2。1 Family Background 2

2。2 Growth Environment 3

2。3 Social Influence 3

3。 Hawthorne's Ambiguous Puritanism in the 来自优Y尔L论W文Q网wWw.YouERw.com 加QQ7520~18766 Characters of "The Minister's Black Veil" 4

3。1 Ambiguous Puritanism on Mr。 Hooper 4

3。2 Ambiguous Puritanism on Elizabeth 5

4。 Hawthorne's Ambiguous Puritanism in the Writing Skills of "The Minister's Black Veil" 5

4。1 Symbolism 6

4。2 Biblical Archetypes 6

Conclusion 7

References 7

Introduction

Nathaniel Hawthorne is an excellent American writer, and "The Minister's Black Veil" is considered as one of his masterpieces。 This thesis is designed to illustrate Hawthorne's ambiguous attitude towards Puritanism by analyzing the main characters and writing skills of "The Minister's Black Veil"。 Before the main body, I would like to give a brief introduction of this thesis from three aspects: Hawthorne and his "The Minister's Black Veil", literature review, and the purpose of this thesis。论文网

1。1 Hawthorne, and His "The Minister's Black Veil" 

Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804 - 1864) is one of the greatest romantic novelists in the 19th century America, and is proclaimed as the first American romancer。 As one of his masterpieces, The Scarlet Letter (1850) has permanently established his reputation。 However, before that, his previous works, especially his short stories, have won him adequate attention。 And a great number of scholars have studied his short stories carefully and extensively。 Because of the limited time and energy, I only do some researches on one of his short novels。

"The Minister's Black Veil", written in 1863, is regarded as one of the earliest and greatest American short stories。 It was originally published in the Magazine "Token"。 In the spring of 1837, Hawthorne collected several periodical stories into one volume, Twice-Told Tales (1837)。 Like many of his stories, "The Minister's Black Veil" develops around an essential symbol: the black veil。 One Sunday morning, the Reverend Mr。 Hooper, a New England Puritan minister, enters the meeting-house with his face covered by a black veil and delivers his sermon about secret sins, which astonishes all the parishioners。 After the sermon, people begin to gossip about Mr。 Hooper's strange behavior。 Later, with the black veil on, he attends the funeral of a young lady and the wedding of a couple。 The villagers spread all kinds of guesses and rumors about his hidden sins。 His fiancée Elizabeth demands him to remove the black veil to stop the rumors, which he refuses, explaining that it is either a sign of mourning or a symbol of secret sins。 Then Elizabeth leaves him。 With the passage of time, he becomes a much-respected minister over people suffering from their sins。 On his deathbed, Mr。 Hooper still refuses to put aside the black veil and is buried with the black veil on。

1。2 Literature Review 

As an outstanding representative of romantic novelists, research monographs at home and abroad about Hawthorne and his works emerged in an endless stream since the middle of the 19th century。 In order to make these researches more specific, I mainly pide them into two parts。 One part is the researches on this short story "The Minister's Black Veil"。 And the other part is the researches on Hawthorne’s ambiguous attitude towards Puritanism。