Nathaniel Hawthorne's "The Minister's Black Veil"

Nathaniel Hawthorne's "The Minister's Black Veil"

In his story, "The Minister's Black Veil", Hawthorne shows an example of how changing one part of a person entirely changes how others view them. This story begins on a normal colonial sabboth worship service. However, much to the dismay of everyone around, the pastor (Mr. Hooper) of the congregation enters the crowd with a black veil over his face. The pastor does all of his normal rutines before the crowd and acts and speaks in exactly the same manner as previously. The only difference between then and now was that now he had a black veil covering his face. As a result the congregation is terrified and begins to wonder why Mr. Hooper would hide his face. They all quickly become nervious and wait to see him remove the veil but he never does such. Even his own wife cannot urge him to take the veil off. After which point everyone has abandoned Mr. Hooper and has left him in his state. Finally at his death, he is asked to take the veil off, at which point he refuses saying that the veil shall never be removed on earth. Angry and curious as to what reason, Mr. Hooper would keep the veil on so long, the pastor who was preparing him for death asked him what Mr. Hooper had done to shame himself that he had to cover his face. Finally as his dying words, Mr. Hooper sat up and said that each person around him had on them a black veil.

Here Hawthorne covers two different ideas. First Hawthorn's "The Minister's Black Veil" is a representation of Poe's idea that "Fear is not of Germany. It is of the mind!" and Emerson's idea of perseption and how we men can only see what our emotions can show us. These idea both come from the same action of the Black Veil. Despite the fact that Mr. Hooper himself did not change at all,besidesthe addition of the black veil. Because of the one element of the black veil, everyone had fear. Everyoe was afraid of what they saw and what it could mean. Here no actual thing is scaring the people but it is the mere action of the people scaring themselves through their own thoughts that leads them to this fear. This fear forces them into the hopes that they might see everything return to normal and that Mr. Hooper might remove his black veil. This never happens but instead, Hooper insists on another idea. Hooper's dying words bring about another interesting thought. Before death Hooper said that he saw upon the faces of everyone around him a black veil. Here Hooper has stated that each person around him hides who they are from each other. The only difference then between Hooper and the people is that Hooper admits that he is hiding something from the world and shows them that there is something hidden. The others around him hide their true selves and instead hide behind an imaginary black veil under which they know that no one can find their true selves. Fear therefore only occurs in this story when the act of hiding seomthing is admitted.

On earth are black veils necessary? Is it possible for one to take his own black veil off or should he continue to hide it forever?