The Ministers Black veil

The Ministers Black Veil was a story written by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Nathaniel Hawthorne was an American author who lived during the Romanticism period. Most of Hawthorne's stories, like The Minister's black Veil, are in the Dark romanticism subcategory of Romanticism. Dark Romanticism is a retaliation against the picture of perfection that Romanticism tries to portray. Dark romanticism does its absolute best to focus on all things bad about humans. Often in Dark Romanticism books the main character has large character flaws that are detrimental to himself in some way or the story serves to display an inherent human flaw.

The Minister's Black Veil had quite a few Dark Romanticism characteristics. Several of them being; a scary undertone, something frightening and strange, a man with large character flaws, and lastly a human sin that was exposed. To start the story off people are happy and ready for church until the minister shows up wearing a black veil. Everyone is frightened and afraid of what it means. That day the minister talks about how we all have hidden sins but it doesn't matter because no matter how well we hide them God can still see our sins. Many people in the crowd begin to feel uncomfortable about this sermon, feeling as if they are speaking directly to him. "Each member of the congregation, the innocent girl and the man or hardened breast felt as if the preacher had crept upon them..." (Hawthorne) The preacher by himself is a man with many character flaws. Something we don't normally see in romanticism. The minister ruins a wedding later in the story by showing up in his black veil. The mood becomes very sour. As the story progresses I at least began to feel the veil was concealing more than just his face but it was his own personal shield against his own doubts. In the very end the climax of the story happens as it is ending. While on his death bed the minister, who is still wearing the veil, becomes angry not for his own death but angry at the towns people who are feeling bad for him. " Have men avoided me and women showed no pity and children screamed and fled, only for my black veil?" (Hawthorne) This is the ending of the story and the part where the reader is supposed to begin thinking about it. Dark romanticism often talks of human flaws. The minister was referring tot he fact that everyone of the towns people avoided and pitied him for the simple veil he wore. Nto for him as a person or as a minister but simply for the veil. This was what the story was trying to get across. The idea that people can be so simple minded at times with prejudices against the unknow. Even something as small and insignificant as a piece of cloth. This story was really cool and ahd a nice ending. I thought it was alll presented nice and cleanly and it also had a pretty cool message in the end.

Hawthorne, Nathaniel. "The Minister's Black Veil." Glencoe Literature. 283-93. Web. 30 Nov. 2010.