Nathaniel Hawthorne, "The Ministers Black Veil" and "Young Goodman Brown". We know that Puritans lived their life without sin in hopes of going to heaven. Does Hawthorne, in these two stories, provide what seems to me an accurate picture of Puritanism? I think that his portrayal is an accurate one.
             "The Ministers Black Veil" takes place in Puritan times in New England. As the people of the town are going to attend services on the Sabbath day, the minister enters the meeting hall with a black veil on his face. The Puritan people are quick to notice things out of the ordinary and aquainted them with evil and sin.
             We see the people of the town passing judgement on the minister. An old woman going into the meeting house says, "I don't like it" (Hawthorne 2196). Hawthorne then has her saying "He has changed himself into something awful, only by hiding his face" (2196). Before they ask the minister the reason for wearing the veil, they all jump to conclusions. In their imaginations they have come to with reasons as to what the minister is covering up. The act of wearing a veil insinuates that the minister is hiding a sin. Or in some way he is trying to repent for a sin he has committed.
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