Your question is interesting because we are never told
explicity the reason why Mr. Hooper dons the black veil, except for it being a symbol.
Other authors, in particular Poe, have suggested that there was some kind of illicit
relationship going on, but there is no proof other than mere conjecture. When we think
about the conflicts in this story, what is fascinating to me is how Hawthorne used the
story to challenge Puritanism and the conventions of his time - it is this central moral
conflict that is the driving force of the story.
"The
Minister's Black Veil" exposes the hypocrisy and judgemental attitude of many Puritans.
It does this through pointing out that everyone has some form of
secret sin that we hide, perhaps even from ourselves. Consider Mr. Hooper's final
declaration regarding his black veil:
"When the friend shown his inmost hearth to his
friend; the lover to his best beloved; when man does not vainly shrink from the eye of
his Creator, loathsomely treasuring up the secret of his sin; then deem me a monster,
for the symbol beneath which I have lived, and
die!"
Hawthorne thus makes a
serious allegation about the form of religiosity that Puritans presented - in outward
aspect true and good, whilst on the inside sins and faults were harboured and not
exposed. It is man's inability to completely be honest and open about his failings and
sins that make the black veil so terrifying an image in the story, for everyone, at
least partially, acknowledges that they have a black veil guarding their faults just as
surely as Mr. Hooper does.
Thus this story seems to talk
more about hypocrisy and judgemental attitudes which are used often to hide and mask our
own secret sins. This is the moral conflict of the story that demands that we all
recognise our own black veils.
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