SOURCE: “‘The Minister's Black Veil’: A Parable,” in The American Transcendental Quarterly: A Journal of New England Writers, No. 56, March, 1985, pp. 55-63.

In the following essay, Franklin concentrates on Hawthorne's designation and subtitle of “The Minister's Black Veil” as a parable, speculating on the moral and esoteric implications this may have played in the author's imagery, symbolism, and thematic concerns.

“The Minister's Black Veil” has provoked as wide a range of interpretations as any other fiction by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Some find Hooper a martyr who sacrifices his personal happiness to his calling; others believe him an antichrist who perverts Jesus' teachings of grace.¹ But all seem to acknowledge that the meaning of the tale is uncertain to even the most perceptive and assume that Hawthorne provided the subtitle, “A Parable,” as an ironic and misleading gesture to those readers who might want guidance rather than ambiguity. These critics...