Symbolism In The Minister's Black Veil

Words: 530
Pages: 3

Imagine if you were forced to hide your face from the rest of the world for the rest of your life. The minister in the town of Milford does exactly this. He covers his face with a black veil one day to go to a funeral and leaves it on forever. This causes his fiancee to leave and many others to gossip about him behind his back. When it comes to his time of death, his last request is that the veil remains upon his face. In “The Minister’s Black Veil” by Nathaniel Hawthorne the minister shows how we all hide our inner selves from society and how we judge one another on our outer images. The symbols in “The Minister’s Black Veil” undoubtedly help to support the theme of the book. As an old woman sees the minister in his veil for the first time