The Minister's Black Veil

“The Minister’s Black Veil” is in part a commentary on Puritanism. In the early 17th century, the Puritans, a group of English Protestants, broke with the Church of England, which they felt had remained too close to Roman Catholicism. In 1620, a group of separatists, seeking a “purer” Church that adhered only to rituals espoused in the Bible, landed in Massachusetts and established Plymouth Colony. Puritans believed in predestination, which meant that one’s salvation or damnation was predetermined by God and that leading a godly life was an indication of one’s salvation. Puritans also believed that all humans are tainted by Original Sin as a result of the fall of Adam and Eve.

Puritans’ emphasis on appearances is evident from the first scene in the story when the residents of Milford are startled by Parson Hooper’s unexpected wearing of the black veil, which covers all except his mouth and chin. Notably, the townspeople quickly associate the veil with the condition of Mr. Hooper’s mind or soul, as if the veil indicates a personal sin. The sexton’s belief that “good Mr. Hooper’s face” cannot be “behind that piece of crape” suggests a connection between Mr. Hooper’s appearance and his godliness (2). An old woman laments that Mr. Hooper “has changed himself into something awful” (2), and one resident, Goodman Gray, rejects the veil altogether, arguing that the “parson has gone mad” (2).

After Mr. Hooper has taken the pulpit, the people’s wondering whether he is hiding his face “from the dread Being whom he was addressing” illustrates their assumption that the veil is a symbol of Mr. Hooper’s shame (3). The people’s belief that the veil makes Mr. Hooper’s speech “the most powerful effort that they had ever heard from their pastor’s lips” further illustrates the assumption of connection between one’s appearance and one’s soul (3). Though his sermon “was marked by the same characteristics of style and manner as the general series of his pulpit oratory” (3), his changed appearance makes him appear a different preacher.

The people’s unease, which permeates among them despite their newfound awe of his preaching, suggests their fear that whatever sin tarnishes Mr. Hooper’s soul also tarnishes their own. As he preaches against “secret sin,” reminding them of the futility of hiding their sins from their loved ones while “forgetting that the Omniscient can detect them” (3), the people feel “as if the preacher had crept upon them, behind his awful veil, and discovered their hoarded iniquity of deed or thought” (3). However, unlike Mr. Hooper, the people choose to cope with their own sin by denying it. This denial is illustrated by their shunning of Mr. Hooper, whom they now ostracize and fear. For instance, Old Squire Saunders does not invite him to lunch despite the fact that Mr. Hooper dines there every Sunday. As time goes on and he continues to wear the veil, Mr. Hooper is unable to “walk the street with any peace of mind” (9), for people cross the street to avoid him, gossip about him from afar, and spread rumors of his communion with the dead.

Mr. Hooper seems unsurprised by this alienation, which suggests he is already aware of humans’ inability to face their own sins. Predicting that the people will no longer embrace him, Mr. Hooper begs his fiancée, Elizabeth, not to leave him, for he will be “lonely” behind his veil (9); when she does in fact leave him, he responds with a smile, thinking “that only a material emblem had separated him from happiness” (9). Indeed, as he lays dying, he verifies that his prediction was correct, and he calls to “the circle of pale spectators” not to fear him alone (13), for men, women, and children alike shrank from him ever since he first donned the veil. One wonders whether Mr. Hooper spent years performing a test on the people, a test the people failed.

Only one resident of the town, the physician, seem to understand the true meaning of the mask. When his wife asserts that she “would not be alone with him for the world” and that she wonders how “he is not afraid to be alone with himself” (4), the physician replies that “[m]en sometimes are so” (4). Here, the physician acknowledges that the people are afraid of Mr. Hooper’s veiled face because it reminds them of their own guilt: The people see themselves in Mr. Hooper and shun him, thus avoiding acknowledging their own sin as well.

This speculation is confirmed by Mr. Hooper when Reverend Mr. Clark asks him, on his deathbed, “what horrible crime” he has meant to conceal with his veil (13). Rather than answer the question, Mr. Hooper turns the mirror on Mr. Clark and all other residents of Milford, asking why the people “tremble at [him] alone” when in fact “every visage” wears its own symbolic black veil (13). His statement—that the people can “deem [him] a monster” only when they are open with their loved one (13)—chastises them for their cowardice, for they “vainly shrink from the eye” of God rather than reveal “the secret” of their own sin (13). In these final words, Mr. Hooper argues that all people are sinners and that, as opposed to the townspeople, he has merely worn his veil outright as a symbol of the Original Sin that taints us all.

Mr. Hooper’s accusations are not wrong: As they listened to his first sermon after donning the black veil, the people were made uncomfortable by the feeling that he had “crept upon them […] and discovered their hoarded iniquity of deed or thought” (3). The people’s shunning of Mr. Hooper does indeed appear to be hypocritical, as they judge him for sins of which they themselves are guilty. However, critics have argued that Mr. Hooper is guilty of hypocrisy himself. For all his lamenting on the people’s superficiality, he appears to feel a certain complacency in his own moral superiority.

This complacency is evident in his “sad” or “melancholy” smile, mentioned half a dozen times throughout the story. Mr. Hooper often wears this sad smile when dealing with those who do not understand his wearing of the black veil. Notably, he smiles sadly when discussing the veil with Elizabeth, who, far from accepting the change in her fiancé, worries about such earthly concerns as reputation, gossip, and “scandal” (8). Mr. Hooper smiles not only as Elizabeth tells him of the rumors being whispered in town but also after she leaves him, suggesting his suffering will be rewarded with salvation only he will know. Mr. Hooper, whose pleading to Elizabeth has made clear he does not want to be alone, seems pleased with his enduring of suffering for the sake of “eternity.”

The argument that Mr. Hooper’s veil is an indication of his pride is reinforced by the dramatic manner in which it is presented. From early in the story, his wearing of the veil is presented as almost comical in its showmanship. In the scene in which Mr. Hooper performs a wedding ceremony, the contrast between his “rais[ing] a glass of wine to his lips, wishing happiness” and the “dismal” mood cast by the veil suggests Mr. Hooper has taken his message to the point of absurdity (6), a point at which no earthly celebration can be enjoyed. His sacrificing his engagement to Elizabeth further illuminates the extreme to which he has gone to sacrifice earthly joy for salvation in the afterlife.

Mr. Hooper’s complacency is further suggested by the fact that, despite his professions of wanting to help his flock, he elects not to explain to the people the reason for the mask, thus denying them the chance to learn the lesson he might teach. Ironically, the very veil he wears to teach the people about sin results in his smugness and pride. Moreover, his withholding from them the meaning of the veil seems to discredit his condemnation of secrecy in others. In this way, he is no different from the people, who fail to recognize their own sins.

As a result, his sacrifices appear to be in vain. Because Mr. Hooper, in erecting this wall between himself and his flock, has ensured that “love or sympathy could never reach him” (10), his flock never learns the lesson he has been trying to teach. Their refusal to face their own sin is represented in their shunning of him in rejection of the veil, which they prefer to assume is evidence of his sin alone. Later, as Mr. Hooper lays dying, Reverend Clark, concerned for Mr. Hooper’s earthly reputation, implores him not to let a “shadow” cloud “his memory,” a shadow that would “blacken a life so pure” (12); when Mr. Hooper refuses to lift the veil, “the affrighted minister” calls him a “[d]ark old man” (13). After Mr. Hooper’s vehement condemnation of the people’s dishonesty, witnesses, rather than reach an epiphany, shrink “from one another, in mutual affright” (13). That Mr. Hooper is buried without removing his veil suggests a lack of change—that the people learn nothing from Mr. Hooper’s decades-long statement.

The futility of Mr. Hooper’s sacrifices means that he has suffered for nothing—no benefit has resulted from his decades of isolation. In this interpretation, Hawthorne seems to be portraying a dark side of Puritanism by showing how people deny themselves basic human joys, to no point. However, the people’s rejection of Mr. Hooper seems to suggest that Mr. Hooper’s interpretation of Puritan tenets is extreme. Indeed, in the first paragraph of the story, the people are presented as life-loving and happy: children skip about “with bright faces” (1), and unmarried men watch “pretty maidens” from afar. The people’s inclination toward brightness—and their inclination to reject reminders of their sins—suggests that the human spirit cannot be suppressed.

Another interpretation is that Mr. Hooper’s veil reflects Puritans’ doubt over who has been selected for salvation. God’s having predetermined who is destined to be saved means that people cannot truly know who is saved and who is damned and that they have no control over their chances of achieving salvation. In this interpretation, Mr. Hooper’s veil represents his doubt over the fate of his own soul. This message is reinforced by the fact that the veil creates “obscurity” between Mr. Hooper “and the holy page, as he read the Scriptures” (2-3). In other words, the veil represents Mr. Hooper’s separation not only from others but also from God, for he never can be certain what fate God has in store for him. His sad smile is thus not an indication of complacency but rather of acceptance or true sadness, for he knows that, left in doubt himself, he cannot offer the people any answers or comfort. If the veil represents obscurity that prevents him from knowing God’s plan, his being buried in the veil represents how this veil of doubt is never lifted in life.