In bewilderment, they see the minister’s face covered with the black veil which creates commotion among them. There are speculations about the origin of the veil, nevertheless nobody dares to ask. Mr Hooper’s sermon is on secret sin, as the Puritans were obsessed with this theme. The veil induces in minister such emotions that the sermon is the greatest ever and causes in parishioners anxiety and at the same time disgust as it reminds and makes them aware of their own sins. The scene might be compared with that in the novel Scarlet Letter, where reverend Dimmesdale, suffering guilty conscience delivers the speech which makes all the people astonished.
There he meets a strange man with a staff that resembles a serpent. Goodman Brown expresses his doubts about his mission and the man, who seems to be a devil figure, accompanies him while trying to persuade him to carry through his mission. The fact that he hears and sees various supposedly upright figures of the community, including men of the cloth and his own catechism teacher, persuades him that his disillusionment with the Puritan faith is justified. However, he is truly shocked to see his own wife at the meeting. At the moment of baptism he calls her to look up to heaven and resist, at which point everyone disappears and he finds himself alone in the forest.
Mr. Hooper would not let anybody lift the veil from his face even after death. A black veil can be used to teach people lessons, show sorrow, and influence the public. The main idea in The Minister’s Black Veil was that the minister was teaching all of the townspeople a lesson by wearing his black veil. While the minister was on his deathbed he deliberately told the current minister his reasoning behind the black veil. Mr. Hooper explained that everybody has secret sins.
Wiesel starts to blame God for the misdoing he has posed on him especially since he was a devout worshiper. This soon turns into Elie completely rejecting God and doubting his entire existence. For most of us, at first glance, this seems extremely harsh and irrational but I too would feel this way. Wiesel put his heart and soul into the loving of God and he felt as if he was betrayed. “Never shall I forget those moments which murdered my God and my soul and turned my dreams to dust.” In the book, many literary terms are used to depict the silence portrayed through many characters.
Hooper’s congregational responds to his black veil with distress and confusion. The veil instills an irrational fear into the congregation’s once rational mindset and perception of Mr. Hooper. We learn that “there was a feeling of dread, neither plainly confessed, nor carefully concealed,” spread among the congregation as a whole (26). The veil becomes a mysterious symbol for Mr. Hooper’s church members; it is abnormal and unnatural in their eyes, just as the birthmark is to Aylmer. Although Hawthorne is again somewhat ambiguous, the text suggests that Mr. Hooper’s veil is meant to symbolize the inherent sin that lies inside him (as well as the congregation).
The people of the town cannot hide their shock and many of them are immediately frightened. One old woman says, “He has changed himself into something awful, only by hiding his face” (1253) and others generally agree that the Reverend has taken on quite a disturbing appearance, even though his polite and gracious behavior is the same as it was before donning the veil. The Reverend’s preaching style, much like his appearance before taking up the veil, is quite unremarkable. The narrator of The Minister's Black Veil by Nathaniel Hawthorne says, “he had the reputation of a good preacher, but not an energetic one: he strove to win his people heavenward by mild persuasive influence rather than to drive them thither” (1254) but the addition of the veil has made his preaching far more interesting. His listeners pay him rapt attention and feel as though the veil lends a sanctity and foreboding that his normal appearance did not invoke.
You can see the guilt pouring out of Terry. The power of the priests speech push’s him to tell Edie the truth about Joey; she runs away and doesn’t want to talk to him,
He immediately assumes that the plague has come to punish the sinners of Oran. He says “you” instead of “we” in his first sermon, signifying that the plague is the sinners problem not his own. He preaches that everyone will suffer and he actually frightens people instead of comforting them. He is basically telling the people to become self reliant because no one is going to be there to help. After his first sermon Rambert was so disturbed by the priest’s words that he tried to escape the town.
Christina Brown Elizabeth Rollins Writing 102 5 September 2012 Literary Analysis of “The Minister’s Black Veil” “The Minister’s Black Veil” is a story about sin and secrets. The Reverend Hooper is either mourning the death of someone or hiding a dark secret. When Mr. Hooper begins to wear the black veil he alienates himself from the congregation of his church and all those that know him. This causes tension, grief and gossip amongst the town “At the close of the services, the people hurried out with indecorous confusion, eager to communicate their pent-up amazement…some gathered in little circles, huddled closely together, with their mouths all whispering…some went homeward alone, wrapt in silent mediation; some talked loudly and profaned the Sabbath day with ostentatious laughter” (Hawthorne 29). The Reverend Hooper is condemned to a life of depression and alienation because of the veil and is secrecy as to why he is wearing it.
He does not know what he should do or say. Jealous of the former relationship between his wife and Robert, he is suspicious. He knows that his wife has told Robert about him and has probably complained about his faults. This makes him feel guilty and insecure. He later says how "I was not enthusiastic about his visit.... A blind man in my house was not something I looked forward to” (100).