Hawthorne’s The Ministers Black Veil †Solitude of the Protagonist and the Author :: Ministers Black Veil Essays

â€Å"The Minister’s Black Veil† – Solitude of the Protagonist and the Author  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚        Ã‚  Ã‚   Isn’t it more than coincidental that the protagonist in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s â€Å"The Minister’s Black Veil† and the author himself are both given to solitude and isolation?    Literary critics seem to come to a consensus on the subject of Hawthorne’s preference for solitude. Edmund Fuller and B. Jo Kinnick in â€Å"Stories Derived from New England Living† state that â€Å"Hawthorne was essentially of a solitary nature, and group life was not for him. . .† (30) Sculley Bradley, Richmond Croom Beatty and E. Hudson Long in â€Å"The Social Criticism of a Public Man† say that â€Å"a young man engrossed in historical study and in learning the writer’s craft is not notably queer if he does not seek society. . . .† (47) Stanley T. Williams in â€Å"Hawthorne’s Puritan Mind† states: â€Å"Soon after Hawthorne’s birth in 1804, circumstances intensified his innate Puritan characteristics: his analysis of the mind, his somber outlook on living, his tendency to withdraw from his fellows† (40). According to A.N. Kaul in his Introduction to   Hawthorne – A Collection of Critical Essays, the themes of isolation and alienation were ones which Hawthorne was â€Å"deeply preoccupied with† in his writings (2).    At the outset of the tale, â€Å"The Minister’s Black Veil,† the sexton is tolling the church bell and simultaneously watching Mr. Hooper’s door, when suddenly he says, ``But what has good Parson Hooper got upon his face?'' The surprise which the sexton displayed is repeated in the astonishment of the onlookers: â€Å"With one accord they started, expressing more wonder. . .† The reason is this: â€Å"Swathed about his forehead, and hanging down over his face, so low as to be shaken by his breath† is a black veil. The 30 year old, unmarried parson receives a variety of reactions from his congregation:    ``I can't really feel as if good Mr. Hooper's face was behind that piece of crape'' ``He has changed himself into something awful, only by hiding his face''   ``Our parson has gone mad!'' Few could refrain from twisting their heads towards the door. . . . . . . more than one woman of delicate nerves was forced to leave the meeting-house.    Hawthorne, after exposing the surprised people to the sable veil, develops the protagonist through a description of some of his less exotic and curious characteristics: