At the funeral, Mr. Hooper's black veil seems very fitting. As the narrator says, "It was now an appropriate emblem." The veil is black, the color associated with mourning. Its meaning seems connected to the mysteries of life and death, which is also appropriate given that a young woman has just died. Mr. Hooper seems sorrowful and somber whenever he wears the veil, and these two emotions are both quite proper for the occasion.
At the wedding, however, Mr. Hooper and his veil are much less apt and welcome. He really alarms the bride, her "cold fingers quiver[ing] in the tremulous hand of the bridegroom [...]." In fact, she grows so pale that those in attendance say it was almost has though the woman who had been buried that morning had come out of her grave to be married that afternoon. The guests feel the gloom of the veil as well. Then, as Mr. Hooper is about to give his toast to the couple, he catches his own reflection in a mirror and panics, frightened even to look at the veil himself, and he drops his wine and rushes from the room. In short, though the veil "added deeper gloom to the funeral," which seemed appropriate, it "could portend nothing but evil to the wedding."
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