The Minister's Black Veil

Mr. Hooper, the parson in the town of Milford, New England, is a “gentlemanly person” of about 30 years of age. Though he is a bachelor, he dresses with “due clerical neatness” as if under the care of “a careful wife” (1). He is seen as “a good preacher, but not an energetic one” (3), until the day he suddenly and inexplicably appears for service with a black veil covering his face so that only his mouth and chin are visible. The sermon, on the topic of “secret sin” that we hide from our loved ones and from ourselves, feels more powerful that any the people have heard from him. Mr. Hooper never removes the mask again, wearing it despite the pain he feels when people shun him from their social circles and avoid him on the street. Even his fiancée abandons him, calling off their engagement when he refuses to remove the veil. Though the people speculate that he is mad or that he is performing a penance for a great crime, they also find him to be a more powerful parson than he ever was before, and his company is sought by dying sinners.

Mr. Hooper does not reveal the meaning of the veil. He alludes to the meaning on his deathbed, but even this allusion is vague. As he is dying, he condemns the people for treating him cruelly even though they, too, are sinners. Claiming everyone wears their own black veil, he calls on the people to show their true hearts and not to “shrink from the eye of his Creator” (13). After he dies, he is buried with his face still obscured by the veil.

Mr. Hooper sacrifices all earthly joy: He not only endures being shunned by the residents of Milford, but he also denies himself the joy of a marriage to Elizabeth. However, though attempting to impart a message of godliness and morality, Mr. Hooper arguably exhibits the same self-centeredness and judgment he condemns in others. His trademark “sad smile” suggests pride or complacency in his moral superiority, and his wearing of the veil makes him conspicuous, as if he is advertising his eternal reward or taking morbid pleasure in his suffering. That the people do not ever fully understand his lesson suggests the futility of this suffering. In other interpretations, Mr. Hooper is not complacent but rather ruefully accepting of the fact that neither he nor the people can know the fates of their souls.