A Simple Piece of Crape

“Such was the effect of this simple piece of crape, that more than one woman of delicate nerves was forced to leave the meeting-house. Yet perhaps the pale-faced congregation was almost as fearful a sight to the minister, as his black veil to them.”
I enjoyed the idea that by simply wearing a veil the minister stirred up all these different emotions from his neighbors. He made the veil into a great mystery and from reading the story it was obviously not his intention to cause a scene or simply cause drama. He was openly doing what everyone else was doing more privately. He was “masking his sins” so to speak. Simply looking within yourself, especially into that dark part of yourself that you hide from the world has a tremendous amount to do with dark romanticism. I think that the people were so disturbed by this because it suddenly made sin visible whereas before it was tucked away in the back of your mind.

Another aspect of dark romanticism that I noticed was (obviously) death. The scenery alone screams dark romanticism when death is considered. When Hawthorne writes, “Nearly all his parishioners, who were of mature age when he was settled, had been borne away by many a funeral: he had one congregation in the church, and a more crowded one in the churchyard; and having wrought so late into the evening, and done his work so well, it was now good Father Hooper's turn to rest.” I can’t help, but picture an enormous crowded graveyard.

I heard from my poetry class that Edgar Allen Poe had said the best subject to write about was the death of a beautiful woman. I read online that when Poe read this story he believed that the veil was worn after the death of the woman in the beginning because the minister secretly had an affair with her; hence the whole vision of them walking hand in hand. Although I’m not too sure if I agree with this or not it does put a darker twist on the story.

I know that if Julie came to class suddenly wearing a veil for the rest of the semester, I might be a little freaked out. I would want to know why. It would bother me immensely.