The Minister’s Black Veil

The Minister’s Black Veil

The black veil harms Reverend Hooper as well as other people. The black veil is a symbol of pointing out the basic hypocrisy of all men. The minister is showing by wearing the veil that just as he wears a veil to hide his face, so too do others hide their true selves behind a figurative veil. Hooper is judged because he wears this veil and is ostracized by the community. People begin to start rumors like “our parson has gone mad” and at the end of his sermon they “hurried out with indecorous confusion.” They question him and his intentions but never seem to question themselves. People who used to converse with Hooper now avoid him altogether. Someone who used to invite him over to bless meals “neglected to invite Mr. Hooper to his table” showing the level of neglect this community was giving him. Now when he would do funerals or weddings everyone seemed to just stare at him in horror instead of simply attending the ceremony. Mr. Hooper himself could not stand the sight of veil. When he raised his glass of wine at the the wedding, he caught “a glimpse of his figure in the looking glass” and “split the untasted win upon the carpet- and rushed forth into the darkness.” Mr. Hooper only caught a glimpse of himself and still was in horror as the others in the town had been. He saw the darkness covering his face and realized how frightening it was. Even his fiancee Elizabeth begs him to take off the mask but he still refuses. She can not comprehend why he must go through this much trouble to prove a point. She asks “ What grievous affliction hath befallen you that you should thus darken your eyes forever” trying to reason what has caused his actions. Mr. Hooper simply refuses to take it off and will wear it to his grave. He kept this veil to his deathbed and even when asked to take it off in his final moments he still refused. No one can see past just the black veil and see