An Analysis of Why Mr. Hooper Wears the Veil
             Can a short story be effective without a plot or true story line? "The Minister's Black Veil" proves this theory to be true. The obvious plot is very vaguely touched upon within the story. Instead, Nathaniel Hawthorne does something different. Hawthorne keeps his audience interested and thinking by placing an abundance of symbolic and hidden meanings throughout the story. Much of the symbolism and hidden messages in "The Minister's Black Veil" are presented during Minister Hooper's dying words and actions on his deathbed. Minister Hooper's dying speech discuses many different things, but the biggest is the reason why he wears the black veil. His last words also tell about Minister Hooper as a person and what he thinks about the members of his congregation. He thinks of the congregation as hypocrites and beings full of sin, but he is always agreeable to be of assistance to them. Another issue that is very symbolic, with respect to the reason he wears the veil, is the resistance demonstrated by Minister Hooper when asked to remove his veil on his deathbed. These things are all important features of the story and they clarify why Mr. Hooper wears the veil to cover his face.
             The reason Father Hooper wears the black veil is expressed in his dying words.
             "Why do you tremble at me alone? Tremble also at each other! Have men avoided me, and women show no pity, and children screamed and fled, only for my black veil? What but the mystery, which it obscurely typifies, has made this piece of crepe so awful? When the friend shows his inmost heart to his friend; the lover to his best beloved when man does not vainly shrink from the eye of his Creator, loathsomely treasuring up the secret of his sin; then deem me a monster for the symbol beneath which I have lived, and die! I look around me, and, lo! On every visage a Black Veil.&quo...