What Does The Minister's Black Veil Symbolize

The main symbol in Hawthorne's story, “The Minister’s Black Veil” is obviously the black veil. The main characters in the story are Reverend Hooper, Elizabeth, Reverend Clark, and Goodman Brown. Also along with the characters, there are many townspeople involved in the story. To me as a reader, a black veil to me symbolizes and signifies that Hooper must have done something so bad to want to cover up his face. Hawthorne describes it like this: “Swathed about his forehead, and hanging down over his face, so low as to be shaken by his breath, Mr. Hooper had on a black veil. On a nearer view, it seemed to consist of two folds of crape, which entirely concealed his features, except the mouth and chin, but probably did not intercept his sight, farther …show more content…
The first way that the symbol can be interpreted is by the townspeople. To the townspeople, the black veil signifies that Hooper is trying to apologize for grave sins, meaning for the wrong things he has done. The second way that the symbol can be interpreted is by Hooper. To Hooper, the black veil signifies him wearing it as a symbol of general sinfulness, meaning he is not wearing it for any specific wrongdoings. The third way that the symbol can be interpreted is how the townspeople focus so much on Hooper’s sinfulness, that they could be hiding their own sins and taking attention away from their sins. The fourth way that the symbol could be interpreted is how the thin, piece of crape represented the Puritan society. The townspeople do not even bother to judge Hooper on his behavior or character. Instead, they judge him heavily on his appearance. Even though Hooper has a veil on his face, he still does not change. The only thing that changes about him is that he becomes gloomier. The fifth way that the symbol could be interpreted is how the veil could symbolize his pride. He could be hiding his face from the townspeople to draw more attention to