Feminism in Hawthorne's
Feminism in Hawthorne's "The Minister's Black Veil"The character of Elizabeth in Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Minister's Black Veil seems to be a somewhat forgotten symbol of feminism. I was struck with Elizabeth's strength and determination when she confronted her husband in public. It seems as if Hawthorne is placing Elizabeth as a strong female character in order to further explore the ridiculous over-morality of the male character of the minister. When Elizabeth confronts her husband in public about the reason for his hiding behind the veil, she does so in a persistent manner, defying his and society's expectation that she should be content with whatever answer her husband gives her. In other words, instead of playing the obedient and satisfied role of the wife, Elizabeth continues to ask her husband to give her reasonable answer for his unusual behavior. She expects to hear the rational truth from him. This shows that Elizabeth has a clearer sense of what makes a rational argument. The minister's reliance on religious reasons behind his wearing of the veil makes him a figure which people ridicule. Through this Hawthorne is showing a superiority of women over men, when it comes to levels of thinking.
I believe he dons the veil in recognition of the loss of faith of himself and his congregation when not in church and how ther sins like the veil will "be snatched from their faces" (page 1741)and he hopes that all " might be ready" (page 1741)on judgement day. " (1741) They started seeing changes in Mr. Maybe he did something before that and he felt really guilty. Although the minister had not changed, because he wore the black veil, the attitudes of those around him did change. " (1742) I think that Hawthorn was trying to tell us that what we see in our own humanity and the humanity of those around us has more to do with superficial things that what man is really made of. Or maybe he wanted to protect himself from other people's sin. I think he was trying to make his parishiners realize the heavy impact of their sins. They started to see his veiled face as a bad omen. I believe the veil represented the sins of the ministers parishiners.
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