The Minister's Black Veil

Nathaniel Hawthorne criticized the Puritans for their disgust with Father Hooper's veil while they failed to recognize their own sins. Hooper wore the veil to show how the life that God gave him is burdened by the fact that he is born with original sin. Hooper simply draped the veil over his face in order to place a visual representation of how his life was inevitably corrupted by the natural state of man. The Puritans in the town were appalled by his veil and demanded that he take it off. However, the Puritans had no right to demean Hooper considering the Puritans also committed sins but simply lacked the whit and humility to display a visual representation of them. Also, Hawthorne criticizes how the Puritans choose to ignore their own sins but do not hold back on Hooper who simply chooses to display them out of shame.