In "The Minister's Black Veil," who is Mr. Hooper and what is he like?

Mr. Hooper is a Puritan minister who has a significant realization that compels him to wear a black veil that covers most of his face.  When he begins to wear this veil, his congregation starts to think of him very differently from the way they did before, and they treat him differently as well.  He becomes a rather terrible presence, despite his gentleness and reputation for goodness. 

Mr. Hooper's first sermon after putting on the...

Mr. Hooper is a Puritan minister who has a significant realization that compels him to wear a black veil that covers most of his face.  When he begins to wear this veil, his congregation starts to think of him very differently from the way they did before, and they treat him differently as well.  He becomes a rather terrible presence, despite his gentleness and reputation for goodness. 

Mr. Hooper's first sermon after putting on the veil addressed "secret sin, and those sad mysteries which we hide from our nearest and dearest, and would fain conceal from our own consciousness" if we could.  His congregation feels as though he has "discovered their hoarded iniquity of deed or thought."  Now that they feel vulnerable, they neglect to return Mr. Hooper's greetings in the street or invite him to Sunday dinner as they used to do.  He becomes somewhat of an outcast because he has essentially admitted to everyone that he has a secret sinful nature as well as insinuated that they do as well, and this makes people extremely uncomfortable.  However, he feels that he must continue to wear the veil, likely because it is the only way to attempt to tell the truth about the thing we all try to hide: the fact that we are sinful.  In wearing the veil, he at least admits this truth about himself where everyone else tries to hide it.