"Romanticism was a literary and artistic movement of the nineteenth-century that arose in reaction against eighteenth-century Neoclassicism..." It indicated that there were no objective values that needed to be accepted by everyone. It also suggested that the mind could not know reality as it truly was. It is only interpreted according to the mind's own interests. Romanticism was said to be "the search for a world that is not". Nathaniel Hawthorne expressed romanticism in the allegory "The Minister's Black Veil" by using emotion, the supernatural and mystery.
             Emotion played a major role in this period of the romantic writers, such as Hawthorne. In "The Minister's Black Veil", Mr. Hooper hid behind a black veil and refused to remove it, even when asked by his fiancée, Elizabeth. As a result, Elizabeth walked out of Mr. Hooper's life. "Mr. Hooper smiled to think that only a material emblem had separated him from happiness, though the horrors, which it shadowed forth, must be drawn darkly between the fondest of lovers." The loss of Elizabeth was not the only factor that contributed to his state of depression. Without hope, Mr. Hooper became a bugbear. "It grieved him, to the very depth of his kind heart, to observe how the children fled from his approach, breaking up their merriest sports, while his melancholy figure was yet afar off." Mr. Hooper was convinced that he would never again experience love or sympathy. Although he felt as if his whole world was saddened, he stayed true to the reason for wearing the black veil.
             The supernatural aspect further broadened the understanding of the black veil for the readers in this parable. Mr. Hooper says to Elizabeth, "There is an hour to come when all of us shall cast aside our veils. Take it not amiss, beloved friend, if I wear this piece of crape till then." He explains to her t...