Ambiguity In The Minister's Black Veil

The Minister’s Black Veil and Superstition Nathaniel Hawthorne, author of The Minister’s Black Veil, uses the setting and dialog of his story to help maximize the intrigue and mysteriousness behind the main character, Reverend Hooper’s actions. Set in the 1600’s in a Puritan New England village, Hawthorne infuses the culture and mindset of the time into his story. He truly embraces all aspects of the puritan religion into his story. He uses the extremism of Puritan religion and beliefs to help further the ambiguity of the Reverend’s actions and to alienate him from his fellow believers. Hawthorne introduces a gentlemanly bachelor, Reverend Hooper, with an air of mysteriousness and intrigue. On Mr. Hooper is a black veil covering his face from all to see, making his congregation feel uneasy, confused and curious. As he preaches his sermon though, Hooper causes all to feel as if he “Discovered their hoarded iniquity of deed or thought.” As they leave to go home, their uneasiness is only enhanced as they are, “Conscious of lighter spirits the moment they lost sight of the black veil.” This only further increases the ambiguity and mysteriousness of the Reverend’s black veil. Later that day the church bell tolled for a funeral of a young maiden and once Reverend Hooper’s black veiled face makes an …show more content…
No one dared to ask about the black veil, due to the uneasiness all felt around it. Not even deputies sent by the church to acquire of it could ask of his black veil as they did, “returned abashed to their constituents, pronouncing the matter too weighty to be handled.” Only one person dared to ask of the veil, the Reverend’s fiancé. When she inquired of it, the Reverend’s answer only further confuses and makes vague the reason for the black veil, “There is an hour to come,”, “when all of us shall cast aside our