Hawthorne personifies both the black veil and the Earth to reflect Hooper's devotion to the veil and the isolation that results. While officiating a wedding, the minister catches a glimpse of his reflection for the first time since he started wearing the black veil. Horrified, he runs from the lively reception into the darkness of the night:
At this instant, catching a glimpse of his figure in the looking-glass, the black veil involved his own spirit in the horror with which it overwhelmed all others. His frame shuddered, his lips grew white, he spilt his untasted wine upon the carpet, and rushed forth into the darkness. For the Earth, too, had on her Black Veil.
Personification is a literary device where non-humans are described in human terms. Here, the earth is being personified by being gendered as female (referred to as “her”) and described wearing a black veil like Reverend Hooper’s, which of course the earth cannot literally do. When Hawthorne characterizes the earth as wearing its own “Black Veil,” he is poetically describing the darkness of the night. By personifying the earth in this moment, he is also emphasizing the isolation that Reverend Hooper feels; devoid of human companionship, he attributes human qualities to the earth itself, seeking comfort in “her” welcoming arms where he can’t find it in the arms of a loved one.
It is also common when using personification to capitalize words that aren’t ordinarily capitalized, suggesting that the capitalized word is a proper noun, like a person’s name. In the above passage, Hawthorne capitalizes not just “Earth,” but also “Black Veil,” suggesting that both are not only being personified but also endowed with a special significance.
This capitalization of “Black Veil” happens once more at the story’s end, after Reverend Hooper has died and been buried with the veil still obscuring his face:
The grass of many years has sprung up and withered on the grave, the burial stone is moss-grown, and good Mr. Hooper’s face is dust; but awful still is the thought that it mouldered beneath the Black Veil!
This repeated capitalization of “Black Veil” reflects Reverend Hooper’s now-obsession with it. Although he began wearing it as a sincere lesson in morality, by the story’s end, he is wearing it not so much out of a genuine desire to teach his congregation, but out of stubbornness. Because the veil has shaped his life in such significant ways, he has spent much of his life thinking about it—possibly even more time than he spent thinking about the religious convictions that led him to wear the veil in the first place. By the story’s end, his near-fanatical devotion to keeping his face covered by the veil has, in a sense, surpassed his devotion to God. Hawthorne’s choice to capitalize “Black Veil” reflects this: the veil has become something of a deity to Reverend Hooper.
