The Ministers Black Veil by Nathaniel Hawthorne is about an old minister who through his own inner demons hopes to teach his community how to live with theirs. The story begins with Mr. Hooper, the churchs minister, entering service with a mysterious black veil over his face, causing quite a stir among his parishioners. Mr. Hooper delivers a sermon on secret sin and the things people hide in their hearts, which causes the congregation to wonder what secret sin the ministers black veil represented. Later on the Minister presents a funeral sermon and a wedding while wearing the veil, much to the dismay and discomfort of the bride. During these few hours no one dared to ask the minister to remove the veil or explain its presence except for his fiancée. When Mr. Hoopers fiancée asks why he wears the veil he claims it is a sign of his sorrows and refuses to remove it, leading to her leaving him. After the ministers fiancée left him many people did not ask about the veil anymore. Mr. Hooper
has gradually become a highly respected minister in New England, notwithstanding the black barrier. On the Ministers deathbed Reverend Clark tries to persuade him to remove the veil. His reply: Why do you tremble at me alone? 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, but the mystery which 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 on every visage a Black Veil! (Hawthorne 2275) In the end the minister is buried, wearing the veil. Robert Louis Stevenson said the cruelest lies are often told in silence. Character, setting and internal conflict reveal that the Ministers secret sin is adultery.