The Minister's Black Veil: A Paradigm

The Minister's Black Veil: A Paradigm Summary | Detailed Summary

Minister Hooper is known to the people of Milford as "a gentlemanly person," renowned for his neat and orderly appearance and mild manner. It is for this reason that he is received with such undisguised amazement when he appears one Sunday morning for services with his face covered by an eerie black crape veil. Some people think it is merely a passing fancy, some suppose that he has gone mad, and some cannot even believe that it is the same person who gave services the previous week.

That Sunday in the church there is more than the usual anxious rustling among the pews. Minister Hooper appears not to notice anything out of the ordinary as he makes his entrance and proceeds toward the pulpit. His appearance is so frightening to the townspeople that some of the women begin to feel faint and have to be escorted out of the church before the end of the services. Those that stay, however, feel that there is something different in Minister Hooper's service that day. He had always had "the reputation of a good preacher, but not an energetic one: he strove to win his people heavenward by mild, persuasive influences, rather than to drive them thither by the thunders of the Word." The sermon that he gives on the day that he begins to wear his veil is delivered in much the same style, but is "tinged, rather more darkly than usual, with the gentle gloom of Mr. Hooper's temperament."

The subject of his sermon is secret sin. He condemns those who try to conceal their sinful thoughts and actions from their loved ones, forgetting that there is an omnipotent, omniscient being from which they cannot hide. Although there is nothing remarkable in his words, the aura of gloom that surrounds his swathed head makes everyone feel as though their deepest, most well kept secrets have suddenly been exposed for the entire congregation to see. They all long for a gust of wind to blow the veil from Mr. Hooper's head so that they can be assured that it is in fact their beloved pastor, and not an evil spirit.

At the end of the services, there is almost a stampede to exit the church. Everyone is expressing their confusion in different ways, but it is clear that they are all bewildered and frightened by the sudden change in Mr. Hooper. It is not clear to the people whether it is merely the veil that is causing them such anxiety, or if there has been something more than a physical change in their pastor.

Mr. Hooper follows them out of the church as is customary, greeting many of the townspeople individually. Normally it is a privilege to walk by his side on the way out of the church, but on this day, he walks alone. He is normally asked by Old Squire Saunders to bless the food at his table, but he receives no such requests now. He returns to the parsonage unaccompanied, and as he reaches it, he turns to look back at the people on their way home. He sees every pair of eyes in the congregation staring after him incredulously. He offers up a sad but knowing smile behind the black veil that is to become his trademark.

Upon his departure, everyone begins to talk. One woman marvels how such a simple piece of cloth can make such a difference to the whole person. Her husband, the town doctor, believes that he must be suffering from a mental illness of some sort.

Mr. Hooper is received with a similar reaction during the afternoon service, although following the service there is a funeral, so the gloomy black veil becomes slightly more appropriate in this context. As he leans over the coffin to peer at the young girl, some say that even the corpse shudders at the sight of his face behind the awful veil.

Mr. Hooper has one final obligation before his workday is over. It is the night of the wedding of a handsome young couple from the town. Although he is normally thought of as a melancholy man, he is known on these happy occasions to bring a certain solemn gaiety to the processions. On this day however, he brings nothing but gloom to the wedding, and the ceremony is thought to be a disaster by all. The ceremony ends when Parson Hooper catches a glimpse of his own image in a mirror, and rushes from the room with a wail of fright.

The following day no one can talk about anything but Parson Hooper's veil. Despite everyone's curiosity however, no one is able to approach Parson Hooper and ask him directly what the veil symbolizes and why he is wearing it. They decide to send to the head church for a minister to come and deal with the situation. The minister does come, but is so confused and repulsed by the veil that he decides to return to the head church to ask the advice of the church elders as to how to handle the issue.

The only person in the entire town who is not too afraid to speak to Parson Hooper is his fiancée, Elizabeth. She broaches the subject frankly and honestly with him at the very first opportunity, asking him first to take off the veil, and then to tell her why he had put it on in the first place. "There is an hour to come," he says to her, "when all of us shall cast aside our veils. Take it not amiss, beloved friend, if I wear this piece of crape till then." She is perplexed by his words, and asks him at the very least to unveil the meaning of his words. He clarifies, telling her in no uncertain terms that until the day of his death no person, including Elizabeth, will see him without his veil. She asks him why he has made this vow, and he says that he, like most human beings, "have sorrows dark enough to be typified by a black veil." She understands then that he has nothing more to hide than anyone else, but as a man of God has chosen to take his mortal sins more seriously than most. She counters that, because of the suddenness and drastic nature of his vow, people may tend to think that his very natural sins are of more of a scandalous nature, and that he hides his face "under the consciousness of secret sin." He replies that he has nothing out of the ordinary to hide, and that every mortal harbors enough sin to wear a similar veil, so why should he not just because others do not.

In reply to his unfailing logic, Elizabeth begins to cry, then covers her eyes with her hand and runs to the door. He entreats her to be patient until the afterlife when all veils are revealed and they can live in peace together, and she hesitates. She asks him for one glance at his face, but he cannot grant her even this small request. She bids him farewell and rushes out the door.

From that moment forward no one else tries to understand the mystery of Mr. Hooper's veil. Some think him merely eccentric, but the majority thinks he is nothing short of frightening. He is saddened by the fact that timid people and children turn away from him in the streets in fear, and he himself is so horrified by his eerie countenance that he refuses to look at himself in mirrors.

The benefit of the veil is that he becomes a more effective and persuasive clergyman. Although nobody can quite understand the meaning of the veil, the sheer darkness of it begins to wield an "awful power over souls that were in agony for sin." Dying sinners cry out for him, and people begin to visit the town to behold his ominous veil. As the lonely years pass, he acquires certain fame for his gloomy convictions, and he becomes "Father Hooper" to all who know him.

On his deathbed, he is surrounded by many awe-struck admirers, including fellow clergymen, members of the community, the physician, and of course, the woman who had forsaken him so many years ago, Elizabeth. Even on his deathbed, he is continually conscientious that his veil does not slip off his face.

As his breath becomes more shallow, and his time draws closer, a Minister from Westbury moves closer to his bed, and asks if he is ready to have the metaphorical veil lifted so that he may pass into the next world. Father Hooper affirms that he is. Reverend Clark then tries to convince him that, in an attempt to absolve himself of all the rumors of the town that have been circulating for so many years, he should give everyone a glimpse of his blameless face once before dying. Despite his fragile state, Father Hooper responds vehemently, holding his hands over his veil to protect it from being removed, with the cry, "On Earth, Never!"

The minister jumps back, exclaiming, "Dark old man…with what horrible crime upon your soul are you now passing to the judgment?"

With a supreme effort to try to hold death at bay a few minutes longer, Father Hooper hoists himself up in his bed. "Why do you tremble at me alone?" he cries out in anguish to the frightened onlookers. "Tremble also at each other! Have men avoided me, and women shown no pity, and children screamed and fled, only for my black veil? What other than the mystery that it obscurely typifies has made this piece of crape 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!"

With that said, he lies back in his bed, and exhales his last breath. In his journey from deathbed to coffin to burial, the utmost care is taken that the veil not move a hairsbreadth from where it was when he made his final speech and passed on to the afterlife, finally free of his burdensome black veil.