousands of students are already mastering their assignments—don't miss out. Cancel anytime.
Already a member? Log in here.
Hooper's intended, Elizabeth, can then be read as representative of the idea that even love cannot overcome the dread of being truly known as a sinner. Once Elizabeth realizes what the veil symbolizes, "its terrors fell around her," and she cannot, ultimately, bear the horror of admitting her fiance's sinfulness as well as her own. We often think of love as one of, if not the, strongest impulses of our being, but in this story, Hawthorne reveals our desire to delude both ourselves and others into believing that we are as sinless as we might appear is actually far stronger.
What is a parable? How is "The Minister's Black Veil" a parable?
A parable is defined as a simple story that is used to demonstrate a moral truth or teaching, as defined by the parables that Jesus told in the Gospels. Arguably, it could be stated that this story is rather more complex than a parable, because of its length and also the difficulties in defining with any certainty the meaning of the symbol of the black veil itself, but it is clear that this is a short story that is meant to be didactic, and it is also to be remembered that Jesus famously did not explain all of his parables to his audience, leaving them to wonder about their meaning, in the same way that Hawthorne leaves the reader facing a certain amount of ambiguity as they try to work out the meaning of the symbol of the black veil. The strongest hint that the reader is given about the meaning of this symbol is shown in the final words that Father Hooper utters on his death bed, when others attempt to persuade him to remove his black veil:
When the friend shows his inmost heart to his friend; the lover to his best beloved; when man does not vainly shrink from the eye of his Creator, loathsomely treasuring up the secret of his sin; then 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!
This suggests very strongly that what the black veil stood for was the secret sin that lies at the heart of every man and woman, part of the inescapable condition of being human and living in a fallen world that is defined by the sin of Adam and Eve. Hooper suggests that his veil is only an outward, physical symbol of the black veils that all of us wear because of our inability to see or our reluctance to reveal our own sin. He states that when true communication occurs between us and others, then his veil will not be needed. However, because our own individual sin acts as something of a barrier preventing true communication, he sees a black veil on everybody's face, not just his own. This story is therefore like a parable because it teaches us certain truths about the human condition and the meaning of what it is to be human and live in a fallen world.