I used to love snow. It was pretty and white and fluffy and if there's a lot of it, you actually get to miss school. It was just swell. But now...snow and I are not friends. Now, I think snow is just cold and icky. Snow just means that it's too cold to rain. I still enjoy snow days, but all of a sudden I am very aware that those oh so glorious snow days mean we have to stay in school longer in the summer when the weather is at it's most wonderful.
When I small child, I used to get all geared up in my snow suit and hat and gloves and whatnot, and then would spend hours out in the snow. I used to build snow forts and snowmen and snow caves. Actually, I would pile a bunch of snow up in the middle of our yard and then dig a hole and hide in it. I was a pretty weird kid, obviously. I think I hid like that because my sister used to sit on me in the snow and force my face into it. So I have some bad memories associated with snow and I think that really taints my opinion and feelings about snow in general.
But I have to admit, snow really is pretty even if it just is frozen water particles. I really like that feeling that you get when you wake in the morning and see a really bright light coming through your window, which means it has snowed. And it's even better when there is a snow day and you get to sleep in as late as you want and then warm your warm and cozy pajamas. Despite my dislike of snow, the sleeping in and being lazy for a whole day is a rather nice part of the whole thing.
Still, snow is not my friend. I have pretty strong feelings against it. But I can tolerate it if I have to.
Thursday, December 2, 2010
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
Dark Romanticism in "The Minister's Black Veil"
"The Minister's Black Veil" by Nathaniel Hawthorne starts out very simply. The setting is not mysterious like some other stories from the Dark Romanticism trend, but revealed to be the town of Milford. The residents are enjoying a nice summer day and everything seems very simple, until a little mystery comes into the story. Reverend Hooper is, at first, described as being “a gentlemanly person of about thirty, though still a bachelor…dressed with clerical neatness, as if a careful wife had starched his band and brushed the weekly dust from his Sunday’s garb" (Hawthorne). The mystery of the story is then introduced when the residents of Milford begin to notice that Reverend Hooper was wearing a black veil that started at his forehead and fell down over his eyes and nose. The only part of his face that was visible was his mouth, and his breathing caused the veil to move eerily. The people of the town are basically just shocked and their fixation on Reverend Hooper's veil takes over the story.
This fixation causes the story to become more and more mysterious and it doesn't matter what the Reverend is saying to the people anymore, because they are just centered on the mysterious black veil on his face. Many of the residents are shocked- and even frightened. This fear of the mysterious veil is another characteristic of the style of dark romanticism. The members of the town agree that he looks disturbing, and this gossiping and ridiculing makes them seem like the bad people in the story; the negative characters that are always present in a story of this style. The residents start to say that the Reverends sermon, which had to do with secret sins, had to do with his own life. Basically, the town people think that the veil could have come from the devil somehow. The veil gave people the chills, and they did not want to go near Reverend Hooper (Hawthorne). The only person who would talk about it with him was his intended wife, and she told him that the veil was troubling the people of the town and that he should probably take it off, and she also asked him why he was wearing the veil. Hooper replied in a very vague manner, saying that his veil was merely a symbol of the mask of sin all people wear (Hawthorne). This statement gives the story a much darker and more sinister quality.
His intended wife was very upset about this statement, and she began to have some of the same fears about the veil and about Reverend Hooper as many of the members of the church had as well. She was so upset about the veil and so troubled by it that she actually broke off her engagement with Hooper. This sad end of a relationship is another example of a characteristic of dark romanticism, as well as adding more mystery to the story line. For the rest of his life, Reverend Hooper continued to wear the black veil that was a symbol for masked sin. People feared him because of this, and generally tried to avoid him. Solitude is, I think, another good example of dark romanticism. A lot of time passes and Reverend Hooper is on his death bed. His nurse is the woman that he was once going to marry, and she never totally got over him (Hawthorne). Before he died, Hooper said that he would not take off the veil. He held it to his face as he died, and it was not taken off for his funeral. Hooper was even buried in the veil. The biggest part of this story is mystery, I think, because the reader has no idea what is really going on with the veil that Reverend Hooper wears.
As well as having a lot of mystery and talk of sin, this story is very emotional. The town people relied more on their emotions, mostly fear, instead of using reason and trying to understand the point that Reverend Hooper was making with his sinister black veil. Another common characteristic of dark romanticism is when the author leaves part of the story open to interpretation, which I think that Hawthorne does because he never addresses a lot of the mystery of the story.
Hawthorne, Nathaniel. "The Minister's Black Veil." Ibiblio - The Public's Library and Digital Archive. Web. 01 Dec. 2010..
This fixation causes the story to become more and more mysterious and it doesn't matter what the Reverend is saying to the people anymore, because they are just centered on the mysterious black veil on his face. Many of the residents are shocked- and even frightened. This fear of the mysterious veil is another characteristic of the style of dark romanticism. The members of the town agree that he looks disturbing, and this gossiping and ridiculing makes them seem like the bad people in the story; the negative characters that are always present in a story of this style. The residents start to say that the Reverends sermon, which had to do with secret sins, had to do with his own life. Basically, the town people think that the veil could have come from the devil somehow. The veil gave people the chills, and they did not want to go near Reverend Hooper (Hawthorne). The only person who would talk about it with him was his intended wife, and she told him that the veil was troubling the people of the town and that he should probably take it off, and she also asked him why he was wearing the veil. Hooper replied in a very vague manner, saying that his veil was merely a symbol of the mask of sin all people wear (Hawthorne). This statement gives the story a much darker and more sinister quality.
His intended wife was very upset about this statement, and she began to have some of the same fears about the veil and about Reverend Hooper as many of the members of the church had as well. She was so upset about the veil and so troubled by it that she actually broke off her engagement with Hooper. This sad end of a relationship is another example of a characteristic of dark romanticism, as well as adding more mystery to the story line. For the rest of his life, Reverend Hooper continued to wear the black veil that was a symbol for masked sin. People feared him because of this, and generally tried to avoid him. Solitude is, I think, another good example of dark romanticism. A lot of time passes and Reverend Hooper is on his death bed. His nurse is the woman that he was once going to marry, and she never totally got over him (Hawthorne). Before he died, Hooper said that he would not take off the veil. He held it to his face as he died, and it was not taken off for his funeral. Hooper was even buried in the veil. The biggest part of this story is mystery, I think, because the reader has no idea what is really going on with the veil that Reverend Hooper wears.
As well as having a lot of mystery and talk of sin, this story is very emotional. The town people relied more on their emotions, mostly fear, instead of using reason and trying to understand the point that Reverend Hooper was making with his sinister black veil. Another common characteristic of dark romanticism is when the author leaves part of the story open to interpretation, which I think that Hawthorne does because he never addresses a lot of the mystery of the story.
Hawthorne, Nathaniel. "The Minister's Black Veil." Ibiblio - The Public's Library and Digital Archive. Web. 01 Dec. 2010.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)