The Minister’s Black Veil
An Interpretation of “The Minister’s Black Veil”: The Hunt for the Hidden Moral Message
In The Minister’s Black Veil, the audience is introduced to a clergyman referred to throughout as Mr. Hooper. The pious man one day begins wearing a black crape mask over most of his face. The story sets a foundation of ambiguity by not explaining exactly why the minister dons such an accessory. When asked by his wife why he refuses to remove the black accessory, he answers obscurely that he “perhaps, like most other mortals, have sorrows dark enough to be typified by a black veil” (126). With such an answer he both fails to acknowledge if he had sinned or not and at the same time identifies with the common man in the assumption that he at one point or another has done such a deed. This sets the stage for the cultural fear of sin and consequent ostracism from society that is rooted in Puritan culture.
The Puritans for a long period do not even ask the clergyman why he dons the veil; they simply assume it is evil and that it must be a sign of his wrongdoing. One woman exclaims “he has changed himself into something awful, only by hiding his face” (121). This shows the assumptions the Puritans made without knowing if he had sinned or if he had, the gravity of said sin. The veil also takes on a sort of magical power of its own as it seems to be able to control nature, rouse the dead, and strike fear into the hearts of many (128, 125, 127).
The story concludes with Mr. Hooper on his deathbed. A young reverend, feeling entitled, attempts to remove the veil from Mr. Hooper’s face and have him explain his sin. Mr. Hooper stops him, and with vindication proclaims that every man there is guilty of “loathsomely treasuring up the secret of his sin” (131). He then challenges the crowds hypocrisy by letting them “deem me a monster for the symbol beneath which I have lived, and die!” (131). Through this strong sermon, Mr. Hooper reveals the pent-up sin and false accusations surrounding his veil that the Puritans were guilty of.
I believe that Hawthorne is subtly presenting to the audience the very superstitious and judgmental mentality of many Puritans in this day and age. By not revealing his motives (whether his sin be heinous, minor, or present at all), Mr. Hooper is considered by the Puritans to have done something worthy of the veil. As evidence, we see Mr. Hooper not change a single aspect about himself except his black veil. Therefore, it is this one earthly possession of no direct harm to the Puritans that earns Mr. Hooper such a stigma in his community. The end of the story vindicates the clergyman as he reveals that the true terror of society is that every man conceals his sin from God. While the minister may have bared a scarlet letter of his own, every man deserves his own black veil. The end of the tale also reveals a common theme among Hawthorne’s works of ambiguity. The justification for the black mask is never revealed in this tale, if one even exists. I respect this approach of Hawthorne’s because I believe the ambiguity leaves room for individual interpretation and takes the moral of the story out of a black and white context.
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