In “The Minister's Black Veil” by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Mr. Hooper, a reverend in the town of Milford, surprises his parishioners by donning a conspicuous black veil on a Sunday. The town is visibly frightened, but still curious, at his strange appearance and deeply affected by his sermon on secret sin. "A subtle power was infused in his words. Every member of the congregation, the most innocent girl and the hard-breasted man, felt as if the preacher had crept upon them, behind his horrible veil, and had discovered the iniquity of their actions or thought” (2432) The parishioners expect Hooper to only wear the veil for a day, then remove it, after using the face to make his point. view of the secret sin, but they are surprised to find that he does not take off the veil after this Sunday, but in fact he will ultimately wear it until he dies. The town begins to gossip about why. the priest wears the crepe, questioning his purity and distancing himself from himself When the pastor's destiny, Elizabeth, asks him to shed his stupidity and remove the veil, he sadly refuses and Elizabeth reluctantly leaves him. The story ends when the priest dies, isolated by his choice to wear the veil, with only the dying and the dead taking comfort in his presence, proclaiming that on every face he sees a black veil. In "The Minister's Black Veil", Nathaniel Hawthorne seeks to highlight the flaws of a society in which its members wear and create false facades by illustrating how it separates and alienates the individual from society, from his peers, of reality and spirituality. Veil, Parson Hooper uses his black veil to represent an individual towards their hidden sin. He considers that every member of his community has...... middle of paper ......o despising the veil is justified in its aversion, because it is unnatural, shocking and sudden. It would be strange if they reacted otherwise. All, except Elizabeth, fail to ask him to remove the veil and the deeper meaning it hides. How could they expect him to give in to demands they had never expressed themselves? Perhaps if the veil bothered his parishioners so much, they would have become more proactive in revealing their secret sins and thus relieve the priest of his burden. Neither side is truly “right,” but it is important to note that the priest acted out of a desire to help the parishioners while the parishioners did not really act at all. Works Cited Lauter, Paul, Richard Yarborough and John Alberti. "The Minister's Black Veil." The Health Anthology of American Literature. Flight. B. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Pub., 2009. 2431-439. Print.