How does Mr. Hooper's veil affect the way he views the world around him in "The Minister's Black Veil"? What does this suggest about the veil as a...

At the beginning of the story, Hawthorne says
that the veil Mr. Hooper has adopted "probably did not intercept his sight, further than to
give a darkened aspect to all living and inanimate things." At the end, immediately before
he dies, Hooper himself adds that when he looks around him (through the veil), he sees a similar
veil on every face. Although this is clearly meant figuratively, it is also literally true that
the veil darkens the faces of others from the minister's perspective.

Hooper
also tells his wife that the veil is a symbol, though he does not say what it symbolizes, an
omission which is clearly deliberate, to give the reader some latitude in deciding the nature of
the symbolism. One answer is that the veil symbolizes the darkness of human nature and human
desires.

Another, which he suggests in his final speech, is that it shows our
essential separation from each other. Since we do not tell even those we love most, the true
contents of our hearts and minds, it is a small step from this dissimulation to covering up the
face entirely, leaving others to guess even at the imperfect reflection of our thoughts and
feelings which the face discloses.

The symbolism, like the veil itself, works
in two ways. It completely obscures the minister's face, forcing others to guess what he is
thinking and feeling, but it also darkens his view of them. The symbolism, therefore, seems to
comprehend both the darkness of human nature and the fundamental solitariness of and separation
between people.