The theme of the "minister's black veil" Morse Peckham in "The Development of Hawthorne's Romanticism" explains what he thinks is Hawthorne's main theme in his stories: This technique , although Hawthorne's is different from that of European writers, creates analogies between self and non-self, between personalities and worlds. . . . Henceforth Hawthorne's theme is the redemption of the self through the acceptance and exploitation of what society defines as the guilt of the individual but which for the Romantic is the guilt of society (92). The interplay between the guilt of the individual, the Reverend Mr. Hooper, and the guilt of society, underlie all of Nathaniel Hawthorne's “The Minister's Black Veil” from beginning to end. In fact, the last words of the parish priest underline this fact: “I look around, and behold! on every face a Black Veil!''But is guilt the main theme? Clarice Swisher in “Nathaniel Hawthorne: a Biography” states: “When Hawthorne called his stories 'Romanticism,' he meant that they belong to the Romantic movement which. . . . emphasize imagination and personal freedom” (18). In this story where does this “personal freedom” lead? It leads to a puritanical parson who masks his face with a crepe, which, in turn, leads to his alienation by the parishioners. Is this the most dominant theme? Theme is the “general concept or doctrine, implied or stated, that an imaginative work is designed to incorporate and make persuasive to the reader” (Abrams 170). In this story the dominant theme for the reader is the alienation of a man from society. Hyatt Wagoner in “Nathaniel Hawthorne” states: Alienation is perhaps the theme he deals with most powerfully...... middle of paper......Nathaniel Hawthorne, edited by Clarice Swisher. San Diego, CA: Greenhaven Press, 1996.Peckham, Morse. “The Development of Hawthorne Romanticism.” 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.Wagoner, Hyatt. "Nathaniel Hawthorne." In Six Nineteenth-Century American Novelists, edited by Richard Foster. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1968.Williams, Stanley T. "The Puritan Mind of Hawthorne." In Readings on Nathaniel Hawthorne, edited by Clarice Swisher. San Diego, CA: Greenhaven Press, 1996.