Overnight, Reverend Hooper has taken to wearing a translucent, but dark veil. Believing the veil to be symbolic of his sin, Hooper refuses to remove it, and wears it throughout the rest of his life.

Like the majority of Hawthorne’s stories, “The Minister’s Black Veil” is an allegorical criticism of Puritan beliefs. Hawthorne may have been inspired by clergyman Joseph Moody, who accidentally killed his friend and, in response, wore a black veil until his own death.

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