At the end of this short story, Mr. Hooper is on his deathbed, speaking to another minister and the people who have come to be with him as he passes on. Reverend Mr. Clark has told Mr. Hooper that it is time to remove the black veil from his face, and Mr. Hooper has vowed that it will never come off while he's alive. The final paragraph sets the scene: Mr. Hooper in bed in the midst of a "circle of pale spectators." He admonishes them for fearing the sight of him when they do not fear the sight of one another, and he finds it remarkable that he should have been avoided for his whole life, all because of the veil he wears. He says,
"When the friend shows his inmost heart 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! I look around me, and, lo! on every visage a Black Veil!"
In other words, he claims that everyone wears such a veil, figuratively. Mr. Hooper wears a literal black veil in order to symbolize this "secret sin" that each of us has. We are all sinners, but none of us are willing to share this reality with our fellows. Only Mr. Hooper has been honest enough to acknowledge this fact (of our sinfulness and our desire to hide it), and, for that honesty, he is been hypocritically ostracized.
Thus, the story's final paragraph helps to convey the ideas that we are all sinners, and yet we all attempt to conceal this fact from the world. Further, that we care more about the appearance of sinlessness than actually being sinless, and the order of our priorities renders us hypocrites.
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