Comparing Minister's Black Veil By Nathaniel Hawthorne And Herman Melville

Edgar Allan Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne and Herman Melville are all authors of the 19th Century that demonstrate their interest about man’s quest for knowledge. Each of these authors has written and exposed man’s quest for knowledge through their darkest desires. Proving that searching for knowledge can lead one to their own downfall or failure in their quest. They believed that human actions could be self-destructive. As a result of this, they have conceived the world that is of their own device that lingers in the darkness, mysteries, and inscrutable nature of humanity. Hawthorne, Poe, and Melville attempt to infiltrate the dark world to reveal the true essence of the universe and man 's place in the universal scheme of things. In their search …show more content…
Light and darkness can be viewed as, a symbolic representation of physical light and, truth, which is often veiled and impenetrable these two symbols throughout the story can also be viewed as interchangeable with each other. In The Minister 's Black Veil, Hawthorne makes it apparent that we all as humans wearing masks or veils. The only difference is that the minister 's veil is quite literal and attests to his guilt while ours are masked. The black veil was worn by Mr. Hooper, the minister, is symbolic representation of the sinful nature of humanity, and is represented in the reactions of the town’s people rather in the minister. Hooper 's black veil is used as a source of knowledge rather than to blind him of the knowledge of human sinfulness, it is instead reveals the truth of his town. Hawthorne uses the black veil here as a symbol of darkness, which is supposed to hide or veil human corruptive tendencies the veil can also serve as a source of light and knowledge to Mr. Hooper the minister. The black veil is physical and literal representation, not of the minister 's sinfulness, but also an evocative of the sinful and guilty townsfolk this is why they were uncomfortable with the minister wearing it. Hawthorne 's, however, is not as concern is less with the minister as with the people who are in the town, through the veil, to a moral assessment of …show more content…
To Hawthorne, the world one can hide one’s evil natures while darkness becomes the key to the revealing the true hidden nature of sins. Through Poe’s writing structure one can get the sense of impossibility and a feeling of an unresolved ending leaving one to question what they their “knowledge”. While Hawthorne provides readers with knowledge that can be dangerous, showing that human knowledge has the potential to free one of their sins while it can also serve as a destructive force rather than constructive one for man. Hooper, like Bartley, discovers the depravity of this as the both in turn becomes withdraw from contact with