Please provide a quote from the story that answers the question, then explain why the quote you chose answers the question.
From the text:
"Why do you tremble at me alone?" cried he, turning his veiled face round the circle of pale spectators. "Tremble also at each other. Have men avoided me and women shown no pity and children screamed and fled only for my black veil? What but the mystery which it obscurely typifies has made this piece of crape so awful? 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 the end, the minister points out how all the townspeople have treated him poorly, neglecting their own sin and focusing on his. But, it seems that they never truly understood, or repented, their actions, as the story closes with the frightful thought that the minister’s face still lay behind the veil even in death.
Other interpretations believe the veil acted as a mirror, making all the townspeople more aware of their own sins. The more aware they became of their own sinful nature, the more uncomfortable they were, and thus being around the minister and seeing his veil troubled them deeply, even during happy times. Finally, other critics have claimed that the minister had committed a grave offense, such as adultery with the girl whose funeral he attended, and this was the reason that he could not tell Elizabeth what his crime had been.
