In the short story "The Minister's Black Veil," the minister of the small town uses a black veil to symbolize the little sins in our lives. He explains how over time the little things we do that we dont feel are a big deal at the time do become a big deal. After a while these sins become a habbit and then get cluttered up in our lives seperating us from God and the spiritual cleanliness that we want. The minister's goal was to have the image of the veil etched into the peoples brains so even after he died, the image of what you look like to others is stuck in their head. What Mr. Hooper wanted to get across, but the people didn't understand at first, was that this is how we all look to each other especially God. If we arent careful we can have a black veil over our own lives and look differently to others. It was almost as if the minister did not want to wear the veil because it caused depression in his life. If people were running from him because his veil was saddening and made them remember their sins and imperfections in their lives, I am pretty sure the person wearing the veil would get depressed too. It says in the short story that when Mr. Hooper looked into the mirror he realized that he didnt want this stuff in his life, but he couldn't stop because he was trying to teach a lesson to his village.
The pastors goals were to get the people of the village to realize that they need to stop sinning and covering it up so no one notices. "'If I hide my face for sorrow, there is cause enough,' he merely replied; 'and if I cover it for secret sin, what mortal might not do the same?' (Thoreau)"What they dont realize is that God sees everything no matter how secretive it is to you so whenever you sin, to God, it would be as if you are wearing a black veil over your head. He does forgive us of our sins though, so if we were to repent and ask for forgiveness He would gladly forgive us.
The color of the veil is another big aspect in this stories analyzing. The writer had the choice to make the veil any color, but he chose black for the emotional impact it has on a human. It is in our nature that when we see the color black 90% of us immediately think of darkness, gloom, sadness, sins, imperfections, etc., which is exactly what the author was getting at for this story. It was made very clear that the pastor wore a black veil ever since the title of the story was written. The author wanted the emotional impact along with the stories impact to grab the reader. Through the theme of the story the feeling of sorrow towards the man was gained as the feeling of happiness faded away. This is one of the reasons I personally dont like Dark Romanicism's and am ready to start a new topic, although I can say I did learn a lot during this unit.
Hawthorne,, Nathaniel. "The Minister's Black Veil, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, 1836." Eldritch Press. Web. 20 Jan. 2012.
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