Nathaniel Hawthorne and The Minister

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Nathaniel Hawthorne and The Ministers Black Veil

• 1804-1864

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The Ministers Black Veil

• Symbol is a person, place or thing that has
  meaning in itself but also stands for something
  more than itself

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The Ministers Black Veil

• Parable a short, usually simple story, based on
  events from ordinary life, from which a moral
  lesson can be drawn

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Nathaniel Hawthorne

• By midlife he had won recognition for his writing
• It was as if his dark insights into the human
  heart had cast gloom into his own

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Nathaniel Hawthorne

• His writing is more admired today then it was
  then
• In it there is an awareness of guilt that
  accompanies Puritan conscience

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Prisoner of the Dismal Chamber

• His family life was filled with loss
• Attended Bowdoin College in Maine
• He chewed tobacco, played cards, drank wine at
  the taverns and avoided intellectual life

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Prisoner of the Dismal Chamber

• In Salem he lived in the dismal chamber
• Room in the 3rd floor of his family house
• He was prisoner there for 12 years and when he
  emerged he published great works of fiction
• Hawthorne moved to Concord and lived with his wife

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A Novel with No Cheering Light

• Masterpiece The Scarlet Letter
• positively a hell-fired story, into which I
  found it almost impossible to throw any cheering
  light
• A story of sin and redemption and the
  consequences of hypocrisy and concealed guilt

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Out of Harmony with His Times

• Moved to Europe for 7 years and after his return
  he felt out of place in America
• He died in a New Hampshire Hotel
• This path is the only remembrance of me that
  will remain.

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The Ministers Black Veil

• Think and Respond
• Do people still carry guilt for secret sins
  committed in the past? Can those secrets isolate
  a person from others and themselves?
• Think of something sinful that you are not so
  proud of doing and imagine if you had to tell
  everyone you met about that one thing or you had
  to wear a reminder (symbol) of it all the time.