Romanticism In The Black Veil

The American Romanticism characteristics that are represented in this story are exaggerated because of his black veil and intuition over fact. He lost his lovely fiance Elizabeth because he denied to show his face. Elizabeth due to this, called off the wedding. "Come ... . lay aside your black veil," Elizabeth says with a smile, evidently assuming that he will remove it in private and grant her privileged access to his mental world, ratifying their special closeness (45). Quickly he lets her know that "even" she will not be permitted to join him "behind it" (46). Like everyone else in their village, she is to be denied nonverbal clues to his inner being. Like them, she will experience a reduced ability to apprehend his immediate emotional state, to …show more content…
Since it is uncomfortable to live with the knowledge of universal duplicity and distrust consciously in mind, most individuals manage to suppress or ignore it as they go about their daily affairs. Some part of the normally oblivious self yearns, nevertheless, to cast off daily hypocrisies and denials. It is psychologically liberating to acknowledge the unsettling insights we cannot help but accumulate into universal duplicitousness. (Saunders 429) The three levels in the parable of understanding the symbolism of the black veil is the reason of why he has the black veil and the reason why he doesn’t want to take off the black veil and the reason he’ll lose his life because of his black veil. The black veil symbolizes a deep dark sin and the theme is depressing and confusion. As Kim herself