Have you ever read a book named "The Minister's Black Veil"? The minister's conviction is so impressing!

It is a parable written by Nathaniel Hawthorne who is a master of psychological insight.

He emphasized man's inner reality, thoughts and feelings which are not directly apparent. The black veil wore by the minister Mr. Hooper is a typical symbol which shows everyone has a secret sin innermost and the suffering loneliness is caused by inner depravity. As far as I’m concerned, the revealed theme through the symbol is that a man living with his own sins ultimately leads a life of isolation and depression.

This short story is about a minister, Mr. Hooper, who comes to his congregation on Sabbath day wearing a black veil. Ironically, this occurs on the same day as a funeral for a young woman. The black veil not only frightens people surrounding him, but also causes sorrow, tension, and endless gossip. For example, before the entering of Mr. Hooper, the environment is described like: “Children with bright faces, tript merrily beside their parents…Spruce bachelors looked sidelong at the pretty maidens, and the fancied that the Sabbath sunshine made them prettier than on weekdays.” But when Mr. Hooper enters, the environment can be summarized as “darkened”, “gloomy”, and “quiet”. Different adjectives have been used to describe the tensions of Mr. Hooper and the environment. The isolation of the minister is emphasized through contrast of the adjectives. Another example notes: “Each member of the congregation, the most innocent girl, and the man of hardened breast, felt as if the preacher had crept upon them, behind this awful veil, and discovered their hoarded inequity of deed or though.” People can read the information about a person's characteristics and behaviors directly from face. The black and terrible veil draws people away, which is the main cause of the minister's isolation.

The lifelong decision to wear the black veil also represents the internal conflict in Mr. Hooper’s heart. Mr. Hooper complains to Elizabeth: “Oh, you know not how lonely I am, and how frightened, to be alone behind my black veil. Do not leave me in this miserable obscurity forever.” Despite he experiences the pain again and again, many people cross the street to avoid him, and children quit playing and run away at his approach. But he still refuses to open up to Elizabeth, he says to Elizabeth: “so far as my vow may suffer me. Know, then, this veil is a type and a symbol, and I am bound to wear it ever, both in light and darkness, in solitude and before the gaze of multitudes”. What he insists on leads to his lover’s departure. The veil isolates him from the companionship of others that it denies him the happiness of a marriage with Elizabeth.

The veil lies in the physical and mental barrier that it creates between the minister and his surroundings, and the innermost sin that the veil expresses. Because of this veil and the secrecy as to why he is wearing it, Hooper is condemned to a life of isolation and loneliness. The symbol is something that Hawthorne uses to symbolize the impassable barrier between all human souls.