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The Minister's Black Veil

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The Minister's Black Veil
The Minister’s Black Veil:”The Meaning of The Mysterious Black Veil” The minister’s black veil is revealed in Mr. Hooper's remarks to Elizabeth when she wonders why he had chosen to wear that mysterious black veil.Mr. Hooper was the pastor who gives a sermon on the subject of sins which, when he is giving the sermon he wears the black veil, which makes people wonder why he wears that. No one dares to ask him why he wears it , the only person who had the courage to ask was his fiance Elizabeth. He is asked to remove it but he refuses to do so. It was so strange how everywhere he went he always had that mysterious black veil.
”Not only does he invert the essence of Paul’s epistle, but he also introduces various symbolic actions which enhance …show more content…
As does Hawthorne, Paul assumes that the closeness of the laity to God resides in the nature of the relationship between the people and the minister(pg.387). Others may believe that the veil was acting as a mirror, which made all of the people aware of their own sins. The more the people recognized their own sin, the more uncomfortable they were, and while being around the minister and seeing him with his veil everywhere feared them more even during joyful situations. Also it has been said that the minister had committed a grave offense, like adultery with the funeral of the girl he attended. And supposedly it has been said that this is why he couldn’t tell Elizabeth what his crime had been.
“The effect of the veil is so powerful, and the motives of its wearer so dismaying, that readers frequently come to share the discomfort it provokes in the story's secondary characters: disabling socially important communicative mechanisms, the veil fosters confusion and antagonism” (pg.420). I believe that maybe since people are so judgemental, they focused more on how he looked. It made it even worse that he was a pastor, and pastors of course are allowed to sin because everyone does. But maybe since it was the fact that he was a pastor people are surprised that he may be hiding a terrible
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