The Minister's Black Veil

Chelsey Wilkins

The Minister’s Black Veil

Like many of his other short stories, Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote the short story during the era of Puritanism in a small village, Milford. Once again, the short story takes the theme of secret sin. “The Black Veil” was written in a more gothic writing style, which is common in Hawthorne’s works. The story compares the flaws of a man, Mr. Hooper, who is aware of his sins, to those fellow Puritans who’d rather point fingers and criticize others before they accept the sins that are self induced.


The very first thing that stood out to me was the community’s inability to adapt to change. No one cared to ask if it was something wrong with Mr. Hooper’s face they were just quick to pass judgment. Rather than the community coming together to help him, they come together to shun him, and create rumors about him. I believe this says a lot about the characteristics shared within the small town of Puritans which all relates back to the theme of secret sin.

Diction was a rhetoric device that was used to uphold the gothic style writing type. Hawthorne, similar to other short stories, used words to describe ideas he was trying to get across in a kind of negative way. Words such as black veil, corpse, coffin, sad, and sin were used to spread the intended ideas widely. These gothic toned words helped attribute to the theme of secret sin.

Lastly, the story to a certain extent seemed ironic. All the Puritans of the village were just sure that there had to be something wrong with Mr. Hooper, some even started rumors about so call supernatural activity. However, as Mr. Hooper is on his death bed, he offends all the people of the community by unmasking their known personal veils. He emphasizes the idea that instead of him being the weird, extraordinary one, could it be a mental problem of the Puritans and their obsession with jumping to the most negative outcome. All of the Puritans tendency t judge and point out flaws of others led back to the possibility of having a black veil on each of their faces.

To conclude, Mr. Hooper wore his black veil till death. I thought it symbolized the sin that many tried to deny and left secret. The gothic type of diction helped better understand the theme of secret sin. The actual reason for the veil still haunts me, yet I understand how the irony of the black veil and his fellow Puritan’s invisible veil.