The Psychology of Secrecy: Fear, Identity, and Alienation in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Short Story: “The Minister’s Black Veil” (1836)
Keywords:
Secrecy, Fear, Identity, Alienation, Puritan guilt, Symbolism, Psychological isolation, Nathaniel HawthorneAbstract
Puritan New England developed a culture of intense moral scrutiny wherein public displays of virtue coexisted uneasily with awareness of universal human sinfulness, creating communities haunted by the gap between outer conformity and inner experience. The present paper deals with the problem of hidden sin and the psychological toll of secrets upon both individuals and communities, as manifested through a single symbolic gesture that transforms all social relations and exposes the fundamental isolation of human consciousness
References
Hawthorne, Nathaniel. “The Minister’s Black Veil.” Nathaniel Hawthorne: Tales and Sketches, edited by Roy Harvey Pearce, Library of America, 1982, pp. 238–252.
Crews, Frederick C. The Sins of the Fathers: Hawthorne’s Psychological Themes. Oxford Uni- versity Press, 1966.
Fogle, Richard Harter. Hawthorne’s Fiction: The Light and the Dark. University of Oklahoma Press, 1952.
