"The Minister's Black Veil" and "The Crucible"

Nathaniel Hawthorne's "The Minister's Black Veil" begins with the sexton ringing the bells before church serivce on a Sunday morning in a small village. The sexton abruptly stops ringing the bells when the Reverend Mr. Hooper appears with a black veil covering his face. The crowd was quickly hushed and shocked by the veil concealing eveything but the Minister's mouth and chin. Talks of the Minister commiting a secret sin soon spread with the arrival of the veil. The Reverend ignores the looks and whispers of the people and continues his duties. At one time, the Minister's wife asks him to remove the veil from his face, but he refuses. Even with a threat to leave him, the Reverend still keeps his faced covered. With his wife gone, the Minister begins to notice the judgemental looks from the people, and the children who coward away at his new appearance. Through the judging, Mr. Hooper presses on with his sermons, and never removes the veil. When Reverend Hooper is on his death bed, his wife, fellow clergy men, and friends try to pry the veil off his face. In a fit to keep his face masked, Mr. Hooper quickly sits up and tightly holds the veil to his facing exclaiming that the veil cannot be removed until he has well passed. Respecting the Minister, his black veil is never removed, and he is burried with the veil covering his face forever.

"The Minister's Black Veil" closely relates to the theme of dying for what you believe in, in "The Crucible". The Minister never removes the black veil, even with the judgement he received. Mr. Hooper was even burried with the veil still on. John Proctor does the same in "The Crucible". While Proctor openly confesses to his wife, Hale, Danforth, and Parris of his secret sins, he still accepts the hanging because he believes if the good people before him were willing to die for their beliefs, he would too.

The two works also show the common strictness of the religions in the two villages. "The Crucible" had the secret sin of witch craft, and the people of the village did everything they could to purify the village from the Devil's work. In "The Minister's Black Veil", the Minister supposedly commits the secret sin, but in his way punishes himself for it by covering his face with the dark veil.



By the way- I really enjoyed both "The Crucible" and "The Minister's Black Veil". I have a strong liking for controversial things, such as the witch craft in a strict Puritan village, and a Reverend supposedly commiting a secret sin.