One Sunday morning in a church in the small in New England. Everyone was heading to church to attend the holy mass. As they were going the parishioners were shocked to see the Reverend Mr. Hooper wearing a dark veil that only showed his mouth. As everyone stares at the minister, he gives no explanation for this unusual mask. The churchgoers begins to speculate that he has gone mad; while others claim it is not the Reverend at all. Mr. Hooper does notice they way the parishioners are looking at him as he conducts the mass as usual. To the audience, however, the veil clearly intensifies the minister's speech on the subject of secret sin. Afterward the congregation resumes their speculation on why Mr. Hooper has donned this veil. Some explain
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When Hooper walks to the pulpit, all eyes fixate on the black veil. His sermon topic concerns the secret sins that people hide from their closest associations, even from their own consciousness, forgetting that God is omniscient. The melancholy black veil makes his sermon seem more powerful, much more so than his normally mild, calm preaching style.
Mr. Hooper is a romantic character because he is a very exaggerated character in the story “The Minister’s Black Veil”. He makes a huge deal out of the veil. Mr. Hooper never let’s anyone see what’s under the veil not even his fiancé Elizabeth because he believes that it is a symbol of great sin.
When Elizabeth begs him at least to remove the veil of mystery from his words, he says to her: "Know, then, this veil is a type and a symbol, and I am bound to wear it ever, both in light and darkness, in solitude and before the gaze of multitudes, and as with strangers, so with my familiar friends" (17). When Elizabeth asks him what affliction causes him to wear the veil, he replies: "If it be a sign of mourning … I, perhaps, like most other mortals, have sorrows dark enough to be typified by a black veil" (18). And when she suggests that members of the community may interpret the veil as a symbol of great sin, he replies: "If I hide my face for sorrow, there is cause enough … and if I cover it for secret sin, what mortal might not do the same?" (18).
When Hooper walks to the pulpit, all eyes fixate on the black veil. His sermon topic concerns the secret sins that people hide from their closest associations, even from their own consciousness, forgetting that God is omniscient. The melancholy black veil makes his sermon seem more powerful, much more so than his normally mild, calm preaching style.
Mr. Hooper is a romantic character because he is a very exaggerated character in the story “The Minister’s Black Veil”. He makes a huge deal out of the veil. Mr. Hooper never let’s anyone see what’s under the veil not even his fiancé Elizabeth because he believes that it is a symbol of great sin.
When Elizabeth begs him at least to remove the veil of mystery from his words, he says to her: "Know, then, this veil is a type and a symbol, and I am bound to wear it ever, both in light and darkness, in solitude and before the gaze of multitudes, and as with strangers, so with my familiar friends" (17). When Elizabeth asks him what affliction causes him to wear the veil, he replies: "If it be a sign of mourning … I, perhaps, like most other mortals, have sorrows dark enough to be typified by a black veil" (18). And when she suggests that members of the community may interpret the veil as a symbol of great sin, he replies: "If I hide my face for sorrow, there is cause enough … and if I cover it for secret sin, what mortal might not do the same?" (18).