STUDY GUIDE: Below are specific questions and prompts to guide your reading.  While each of you will be posting responses and replies to specific, assigned study guide items, you should try to respond to all of them to your satisfaction while you read. 

 

Nathaniel Hawthorne
born Nathaniel Hathorne
(
1804 – 1864) .

Nathaniel Hathorne was born in 1804 in the city of Salem, Massachusetts to Nathaniel Hathorne and Elizabeth Clarke Manning Hathorne. He later changed his name to "Hawthorne", adding a "w" to dissociate from relatives including John Hathorne, a judge during the Salem Witch Trials.

Hawthorne’s writing are often seen as attempts to mediate between Puritan beliefs of the European settlers and the Transcendentalism of Emerson and Thoreau. In striving to understand Hawthorne, it is important to  understand Puritan beliefs about self, sin, and their moral mission in America and to understand how these strict views of the world evolved into the antithetical beliefs of Transcendentalism.

Hawthorne's writings try to involve his readers in an effort to investigate and understand the conflicting views of Puritanism and Transcendentalism.

In the end,  Hawthorne can be seen as a riddler and wry joker who challenged all authority, including his own

 

Discussion Prompts

 

"The Minister's Black Veil" 

  1. How does Hawthorne describe the veil? How do the parishioners react to the veil? How does the world outside the town react to the veil?
     
  2. What is the significance of the topic of the first sermon? Why does the veil become an appropriate symbol in the afternoon service? What is the definition of "black"/"white"?  What does Minister discover about his marriage/the strength of his relationship with his wife?
     
  3. How does the quote by "the lady" that starts "How strange" summarize the short story? What does "the man" mean by saying men are "sometimes afraid to be alone with himself"? In the paragraph describing the afternoon service, count the number of terms that support Hawthorne's intended mood. How does Hawthorne use "the wind"?
     
  4. Why does Hawthorne use the name Mr. Hooper at times, and Father Hooper at other times? What do Father Hooper's final words disclose about his possible reasoning for wearing the veil?  What word can best take the place of "veil"?