11th Grade Recommended Reading List: "The Minister's Black Veil" by Nathaniel Hawthorne

When a minister begins to wear a veil over his face, his community reacts with gossip, suspicion, and fear. Uncover the meaning of these words from the short story found in Twice-Told Tales.

Here are links to our lists for works by Nathaniel Hawthorne: Dr. Heidegger's Experiment, Feathertop, Rappaccini's Daughter, The Birthmark, The Minister's Black Veil, Young Goodman Brown, The Blithedale Romance, The Scarlet Letter
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. semblance
    the outward or apparent appearance or form of something
    All within hearing immediately turned about and beheld the semblance of Mr. Hooper pacing slowly his meditative way toward the meeting-house.
  2. swathe
    wrap in or as if in strips of cloth
    Swathed about his forehead and hanging down over his face, so low as to be shaken by his breath, Mr. Hooper had on a black veil.
  3. unaccountable
    not to be explained
    A rumor of some unaccountable phenomenon had preceded Mr. Hooper into the meeting-house and set all the congregation astir.
  4. repose
    a disposition free from stress or emotion
    There was a general bustle, a rustling of the women's gowns and shuffling of the men's feet, greatly at variance with that hushed repose which should attend the entrance of the minister.
  5. perturbation
    a disposition that is confused or nervous and upset
    But Mr. Hooper appeared not to notice the perturbation of his people.
  6. countenance
    the appearance conveyed by a person's face
    It shook with his measured breath as he gave out the psalm, it threw its obscurity between him and the holy page as he read the Scriptures, and while he prayed the veil lay heavily on his uplifted countenance.
  7. delicate
    easily hurt
    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.
  8. omniscient
    knowing, seeing, or understanding everything
    The subject had reference to secret sin and those sad mysteries which we hide from our nearest and dearest, and would fain conceal from our own consciousness, even forgetting that the Omniscient can detect them.
  9. pathos
    a quality that arouses emotions, especially pity or sorrow
    There was nothing terrible in what Mr. Hooper said—at least, no violence; and yet with every tremor of his melancholy voice the hearers quaked. An unsought pathos came hand in hand with awe.
  10. iniquity
    absence of moral or spiritual values
    Each member of the congregation, the most innocent girl and the man of hardened breast, felt as if the preacher had crept upon them behind his awful veil and discovered their hoarded iniquity of deed or thought.
  11. visage
    the human face
    So sensible were the audience of some unwonted attribute in their minister that they longed for a breath of wind to blow aside the veil, almost believing that a stranger's visage would be discovered, though the form, gesture and voice were those of Mr. Hooper.
  12. indecorous
    not in keeping with accepted standards of what is right or proper in polite society
    At the close of the services the people hurried out with indecorous confusion, eager to communicate their pent-up amazement, and conscious of lighter spirits the moment they lost sight of the black veil.
  13. ostentatious
    tawdry or vulgar
    Some gathered in little circles, huddled closely together, with their mouths all whispering in the centre; some went homeward alone, wrapped in silent meditation; some talked loudly and profaned the Sabbath-day with ostentatious laughter.
  14. intimate
    imply as a possibility
    A few shook their sagacious heads, intimating that they could penetrate the mystery, while one or two affirmed that there was no mystery at all, but only that Mr. Hooper's eyes were so weakened by the midnight lamp as to require a shade.
  15. amiss
    not functioning properly
    "Something must surely be amiss with Mr. Hooper's intellects," observed her husband, the physician of the village.
  16. vagary
    an unexpected and inexplicable change in something
    "But the strangest part of the affair is the effect of this vagary even on a sober-minded man like myself. The black veil, though it covers only our pastor's face, throws its influence over his whole person and makes him ghost-like from head to foot. Do you not feel it so?"
  17. scruple
    have doubts about
    A person who watched the interview between the dead and living scrupled not to affirm that at the instant when the clergyman's features were disclosed the corpse had slightly shuddered, rustling the shroud and muslin cap, though the countenance retained the composure of death.
  18. portend
    indicate by signs
    When Mr. Hooper came, the first thing that their eyes rested on was the same horrible black veil which had added deeper gloom to the funeral and could portend nothing but evil to the wedding.
  19. tremulous
    quivering as from weakness or fear
    The bridal pair stood up before the minister, but the bride's cold fingers quivered in the tremulous hand of the bridegroom, and her death-like paleness caused a whisper that the maiden who had been buried a few hours before was come from her grave to be married.
  20. impertinent
    improperly forward or bold
    It was remarkable that, of all the busybodies and impertinent people in the parish, not one ventured to put the plain question to Mr. Hooper wherefore he did this thing.
  21. censure
    harsh criticism or disapproval
    If he erred at all, it was by so painful a degree of self-distrust that even the mildest censure would lead him to consider an indifferent action as a crime.
  22. remonstrance
    the act of expressing earnest opposition or protest
    Yet, though so well acquainted with this amiable weakness, no individual among his parishioners chose to make the black veil a subject of friendly remonstrance.
  23. expedient
    appropriate to a purpose
    There was a feeling of dread, neither plainly confessed nor carefully concealed, which caused each to shift the responsibility upon another, till at length it was found expedient to send a deputation of the church, in order to deal with Mr. Hooper about the mystery before it should grow into a scandal.
  24. abashed
    feeling or caused to feel uneasy and self-conscious
    Finally, the deputies returned abashed to their constituents, pronouncing the matter too weighty to be handled except by a council of the churches, if, indeed, it might not require a General Synod.
  25. discern
    perceive, recognize, or detect
    After he had seated himself she fixed her eyes steadfastly upon the veil, but could discern nothing of the dreadful gloom that had so overawed the multitude; it was but a double fold of crape hanging down from his forehead to his mouth and slightly stirring with his breath.
  26. dismal
    causing dejection
    Know, then, this veil is a type and a symbol, and I am bound to wear it ever, both in light and darkness, in solitude and before the gaze of multitudes, and as with strangers, so with my familiar friends. No mortal eye will see it withdrawn. This dismal shade must separate me from the world; even you, Elizabeth, can never come behind it.
  27. typify
    embody the essential characteristics of
    "If it be a sign of mourning," replied Mr. Hooper, "I, perhaps, like most other mortals, have sorrows dark enough to be typified by a black veil."
  28. obscurity
    the state of being indistinct due to lack of light
    He even smiled again—that same sad smile which always appeared like a faint glimmering of light proceeding from the obscurity beneath the veil.
  29. eccentric
    conspicuously or grossly unconventional or unusual
    By persons who claimed a superiority to popular prejudice it was reckoned merely an eccentric whim, such as often mingles with the sober actions of men otherwise rational and tinges them all with its own semblance of insanity.
  30. preternatural
    existing outside of or not in accordance with nature
    Their instinctive dread caused him to feel more strongly than aught else that a preternatural horror was interwoven with the threads of the black crape.
  31. antipathy
    a feeling of intense dislike
    In truth, his own antipathy to the veil was known to be so great that he never willingly passed before a mirror nor stooped to drink at a still fountain lest in its peaceful bosom he should be affrighted by himself.
  32. conscience
    motivation deriving from ethical or moral principles
    This was what gave plausibility to the whispers that Mr. Hooper's conscience tortured him for some great crime too horrible to be entirely concealed or otherwise than so obscurely intimated.
  33. ambiguity
    unclearness by virtue of having more than one meaning
    Thus from beneath the black veil there rolled a cloud into the sunshine, an ambiguity of sin or sorrow, which enveloped the poor minister, so that love or sympathy could never reach him.
  34. efficient
    being effective without wasting time, effort, or expense
    Among all its bad influences, the black veil had the one desirable effect of making its wearer a very efficient clergyman. By the aid of his mysterious emblem—for there was no other apparent cause—he became a man of awful power over souls that were in agony for sin.
  35. consolation
    the act of giving relief in affliction
    Its gloom, indeed, enabled him to sympathize with all dark affections. Dying sinners cried aloud for Mr. Hooper and would not yield their breath till he appeared, though ever, as he stooped to whisper consolation, they shuddered at the veiled face so near their own.
  36. irreproachable
    free of guilt; not subject to blame
    In this manner Mr. Hooper spent a long life, irreproachable in outward act, yet shrouded in dismal suspicions; kind and loving, though unloved and dimly feared; a man apart from men, shunned in their health and joy, but ever summoned to their aid in mortal anguish.
  37. sable
    a very dark black
    As years wore on, shedding their snows above his sable veil, he acquired a name throughout the New England churches, and they called him Father Hooper.
  38. hoary
    having gray or white hair as with age
    And there lay the hoary head of good Father Hooper upon the death-pillow with the black veil still swathed about his brow and reaching down over his face, so that each more difficult gasp of his faint breath caused it to stir.
  39. solicitude
    a feeling of excessive concern
    But in his most convulsive struggles and in the wildest vagaries of his intellect, when no other thought retained its sober influence, he still showed an awful solicitude lest the black veil should slip aside.
  40. loathsome
    highly offensive; arousing aversion or disgust
    When the friend shows his inmost heart to his friend, the lover to his best-beloved; when man does not vainly shrink from the eye of his Creator, loathsomely treasuring up the secret of his sin,—then deem me a monster for the symbol beneath which I have lived and die. I look around me, and, lo! on every visage a black veil!
Created on Fri Aug 11 11:09:42 EDT 2017 (updated Thu Aug 17 15:28:12 EDT 2017)

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