Essay On The Minister's Black Veil

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Sin is inside of everyone but only a few show it on the outside. Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote “The Minister’s Black Veil” in 1836 about a minister named Mr. Hooper. The story is a parable because it depicts a moral lesson that everyone, regardless of who they are, sins during their lifetime despite their best efforts to keep them hidden. In the story, Mr. Hooper inexplicably begins wearing a black veil, which frightens some members of his congregation. As a result, he is exiled from the community and partly from himself due to the change of attitude and loss of respect towards him. Reverend Clark from Westbury attempts to remove Mr. Hooper’s veil on his deathbed. Mr. Hooper successfully fought the removal of the veil using his final breaths and his corpse was buried with the mysterious shroud in place. In The Minister’s Black Veil, Nathaniel Hawthorne uses the unconventional veil to show the sacrifice of Mr. Hooper’s …show more content…
In Boone’s criticism he highlights that someone in Hooper’s congregation states, “Guilty of the typical sins of every human, but holier than most” (Boone, par. 7). His criticism suggests that ministers typically live a more wholesome lifestyle and therefore have to deal with less personal sin than the common man. It also raises the question of the severity of Mr. Hooper’s sin given that he is a minister who is not able to find salvation from himself. Later in the story, a church member says, “A darkened aspect to all living and inanimate things” (Hawthorne, pg. 1). This supports the story’s theme because it proves that everything possesses a dark side because of the sin. Early in his life, Hooper was not a dark person but was eventually consumed by the sins that he committed. Even though he was a pastor, he was not immune from sin and felt that by wearing the veil it helped hide the physical appearance and strain of the sins he
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