The Puritan's Burden
Unconfessed sin and guilt can fester in the body and soul. In the setting of Puritansociety, the themes of sin and guilt present themselves in the novel The Scarlet Letter and in the short story “The Minister’s Black Veil.” In these two literary works, Nathaniel Hawthorne and a few critics express similar and different perspectives of the depiction of sin and guilt. In “The Minister’s Black Veil,” Reverend Hooper realizes that all men are secret sinners; they hide their guilt and sorrow away from even their closest relations. Mr. Hooper acknowledges that he, too, belongs to the stained tribe by donning a black veil. Symbolic of this buried shame, he wears the veil at all times. Proving this point, Hooper’s congregation, upon first sight of the veil, “felt as if the preacher had crept upon them, behind his awful veil, and discovered their hoarded iniquity of deed or thought” (Hawthorne, “Minister” 267). Wearing the veil precipitates a dramatic change in the Reverend’s relationship with his congregation. His parishioners “no longer accept him as they did before the advent of the veil. The veil which so distinguishes him from his fellow villagers strikes fear in the hearts of all and causes them to
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Approximate Word count = 802
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)
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