This veil causes all of the negative attention, which ultimately leads to a life of isolation and depression. The funeral of the young woman symbolizes the sins of the minister. “The fact that the veil appears on the same day as the funeral could possibly mean that he either loved the woman or had something to do with her death.
So, the major theme of the story is that of man’s living with his own sins. This is portrayed through Hooper’s sort of punishing himself for sins unknown to everyone else by wearing the veil. Because all others in the story were so worldly, they did not understand that his actions could have been done by all of them. They too should have been wearing a veil.