Reflection: "The Minister's Black Veil"

“The Minister’s Black Veil” is, well, a story about a minister who wore one day started to wear a black veil around his face. A simple little scrap around the pastor’s face caused quite the commotion at first and eventually caused him to be shunned and isolated from the rest of the community. Even against all of the adversity, he kept his veil on into death.

It is very obvious that this is a dark romantic work because it focuses mostly on the psychological aspects of the minister’s actions rather than the logical reasons why he is doing it. In fact, it never definitively states why Mr. Hooper wears the veil in the anywhere in the poem, leaving it up to the reader’s interpretation.

One early example of why this is a dark romantic work is when the narrator says that to Mr. Hooper, the veil gave him “a darkened aspect to all living and inanimate things” (Hawthorne 3). This quote shows a connection between the physical effects of the black veil, and the mental effects. A related quote later states that, during his sermon, the “pale-faced congregation was almost as fearful a sight to the minister, as his black veil to them” (Hawthorne 5). This simple black cloth has scared the minister’s congregation out of their wits; some people even leave during the service. The service is about the secret sins that everybody has and how one tries to even conceal it from themselves (Hawthorne 6).

When the service is over, the people rush out to gossip about the preacher, which to me symbolizes the afore mentioned point that people try to hide their secret sins from even themselves. They had been intently listening during the sermon, but now that they were out, they seem to be trying to push it out of their minds and think of more trivial things; like the minister’s mysterious new costume choice. This exemplifies the fact that people push thoughts of their secret sins to the back of their minds. On the contrary, some people actually did leave the service “wrapt in silent reflection;” so it seems that the message did go through to some people (Hawthorne 7).

One quote by the local physician, “But the strangest part of the affair is the effect of this vagary, even on a sober-minded man like myself. The black veil, though it covers only our pastor's face, throws its influence over his whole person, and makes him ghostlike from head to foot” shows the point that even though it is only a small change, the mental aspects of it are very daunting (Hawthorne 8). I think this is a very central theme to the story; the mental view on something is often more influential than its physical meaning. In other words, “The important issue raised by the veil is not why Hooper donned it so much as to pinpoint its influence on the course of his life” (Wright 2).

At the wedding ceremony in which he presided over, he caught a glimpse of himself in his wine, and he immediately dropped it and ran outside, which also “had on her Black Veil” (Hawthorne 9). This example proves the thoughts earlier by the physician and his wife when the wife says “I wonder he is not afraid to be alone with himself” to which the husband replies “Men are sometimes so” (Hawthorne 7). Whatever is causing the preacher to conceal his face like he is, it must be very important to him given the fact that he
continues even after frightening himself with what he has become.


Wright, Sarah Bird. "'The Minister's Black Veil'." Critical Companion to Nathaniel Hawthorne: A Literary Reference to His Life and Work, Critical Companion. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2006. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc.

Hawthorne,, Nathaniel. "The Minister's Black Veil, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, 1836." Eldritch Press. Web. 30 Jan. 2012.