Thesis Statement: Throughout Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story, The Minister’s Black Veil, many of the characters referenced try to assign a reason behind Mr. Hooper’s decision to begin wearing a black veil thoroughly covering his face throughout the remainder of his life. Although various attempts at his motivation are given, none of the characters discover the true reason for his decision much to Father Hooper’s dismay and disappointment. Question: Do any of the characters in this short story understand the true reason that Mr. Hooper decides to begin wearing a black veil over his face, even at the very end of his life when the now referenced Father Hooper is on his death bed? This question to me is the most important element of this short…show more content… The sexton, in front of the gathering of Sabbath worshippers questions the situation. “But what has good Parson Hooper got upon his face?” (8) Another asks “Are you sure it is our parson?”(12).
Reverend Hooper is “dressed with due clerical neatness”; however, “swathed about his forehead, and hanging down over his face, so low as to be shaken by his breath, Mr. Hooper had on a black veil. On a nearer view it seemed to consist of two folds of crape, which entirely concealed his features, expect the mouth and chin”(18-21). The immediate sentiment from other characters is very negative. Beginning with someone muttering that she doesn’t like it, to another alleging that he’s changing “himself into something awful”(28), and Goodman Gray remarking that “Our parson has gone mad!” (29). Mental instability is referenced on more than one occasion, as the physician of the village proclaims “Something is surely amiss with Mr. Hooper’s intellects”(86). Mr. Hooper does not display any other difficulties that would lead the reader to believe that he begins wearing the veil due to insanity. However, the loneliness and exclusion he is forced to endure because of the veil leads to hints of
