rejected.  It starts small: at first, they were "so wonder-struck" that the majority did not return his morning greeting.  Quickly, others begin to suspect that he "has gone mad" or that "Something must surely be amiss with Mr. Hooper's intellects."  Even Old Squire Saunders who used to invite Mr. Hooper to dinner every Sunday now "neglected to invite [him] to his table, where the good clergyman had been wont to bless the food, almost every Sunday since his settlement."  He makes everyone uncomfortable and so they tend to exclude him now whenever possible.

Third and finally, for Mr. Hooper, his character and nature (as well as humankind's in general) has become the focus of his existence.  Even though it puts him at odds with everyone in his community, he continues to wear the veil because it is the only way he feels that he is being honest in reference to the state of every human soul, and most especially his own.  Through his conversation with Elizabeth and his final comments before his death, we learn that Mr. Hooper wears the veil as a tangible symbol of an intangible notion: that each of us has some "secret sin" that we attempt to hide from others.  We screen our souls with a figurative veil so that no one will suspect that we are truly sinful, even though every one of us is.  He tells his mourners to "'Tremble also at each other! [....] I look around me, and, lo! on every visage a Black Veil!'"  This truth that Mr. Hooper has realized occupies almost every aspect of his life from the moment he puts the veil on until the moment he dies and no longer needs to wear it.

Mr. Hooper is a Romantic character both because he rejects social norms and because he is, in turn, rejected by the society to whose norms he will not adhere.  Covering his face is a clear departure from social norm, as evidenced by the responses of his parishioners when they glimpse him wearing the veil.  At first, some refuse to believe that "'it is our parson'"; others think he "'has gone mad,'" and others still believe that "'He has changed himself into something awful, only by hiding his face.'"  Mr. Hooper's rejection of the norm to keep, at least, his eyes uncovered disturbs them, and their reactions indicate their discomfort.  Likewise, many fail to return his morning greeting in their shock.  Though there is no violence in his voice when he preaches, "the hearers quaked."  Further, "Strange and bewildered looks repaid him for his courtesy," and Mr. Hooper no longer even receives the dinner invitations he has accepted since he first came to town.  

Finally, his interior life, his character, has become the major focus of his life (his interior life as well as the life he believes all humans lead).  Despite the fact that the veil renders him a virtual outcast -- except for performing only the duties associated with his office as clergyman -- he feels compelled to wear it because he feels that it best represents his true self.  Mr. Hooper has realized that he and the rest of humanity hold up a figurative veil between themselves and others when they insist that they are sinless.  The truth is that we all have "'secret sin,'" and we all, likewise, attempt to hide that truth from our fellows.  Thus, the veil is symbolic of this, our inherent human sinfulness and our insistence on hiding this nature from others.  On his deathbed, he cries that, instead of trembling only at him, his mourners should "'Tremble also at each other! [....]  I look around me, and, lo! on every visage a Black Veil!'"  The accurate representation of this state of his own soul occupies his life utterly.