Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Minister’s Black Veil,”

Essay 1:

The ending of stories can be happy or sad and are sometimes open to the interpretation of the

reader, but at times, they reveal the meaning or message of the stories. They tie the loose ends

and answer the questions left in the reader’s mind. Three literary works that do that are Nathaniel

Hawthorne’s “The Minister’s Black Veil,” William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily,” and Ernest

Hemingway’s “End of Something.” Overall, it is interesting to see how Poe, Faulkner, and

Hemingway use unhappy endings as a distinctive way of resolving certain ambiguities in the

stories.

In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Minister’s Black Veil,” the ending helps resolve the mystery

of the veil and reveasl the meaning of the story. The story ends with Mr. Hooper still refusing to

lift the veil, and when he looks at the parishioners, he sees that they all have a veil. He finally

dies and turns to ashes. This is considerably an unhappy ending, but it somehow solves the

mystery of the veil. In this ending, Hawthorne helps the readers realize that Mr. Hooper is just

like everyone and that the veil is symbolic and not a mystery that is not solved. Also, by showing

Mr. Hooper’s death, Hawthorne shows the readers that he is, indeed, just a person. The smile on

his face shows that he was happy in his last moments, and seeing the veil seems to show that he

felt happy because he knew everyone is a sinner and has secrets like him. This solves the

mystery of Mr. Hooper and his veil.

Faulkner, also uses an unhappy ending to solve the ambiguities about Emily. The story ends

with the townspeople going to Emily’ house to discover how old and rusty it was. These reveal

what really happened to Emily since the story is in the townspeople’s point of view. Firstly, the

interior of the house shows how Emily has lived her life, which seems to reject change and is full

of loneliness; they see the dust all over, the bridal that was never worn, Emily’s father’s

mementos, the interior never changed. The bones also finally resolves the mystery of the missing

Homer Baron. This confirms that he was murdered, but more than that, the ending reveals

Emily’s obsession. In all, the unhappy ending, shows that the story is about Emily, who seems to

be a victim of both her circumstance (since there are clues that her father abused her) and by her

rejection of change and acceptance.

Finally, unhappy ending is also seen in Ernest Hemingway’s “End of Something.” Because

of Hemingway’s style or writing, his works, more so, have a lot of ambiguities. In “End of

Something,” readers might wonder, “what is happening between the two characters?” or “What

is point of the story?” The unhappy ending clarifies this. Readers can infer that Nick and

Marjorie breaks up. The ending shows Marjorie rowing away and Bill, Nicks’ friend, talking to

Nick about the breakup. The conversation between Nick and Bill reveals what is really going on

between Nick and Marjorie, which is “ending something.” The seemingly anti-climatic and