Hawthorne’s The Ministers Black Veil †Solitude of the Protagonist and the Author :: Ministers Black Veil Essays

The Ministers Black Veil Solitude of the Protagonist and the Author Isnt it more than coincidental that the protagonist in Nathaniel Hawthornes The Ministers Black Veil and the author himself are both given to solitude and isolation? Literary critics seem to come to a consensus on the subject of Hawthornes preference for solitude. Edmund Fuller and B. Jo Kinnick in Stories Derived from New England Living state that Hawthorne was essentially of a solitary nature, and group life was not for him. . . (30) Sculley Bradley, Richmond Croom Beatty and E. Hudson Long in The Social Criticism of a Public Man say that a new(a) man engrossed in historical study and in learning the writers craft is not notably queer if he does not seek society. . . . (47) Stanley T. Williams in Hawthornes Puritan Mind states Soon after Hawthornes birth in 1804, circumstances intensified his innate Puritan characteristics his psychoanalysis of the mind, his somber outlook on living, his tendency to withdra w from his fellows (40). According to A.N. Kaul in his Introduction to Hawthorne A Collection of Critical Essays, the themes of isolation and alienation were ones which Hawthorne was deeply absent-minded with in his writings (2). At the outset of the tale, The Ministers Black Veil, the sexton is tolling the church bell and simultaneously watching Mr. Hoopers door, when suddenly he says, But what has good Parson Hooper got upon his face? The surprise which the sexton displayed is repeated in the astonishment of the onlookers With one accord they started, expressing more wonder. . . The reason is this Swathed about his forehead, and wall hanging down over his face, so low as to be shaken by his breath is a black veil. The 30 year old, unmarried minister receives a variety of reactions from his congregation I cant really feel as if good Mr. Hoopers face was behind that piece of crape He has changed himself into something awful, only by screen his face Our parson has gone mad F ew could refrain from twisting their heads towards the door. . . . . . . more than one woman of delicate nerves was forced to leave the meeting-house. Hawthorne, after exposing the strike people to the sable veil, develops the protagonist through a description of some of his less exotic and curious characteristics