Puritanism and Piety Theme Analysis

“The Minister’s Black Veil” takes place in a small Puritan community, so understanding the tenets of Puritanism is crucial to understanding the story. The Puritans were a Christian Protestant sect that emerged in the early 1600s in England. They were quickly banished from the country for their “subversive” beliefs, leading Puritan “pilgrims” to travel to America and establish small colonies in the region that’s still called New England. The Puritans believed that all human beings were born in a state of sin inherited from Adam and Eve, and that only good behavior and religious education could lead them to an eternal afterlife in Heaven. For this reason, the Puritans’ day-to-day lives and religious ceremonies were as simplified as possible: they didn’t dance, sing, wear bright colors, or go to plays. They focused, instead, on their piety, and saw their behavior as an outward manifestation of their inner goodness (and likelihood of going to heaven).

In “The Minister’s Black Veil,” Hawthorne dramatizes the conflict between Hooper’s strict Puritanism and Milford’s rather more lax Puritanism. At the beginning of the story, the townspeople are thinking “secular” thoughts as they walk to church: children are laughing, and the young men are admiring the young women. By contrast, Hooper, once he puts on the veil, seems like a paragon of Puritan virtues. He denies himself the pleasure of marriage or friendship, even though Hawthorne makes it clear that he values both of these things; when pressed for his reason, he insists that he is more concerned with his reward in heaven than with his life on earth: the quintessential Puritan tradeoff.

As the story progresses, Hawthorne shows the flaws and contradictions of Puritanism. While it’s true that Hooper’s veil encourages the townspeople to pay more attention to his sermons, and fear for the state of their souls — in a sense, to be better Puritans —Hawthorne never shows the reward for the townspeople’s “gloom.” It’s as if strict Puritanism has taken the townspeople’s joy and energy for nothing. Further, the Puritan townspeople, with their focus on sinfulness, quickly come to believe that the veil must represent Hooper’s sins, rather than understanding that through the veil he is trying to tell them to look to their own sins. Even Hooper, seemingly the perfect Puritan, may be violating his own beliefs. The black veil hides his face, but ironically, it makes him more “visible” and noticeable to the townspeople — in this sense, he could be guilty of the sin of pride. It’s not clear why Hooper is any more moral than the townspeople laughing and enjoying their Sunday walk to church — the only difference is that he’s miserable. Ultimately, Hawthorne seems to suggest, Puritanism has its good points, insofar as it encourages humans to live moral, pious lives, but it may go too far in depriving them of joy and encouraging them to “show off” their morality.