Internal and external conflict of the “black veil of the minister”Hugo McPherson in “Hawthorne's Use of Mythology” comments on the conflict “reason and passion” that he sees in the writer: “Who reads it as a Christian moralist he immediately recognizes an opposition between Head and Heart, between reason and passion which has to do not only with Puritan theology but with the neoclassical vision of Man..." (69). Nathaniel Hawthorne's story “ The Minister's Black Veil” contains both external and internal conflict, which this essay will explore. Literary critics mostly agree that Hawthorne's stories manifest strong internal conflicts within the main characters. Peter Conn in “Finding a Voice in an New Nation” comments on Hawthorne’s internal conflicts in his stories: “His most characteristic stories are darkly lyrical meditations on the devastating consequences that follow when love is withdrawn, whether through egotism, prejudice, or failure. of the sexual nerve” (81). RWB Lewis in “The Return into Rime: Hawthorne” implies an internal and external conflict in his statement: “Finally, it was Hawthorne who saw in The American Experience recreates the story of Adam and who. . . exploited the active metaphor of the American as Adam – before, during, and after the Fall” (72). QD Leavis says about internal conflict: the journey that everyone must make alone, in terror, at night, is the journey away from home and community, from conscious and daily social life, to the desert where the hidden self is satisfied, or is forced to do so. realize, his subconscious fears. . . .” (36). Clarice Swisher in “Nathaniel Hawthorne: a Biography” states: Hawthorne himself was concerned with problems of evil, the nat… the center of the card… the shaft. Selected short stories by Nathaniel Hawthorne. New York: Fawcett Premier, 1966. Leavis, Q. D. “Hawthorne as Poet.” In Hawthorne – A Collection of Critical Essays, edited by AN Kaul. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1966. Lewis, RWB “Back in Time: Hawthorne.” In Hawthorne – A Collection of Critical Essays, edited by AN Kaul. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1966. McPherson, Hugo. “Hawthorne's Use of Mythology.” In Readings on Nathaniel Hawthorne, edited by Clarice Swisher. San Diego, CA: Greenhaven Press, 1996. Sullivan, Wilson. "Nathaniel Hawthorne." In New England Men of Letters. New York: Macmillan Co., 1972. Swisher, Clarice. "Nathaniel Hawthorne: A Biography." In Readings on Nathaniel Hawthorne, edited by Clarice Swisher. San Diego, CA: Greenhaven Press, 1996.