Reflection: The Minister's Black Veil

In Nathaniel Hawthorne's "The Minister's Black Veil", the Minister Mr. Hooper suddenly appears wearing a black veil. There are plenty of rumors as to why he does this, but no one quite knows. The mask does, however seem to have bad luck on the town. He goes to a wedding to marry a couple, but bad luck starts as he spills some wine and then decides to leave. Hooper's girlfriend was curious as to why he was wearing the mask and asked him about it. He wouldn't really give an answer and she asks him to take it off just for a little bit that way she knows he's sane, but he refuses and she cries and decides to leave him. As the story ends, it talks of Mr. Hooper's death. He wants to die with the mask on because it's a sign of a sin that he wants to cover up. He ends up dying with the mask (Hawthorne). Although, I was kind of confused because there was a note at the end that said that something like this might have actually happened because some guy killed his friend and wore a mask because of that sin that he did, but with Mr. Hooper this wasn't the case. Whatever way, we don't get anymore answers as to what exactly Mr. Hooper did to make him want to wear this mask.
One of the major aspects this has with other writings written in the Dark Romanticism period is mystery ("Gothic Literature"). From start to finish, this was all a big mystery. Why was he wearing that veil? Why were bad things happening as he was wearing this veil? Is he crazy? Did he just hurt his face and not want to show it? Pretty much everything had some mystery around it.
Psychologically, it makes you think about people and how they all react to this situation. So many people just assume that he is crazy because he is wearing something over his face.

"How strange," said a lady, "that a simple black veil, such as any woman might wear on her bonnet, should become such a terrible thing on Mr. Hooper's face!"

this quote really caught my attention. When you think about it, Hooper isn't doing anything wrong. He is acting normal and how he usually acts, but just wearing a mask that even other people might wear. I think people are just curious. I know that I am very curious all the time. People usually want to know why everything is the way it is. It's like when children get to that stage of asking "why" to everything. "why is the sky blue", "why are there commercials", etc. It also shows the judgement some people have. The poor guy is just wearing a veil and now no one wants to talk to him. The children all run away from him and everyone just assumes that he has gone crazy. People are constantly judging, which is just human nature so it isn't necessarily a bad thing, but there is a point to where it can become a little shallow.

"Gothic Literature." Facts on File. Web. 24 Jan. 2012. http://www.fofweb.com/Lit/default.asp.


Hawthorne, Nathaniel. "The Minister's Black Veil." University of Virginia Library. Web. 24 Jan. 2012. http://etext.virginia.edu/etcbin/toccer-new2?id=HawMini.sgm.