Nathaniel Hawthorne
The Scarlet Letter and the Minister’s Black Veil
Born in Salem, Massachusetts, Nathaniel Hawthorne, 1804-1864, is considered one of the great masters of American fiction, with tales and novels that reflect deep explorations of moral and spiritual conflicts (Hawthorne pp). He descended from a prominent Puritan family, and when he was fourteen years old, he and his widowed mother moved to a remote farm in Maine (Hawthorne pp). Hawthorne attended Bowdoin College, 1821-1825, and afterwards devoted himself to writing, publishing his first novel in 1829 (Hawthorne pp). He attempted living at Brook Farm, a community experiment begun by a group of Transcendentalists, but was less than enthusiastic by what he saw as hypocrisy and excessive idealism (Canada pp). In 1842, he married Sophia Peabody, a friend of Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau, and they settled in Concord (Hawthorne pp). To support them, he took a job as surveyor of the port at Salem, 1846-49, where he began writing his masterpiece, “The Scarlet Letter,” published in 1850 (Hawthorne pp). The novel is set in seventeenth century Puritan New England, and delves deeply into the human heart, presenting the problems of moral evil and guilt through allegory and symbolism, and is often considered the first American psychological novel (Hawthorne pp). Hawthorne was equally celebrated as a short-story writer and is credited with helping to establish the American short story as a significant art form with his tales of loneliness, frustration, hypocrisy, eccentricity, and frailty (Hawthorne pp). Among his stories considered most brilliant is “The Minister’s Black Veil” (Hawthorne pp).
According to Mark Canada, English professor, University of North Carolina at Pembroke, Nathaniel Hawthorne authored some of the most respected fiction in American literature (Canada pp). American novelist Henry James once wrote, “The fine thing in Hawthorne is that he cared for the deeper psychology, and that, in his way, he tried to become familiar with it” (Canada pp). Hawthorne was especially interested in the nature of evil, perhaps leading Herman Melville, in his essay, “Hawthorne and His Mosses,” to write, that half of Hawthorne is “shrouded in a blackness ten time black” (Canada pp). Moreover, Hawthorne had a fascination with religion, as demonstrated in many of his works including “The Scarlet Letter” and “The Minister’s Black Veil” (Canada pp). Thus, his studies of evil often coincide with his studies of religion, especially Puritanism, which was practiced by his ancestors in Salem during the seventeenth century (Canada pp).
Much like his Melville, and Edgar Allan Poe, Hawthorne made extensive use of symbols, such as the scarlet letter, and these symbols play important roles in all of his major short stories, including “The Birthmark” (Canada pp). Moreover, his works tend to hint of the supernatural, the unreal, or the uncommon, and as he explains, the romance writer may “mingle the Marvellous” in his work (Canada pp). As Canada points out, Hawthorne often used the “metaphor of everyday objects seen in moonlight to explain the material of the romance,” such as in the essay, “The Custom-house” which precedes “The Scarlet Letter,” in which the ordinary objects he sees there “are so spiritualized by the unusual light, that they seem to lose their actual substance, and become things of intellect” (Canada pp). In fact, one of Hawthorne’s main concerns is that of separating the head and heart, intellect and soul (Canada pp). He once wrote that an unpardonable sin is
“a want of love and reverence for the Human Soul; in consequence of which, the investigator pried into its dark depths, not with a hope or purpose of making it better, but from a cold philosophical curiosity, — content that it should be wicked in whatever kind or degree, and only desiring to study it out. Would not this, in other words, be the separation of the intellect from the heart” (Canada pp).
He explored these ideas extensively in several short stories, and they also helped to shape “The Scarlet Letter” (Canada pp).
In “The Minister’s Black Veil,” Hawthorne’s protagonist, Reverend Hooper, is a young minister, who in the prime of his life, and for reasons unknown, begins wearing a black veil over his face. At first, this behavior creates quite a stir in the village, and speculations abounded, but as time passed, his odd behavior became fairly accepted, although there was always the curious about hoping to gain a glimpse under the veil. Hawthorne writes that for all its bad influences, “the black veil had the one desirable effect, of making its wearer a very efficient clergyman” (Hawthorne3 pp). Hooper became a man with great power of sinful souls, and the veil seem to enable him to “sympathize with all dark affections … dying sinners cried aloud” for him and would not draw their last breath until he came and as he “stooped to whisper consolation, they shuddered at the veiled face … such were the terrors of the black veil, even when Death had bared his visage” (Hawthorne3 pp). Even on his deathbed, an old man of years, he refused to allow anyone to remove his veil, and so he was buried in it, and though “good Mr. Hooper’s face is dust; but awful is still the thought that it mouldered beneath the Black Veil” (Hawthorne3 pp).
N.S. Boone writes in the March 22, 2005 issue of “Renascence: Essays on Values in Literature,” that “The Minister’s Black Veil” is perhaps Hawthorne’s most “enigmatic tale” (Boone pp). The majority of criticism seems to focus on interpreting the meaning of the veil and/or the character of Hooper (Boone pp). Samuel Coale summarizes this criticism, saying:
“Hooper has been regarded as sinful, almost demonic, faithless, proud, sacrilegious, preoccupied with evil, a misguided religious zealot, a rigid Calvinist, an arch villain, a man afraid of women, a selfish soul fleeing from the darkness of sexuality, and a living parable who dooms himself to isolation and despair. The veil on the other hand has suggested a symbol for mortal ignorance, a false signum diaboli, a demonic object whose effects on the townspeople are such that its very presence vindicates Hooper’s behavior” (Boone pp).
J. Hillis Miller claims that the veil is actually impenetrable, and that the story is simply an allegory of the reading of the story itself wherein the reader can only come to the knowledge that full disclosure is an impossibility, “the face itself is already an impenetrable veil … A veiled face is a veil over a veil, a veiling of what is already veiled” (Boone pp). Hawthorne once wrote that masks are harmful, but veils may be necessary, thus Clark Davis argues that Hooper’s veil is a mask and completely opaque to interpreters (Boone pp). Davis suggests that the veil is an emblem that signifies Hawthorne’s authorial ethics, keeping a necessary distance between himself and others (Boone pp).
One of the most famous theories is Edgar Allan Poe’s assertion of “a crime of dark dye” in this story, leading critics to consider the veil as a symbol of ambiguity, a symbol of symbolism and signification (Emmett pp). Theories abound concerning the meaning of the veil. Frederick Crews finds “an obviously sexual scandal,” while Nicholas Canaday maintains that “Hawthorne is not stressing secret sin … especially sexual sin” (Emmett pp). Richard Fogle summarizes, “Hawthorne holds out the suggestion that the veil is a penance for an actual and serious crime, while at the same time permitting no real grounds for it” (Emmett pp). Paul Emmett notes that the narrator is very much like the “highly respectable witnesses’ to the revelation of Dimmesdale’s scarlet letter, whose suppressive denial of the entire incident is exposed by the narrator of ‘The Scarlet Letter’ in language which should make us suspicious” (Emmett pp).
“The Scarlet Letter,” Hawthorne’s most famous literary work, begins with the discovery of a “mysterious package was a certain affair of fine red cloth, much worn and faded, There were traces about it of gold embroidery, which, however, was greatly frayed and defaced, so that none, or very little, of the glitter was left” (Hawthorne2 pp). The narrator goes on to describe the “skill of needlework” and how it “gives evidence of a now forgotten art, not to be discovered even by the process of picking out the threads” (Hawthorne2 pp). The piece of scarlet cloth “assumed the shape of … The capital letter A,” signifying to the narrator that it was “an ornamental article of dress … To be worn” perhaps as a rank of “honour and dignity, in by-past times” (Hawthorne2 pp).
The novel, set in the seventeenth-century Puritan settlement of Boston, is the story of Hester Prynne, a woman who has born a child, Pearl, out of wedlock and is shunned by the community and forced to wear the scarlet “A” on her breast as punishment. A young minister, Arthur Dimmesdale, is in truth Pearl’s father, but does not reveal this fact to the community until right before his death.
It was then that “spectators testified to having seen, on the breast of the unhappy minister, a scarlet letter – the very semblance of that worn by Hester Prynne -imprinted in the flesh” (Hawthorne2 pp). Hester and Pearl moved from the village, but many years later it was discovered that Hester had returned “and taken up her long-forsaken shame,” however through the remainder of her life “there were indications that the recluse of the scarlet letter was the object of love and interest with some inhabitant of another land” (Hawthorne2 pp). The narrator continues to explain that “Here had been her sin; here, her sorrow; and here was yet to be her penitence. She had returned, therefore, and resumed of her own free will … resumed the symbol of which we have related so dark a tale” (Hawthorne2 pp). Hester continued to wear the letter throughout her life, and through the years, it “ceased to be a stigma which attracted the world’s scorn and bitterness, and became a type of something to be sorrowed over, and looked upon with awe, yet with reverence too” (Hawthorne2 pp).
Like the black veil of the minister, Hester’s scarlet letter had become her identity, and so she wore it freely in the same manner as Hooper wore his veil, for “what mortal might no do the same” (Hawthorne3 pp). Many scholars view “The Scarlet Letter” as a resurrection story, turning Dimmesdale into a Christ-life figure because while on the scaffold he confesses his affair, thus “the minister’s redemption in the eyes of God is complete” (Barna pp). However, it could also be said that Hester goes through a resurrection, hence her return to the village and her accepted place within the community (Barna pp).
In Hawthorne’s short story, “The Birthmark,” Georgiana’s crimson cheek mark is also her identity, and like the scarlet letter that Hester wore, its removal was the basis of “male domination verse female subordination” (Meyers pp). When Aylmer asked if she had thought of having the mark removed, Georgiana answers, “To tell you the truth it has been so often called a charm that I was simple enough to imagine it might be so,” but for Aylmer, it was “the visible mark of earthly imperfection” (Hawthorne1 pp). Although the story reflects society’s concern about the “role of science in humans’ lives,” it also reflects the “crucial issues of gender identity and roles at personal and social levels” (Meyers pp).
Like Hester’s scarlet letter, Georgiana’s crimson birthmark had become a part of not only their social identity, but represented a part of their soul, “that sole token of human imperfection” (Hawthorne1 pp). Georginana’s imperfection stemmed from her birthmark, while Hester’s was the birth of her child, both tokens of “human imperfection” (Hawthorne1 pp).
Mark Barna writes that the “Puritan colonialists were are that appearances deceive: the almsgiver, the churchgoer, the virtuous maiden, the upright minister, each may still be harboring beneath the sunshine musty and foul desires” (Barna pp). In 1758, the Puritan minister, Jonathan Edwards wrote that humankind is “born into the world with a tendency to sin, and to misery and ruin for their sin, which actually will be the consequence unless mere grace steps in and prevent it” (Barna pp). Hawthorne’s stories actually reflect his contempt for the Puritans’ rigid dogma and intrusive social structure, and some critics believe that the “atrocities his direct ancestors perpetrated in the name of Puritan law tainted his view,” since his great-great-great-grandfather was a member of the General Court of Massachusetts and his great-great- grandfather was a judge at the Salem witch trials (Barna pp). According to the old court records, a burglar was sentenced to have his ear cut off and a “B” branded on his forehead, while another record reported an adulteress receiving thirty strokes and then forced to stand in public wearing upon her bosom a paper with the words, “Thus I stand for my adulteress and whorish carriage” (Barna pp).
Hawthorne too was convince that all people have a dark side and a tendency to sin (Barna pp). Yet what make his writings so modern “is that he took the Puritan doctrine and psychologized it … By pointing out the dark motives – self-righteousness, quest for power – that lie beneath many outwardly benevolent actions” all represented in his use of symbolism, hence the veil, the letter and the birthmark (Barna pp).
Work Cited
Barna, Mark Richard. “Nathaniel Hawthorne and the unpardonable sin.”
World and I. March 01, 1998. Retrieved October 13, 2005 from HighBeam Research Library Web site.
Boone, N.S. “The Minister’s Black Veil’ and Hawthorne’s ethical refusal of reciprocity: a Levinasian parable.” Renascence: Essays on Values in Literature. March 22, 2005. Retrieved October 13, 2005 from HighBeam Research Library Web site.
Canada, Mark. “Nathaniel Hawthorne, 1804-1864.” Retrieved October 13, 2005
http://www.uncp.edu/home/canada/work/allam/17841865/lit/hawthorn.htm
Emmett, Paul J. “Narrative suppression: sin, secrecy and subjectivity in ‘The
Minister’s Black Veil'” Journal of Evolutionary Psychology. March 01, 2004. Retrieved October 13, 2005 from HighBeam Research Library Web site.
Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The Columbia Encyclopedia. 2005. Retrieved October 13
2005
from HighBeam Research Library Web site.
Hawthorne1, Nathaniel. “The Birthmark.” Retrieved October 13, 2005 from:
http://www.classicreader.com/read.php/sid.6/bookid.262/
Hawthorne2, Nathaniel. “The Scarlet Letter.” Retrieved October 13, 2005 from:
http://www.classicreader.com/booktoc.php/sid.1/bookid.69/
Hawthorne3, Nathaniel. “The Minister’s Black Veil.” Retrieved October 13, 2005
http://www.classicreader.com/read.php/sid.6/bookid.205/
Meyers Skredsvig, Kary. “Eve’s Daughter, Mary’s Child: Women’s
Representation in Hawthorne’s ‘The Birthmark.'”
Revista de Filologia y Linguistica de la Universidad de Costa Rica. July 01, 2000. Retrieved October 13, 2005 from HighBeam Research Library Web site.
Get Professional Assignment Help Cheaply
Are you busy and do not have time to handle your assignment? Are you scared that your paper will not make the grade? Do you have responsibilities that may hinder you from turning in your assignment on time? Are you tired and can barely handle your assignment? Are your grades inconsistent?
Whichever your reason is, it is valid! You can get professional academic help from our service at affordable rates. We have a team of professional academic writers who can handle all your assignments.
Why Choose Our Academic Writing Service?
- Plagiarism free papers
- Timely delivery
- Any deadline
- Skilled, Experienced Native English Writers
- Subject-relevant academic writer
- Adherence to paper instructions
- Ability to tackle bulk assignments
- Reasonable prices
- 24/7 Customer Support
- Get superb grades consistently
Online Academic Help With Different Subjects
Literature
Students barely have time to read. We got you! Have your literature essay or book review written without having the hassle of reading the book. You can get your literature paper custom-written for you by our literature specialists.
Finance
Do you struggle with finance? No need to torture yourself if finance is not your cup of tea. You can order your finance paper from our academic writing service and get 100% original work from competent finance experts.
Computer science
Computer science is a tough subject. Fortunately, our computer science experts are up to the match. No need to stress and have sleepless nights. Our academic writers will tackle all your computer science assignments and deliver them on time. Let us handle all your python, java, ruby, JavaScript, php , C+ assignments!
Psychology
While psychology may be an interesting subject, you may lack sufficient time to handle your assignments. Don’t despair; by using our academic writing service, you can be assured of perfect grades. Moreover, your grades will be consistent.
Engineering
Engineering is quite a demanding subject. Students face a lot of pressure and barely have enough time to do what they love to do. Our academic writing service got you covered! Our engineering specialists follow the paper instructions and ensure timely delivery of the paper.
Nursing
In the nursing course, you may have difficulties with literature reviews, annotated bibliographies, critical essays, and other assignments. Our nursing assignment writers will offer you professional nursing paper help at low prices.
Sociology
Truth be told, sociology papers can be quite exhausting. Our academic writing service relieves you of fatigue, pressure, and stress. You can relax and have peace of mind as our academic writers handle your sociology assignment.
Business
We take pride in having some of the best business writers in the industry. Our business writers have a lot of experience in the field. They are reliable, and you can be assured of a high-grade paper. They are able to handle business papers of any subject, length, deadline, and difficulty!
Statistics
We boast of having some of the most experienced statistics experts in the industry. Our statistics experts have diverse skills, expertise, and knowledge to handle any kind of assignment. They have access to all kinds of software to get your assignment done.
Law
Writing a law essay may prove to be an insurmountable obstacle, especially when you need to know the peculiarities of the legislative framework. Take advantage of our top-notch law specialists and get superb grades and 100% satisfaction.
What discipline/subjects do you deal in?
We have highlighted some of the most popular subjects we handle above. Those are just a tip of the iceberg. We deal in all academic disciplines since our writers are as diverse. They have been drawn from across all disciplines, and orders are assigned to those writers believed to be the best in the field. In a nutshell, there is no task we cannot handle; all you need to do is place your order with us. As long as your instructions are clear, just trust we shall deliver irrespective of the discipline.
Are your writers competent enough to handle my paper?
Our essay writers are graduates with bachelor's, masters, Ph.D., and doctorate degrees in various subjects. The minimum requirement to be an essay writer with our essay writing service is to have a college degree. All our academic writers have a minimum of two years of academic writing. We have a stringent recruitment process to ensure that we get only the most competent essay writers in the industry. We also ensure that the writers are handsomely compensated for their value. The majority of our writers are native English speakers. As such, the fluency of language and grammar is impeccable.
What if I don’t like the paper?
There is a very low likelihood that you won’t like the paper.
Reasons being:
- When assigning your order, we match the paper’s discipline with the writer’s field/specialization. Since all our writers are graduates, we match the paper’s subject with the field the writer studied. For instance, if it’s a nursing paper, only a nursing graduate and writer will handle it. Furthermore, all our writers have academic writing experience and top-notch research skills.
- We have a quality assurance that reviews the paper before it gets to you. As such, we ensure that you get a paper that meets the required standard and will most definitely make the grade.
In the event that you don’t like your paper:
- The writer will revise the paper up to your pleasing. You have unlimited revisions. You simply need to highlight what specifically you don’t like about the paper, and the writer will make the amendments. The paper will be revised until you are satisfied. Revisions are free of charge
- We will have a different writer write the paper from scratch.
- Last resort, if the above does not work, we will refund your money.
Will the professor find out I didn’t write the paper myself?
Not at all. All papers are written from scratch. There is no way your tutor or instructor will realize that you did not write the paper yourself. In fact, we recommend using our assignment help services for consistent results.
What if the paper is plagiarized?
We check all papers for plagiarism before we submit them. We use powerful plagiarism checking software such as SafeAssign, LopesWrite, and Turnitin. We also upload the plagiarism report so that you can review it. We understand that plagiarism is academic suicide. We would not take the risk of submitting plagiarized work and jeopardize your academic journey. Furthermore, we do not sell or use prewritten papers, and each paper is written from scratch.
When will I get my paper?
You determine when you get the paper by setting the deadline when placing the order. All papers are delivered within the deadline. We are well aware that we operate in a time-sensitive industry. As such, we have laid out strategies to ensure that the client receives the paper on time and they never miss the deadline. We understand that papers that are submitted late have some points deducted. We do not want you to miss any points due to late submission. We work on beating deadlines by huge margins in order to ensure that you have ample time to review the paper before you submit it.
Will anyone find out that I used your services?
We have a privacy and confidentiality policy that guides our work. We NEVER share any customer information with third parties. Noone will ever know that you used our assignment help services. It’s only between you and us. We are bound by our policies to protect the customer’s identity and information. All your information, such as your names, phone number, email, order information, and so on, are protected. We have robust security systems that ensure that your data is protected. Hacking our systems is close to impossible, and it has never happened.
How our Assignment Help Service Works
1. Place an order
You fill all the paper instructions in the order form. Make sure you include all the helpful materials so that our academic writers can deliver the perfect paper. It will also help to eliminate unnecessary revisions.
2. Pay for the order
Proceed to pay for the paper so that it can be assigned to one of our expert academic writers. The paper subject is matched with the writer’s area of specialization.
3. Track the progress
You communicate with the writer and know about the progress of the paper. The client can ask the writer for drafts of the paper. The client can upload extra material and include additional instructions from the lecturer. Receive a paper.
4. Download the paper
The paper is sent to your email and uploaded to your personal account. You also get a plagiarism report attached to your paper.
PLACE THIS ORDER OR A SIMILAR ORDER WITH US TODAY AND GET A PERFECT SCORE!!!
