Summary Of The Minister’s Black Veil By Edgar Allan Poe

The story takes place in Milford, a town in Massachusetts in the 1700’s. One Sunday the minister goes to church with a black veil on his face. Every attendee isshocked by this unusual behavior and as one would expect from small towns, gossip spreads rumors about him. In a single day, what was once joy at the sight of Mr. Hooperturned to dread.

Nobody understood his motives as to why he had the veil on at all times, but nobody confronted him either. No one but his fiancée, Elizabeth. Butnot even around her he would remove the veil. After an arduous discussion, she finally gave in and accepted the fact that he would not take the veil off then, or ever.The mysterious black veil changed Mr. Hooper’s life dramatically. On the positive side, he attracted new converts into the religion because they identified withbeing behind a black veil (sin) before going into the light (conversion). However, most of the changes he went through were not as good. People now evaded hispresence, were afraid of him, and regarded him with a mixture of pity for the madman and fear.

Years passed and Mr. Hooper still had the same black veil, fixed on hisface like an impenetrable barrier. Surprisingly, loving and faithful Elizabeth had remained with him throughout the decades and was there for her beloved next to hisdying bed. The minister who was praying for him valiantly asked Mr. Hooper to remove the black veil, for the sole purpose of seeing his face which had remained hiddensince his early adulthood. But the crape was so indispensable to this lunatic that he spent his last breaths struggling with the other minister to keep the veil on.