Julie Borrego
English 48A
Journal for Hawthorne

"Such were the terrors of the black, veil, even when death had bared his visage!" (Hawthorne, "The Minister's Black Veil)


“Our most intimate friend is not he to whom we
show the worst, but the best of our nature.” (Hawthorne)

Summary:

Only in death a person truly understands why the Minister wears his Black Veil, but knowledge does not make the fear subside in fact in intensifies it.

My Ideas:


What I take away from this unexplained and dark story is that the Minister wore his Black veil to make a point that we all wear veils daily. We hide our inner darkest thoughts and sins from others and ourselves. The irony is that the Minister by wearing his veil; he was being the most honest to himself and others revealing actually who he was. By doing this it feared those who should have loved him unconditionally leaving him alone. His veil made people fear looking at him because they saw who they truly were with their phony persona stripped away, all they were left with is their inner most thoughts and sins. Evan though he was a minister and his veil was to be a type of religious symbol, I do not feel that the message was religious. I feel that he refused to remove his veil because he insited on being honest about who he truely was to himself, first and others second.