Nathaniel Hawthorne
, & # 8220 ; The Ministers Black Veil & # 8221 ; Essay, Research Paper
In Nathaniel Hawthorne? s? The Minister? s Black Veil? , the writer chooses to dissemble the character of the curate with the black head covering to build an fable that would compare wickedness concocted by imaginativeness with unrecognised wickedness of one? s ego.
With the narrative being set in the Puritan clip period of the colony of New England, as about all of Hawthorne? s narratives are, the reader can logically deduce a certain set of value opinions. For case, these people, being really sincere about their faith, are likely to see anything out of the ordinary, such as a black-veiled curate, as a serious issue that undermines their religion. On the surface the first sight of the head covering non merely confuses the fold, but scares them every bit good. This adult male is supposed to be their most direct manner of communicating with God, and to see him in what they perceive to be rather a eccentric status, must do them experience that their spiritual lives may be in danger.
Yet another character trait held by this community is its inability to get by with even the slightest spot of alteration. Something every bit fiddling as a adult male covering his face with black crepe paper literally whips this community into a craze. ? I don? Ts like it? ( p.102 ) , cried the old adult female, ? Our curate has gone huffy? ( 102 ) , cried Goodman Gary. Without even the slightest spot of probe into the issue these people have brewed in their imaginativenesss all kinds of theories as to what is so incorrect with the curate.
A 3rd, and perchance most unsafe trait of the community, is its about joyous disposition toward superstitious notion. Whether you would wish to name it Puritan myth or sound fact, this compulsion with witchery and the occult is what made Puritan New England a unsafe topographic point to populate in the seventeenth century. This thought of the supernatural ever seems to happen its manner into a Hawthorne
narrative, and The Minister? s Black Veil is no exclusion. Even the good physician can non assist but advert, ? the black head covering, though it covers merely our curate? s face, throws its influence over his whole individual, and makes him ghostlike from caput to foot. ? ( p.105 ) .
The true fable arises from these beliefs of the community, but does non entirely attest it self until seen from the curate? s point of position. Though he may postulate that the head covering personifies? sorrows dark adequate to be typified by a black veil. ? ( p.109 ) , it is possible to deduce that the head covering is really slightly of an experiment by the curate. On the surface he may explicate its significance by some indefinable consciences he may keep, but underneath it represents a trial of the community. By wearing the black head covering the curate realizes his fright that the people of his community are more haunted with a wickedness they are certain the curate is concealing from, so their ain wickednesss that they live in everyday. Even his fellow adult male of the cloth Reverend Clark believes the curate must hold some? atrocious offense upon his psyche? ( p.113 ) . Not a individual individual realizes the purpose of the curate until his deathbed vocalization that defiles the virtuousness of the community. Proof positive of this realisation of their mistake is the fact that while the curate was alive these people couldn? t delay to take the black head covering, but one time he is dead, unable to halt them from uncloaking him, the head covering follows him to his grave. Possibly it is reverence toward the painful truth revealed by the curate that keeps the head covering on his face, but more likely it is merely left on in the haste to bury the adult male who brought to visible radiation such a less than virtuous defect.
Like so many of Hawthorne? s narratives, the Minister? s Black Veil personifies the fallible nature of a people so dedicated to populating a life free of wickedness, when in fact they are merely disregarding the frailties that rest under their ain pillows.
