Mary Elrod
Rockett
English 101- Tuesday/ Thursday
26 July 2015
Behind The Black Veil According to Merriam Webster Dictionary, a veil is worn to cover or hide something else. In this case, Parson Hooper wears a veil to cover his “secret sin.” Being a minister, he is exposed to many sinful situations that are difficult to avoid and he covers his self- conflict with a black veil. Throughout this eye- opening parable, “The Minister’s Black Veil,” by Nathaniel Hawthorne, there are both, positive and negative effects of Mr. Hooper’s black veil. Hawthorn reveals whether or not Mr. Hooper’s black veil is worth wearing by the time he dies at the end of the story. The first time Mr. Hooper wears his black veil, people immediately feel frightened and wonder why their minister “has gone mad” (Hawthorne 9). Mr. Hooper does not mean to scare everyone, he is simply covering his face from the world, in which he says, “If I hide my face for sorrow, there is cause enough and if I cover it for secret sin, what mortal might not do the same?” (Hawthorne 35). Everyone speaks only of bad things about him, “I would not be alone with him for the world. I wonder he is not afraid to alone with himself” (Hawthorne 16). Even his fiancé questions their relationship. No one wants a husband whose face is always covered by a depressing veil. He refuses to remove it and explain to her why he is wearing this veil. Mr. Hooper loves Elizabeth dearly and does not want her to leave him, “Have patience with me, Elizabeth!” (Hawthorne 39), he cries passionately. He watches her leave and he
“smiled to think that only a material emblem has separated him from happiness” (Hawthorne
43). Why is Mr. Hooper choosing to face all these negative actions from all his closest friends? “Thus, from beneath the black veil, there rolled a cloud into the sunshine, an ambiguity of sin or sorrow, which enveloped the poor minister, so that love or sympathy could never reach him”
(Hawthorne 44). Though Mr. Hooper faces many trials throughout his life, there is hope for him. Even though most are terrified of the Minister’s melancholy sermons at the beginning, they began to see the true meaning behind his veil. “The black veil has on 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” (Hawthorne 45). Sinners cry for Mr. Hooper’s guidance and his congregations rapidly began to grow in size, all to see the work and feel the impact the Minister projects on their broken hearts by his sermons. As his sermons become even more powerful, “he acquired a name through the New- England churches, and they called him Father Hooper” (Hawthorne 46). In contrast, Father Hooper gains many positive effects throughout his life in ministry. After all he accomplishes, is wearing the black veil worth it to him? He believes so, he impacts so many lives and even though he loses Elizabeth, he gets right with God. As the years fly by, Mr. Hooper becomes ill and knows his time is coming to an end. He feels he has achieved many things such as bringing more sinners to Christ, “Mr. Hooper had the reputation of a good preacher, but not an energetic one: he strove to win his people heavenward, by mild persuasive influences, rather than to drive them thither, by the thunders on the World” (Hawthorne 12); most importantly, he influences everyone who looks down on him that he is no different than them. In fact, he persuades them to understand the true meaning of the veil and to realize their own sin. “Why do you tremble at me alone? Tremble also at each other! Have men avoided me, and women shown no pity, and children screamed and fled, only for my black veil? What, but the mystery which it obscurely typifies, has made this piece of crape so awful? 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!” (Hawthorne 58). People may not “like it” (Hawthorne 8), but that only motivates Mr. Hooper to keep going and to continue wearing his veil as a symbol of his sin. Though Mr. Hooper loses his future wife, scares everyone in town, and lives the rest of his pitiful life alone, he lives out his purpose to show others their own sinful ways though his black veil. “While his auditors shrank from one another, in mutual affright, Father Hooper fell back upon his pillow, a veiled corpse, with a faint smile lingering on the lips. Still veiled, they laid him in his coffin, and a veiled corpse they bore him to the grave. The grass of many years has sprung up and withered on that grave, the burial- stone is moss- grown, and good Mr.
Hooper’s face is dust; but awful is still the thought, that it moldered beneath the Black Veil” (Hawthorne 59). As Mr. Hooper dies, he believes his work has been fulfilled by wearing his black veil. In conclusion, he may have lived a painful life of sin and sorrow, but at least he reached several sinners who changed their ways. Some may disagree with the fact that wearing the veil was worth it to Mr. Hooper due to the fact that his face turns to dust in his coffin, but the Minister dedicated his life to the veil and to him, it was definitely worth the rejection and disgust; he did what he believed is right and was surprisingly, happier because of it. He could have taken the veil off before he died, but then what kind of story would this be if he did not believe the veil protected his face from mortal sin? Hawthorne leaves the end up to the reader, so that each individual is left to imagine the goodness or evil the black veil had upon Mr.
Hooper.

Works Cited
Hawthorne, Nathaniel. “The Minister’s Black Veil.” The Bedford Introduction to Literature. Ed.
Michael Meyer. Tenth Edition. Boston: Bedfore/ St. Martin’s. 2013. 389-398. Print.
Merriam-Webster. Merriam- Webster, n.d. Web. 26 July 2015. http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/veil.