What does the story "The Minister's Black Veil" reveal about Puritan religious beliefs, rules of behavior, values, and ideals?

"The Minister's Black Veil" helps to reveal the extent to which the Puritans valued sinlessness as well as conformity.  Hawthorne implies, through a sympathetic depiction of Mr. Hooper's character and beliefs, that all human beings are sinful and, further, that we all try to hide our sinfulness from one another because we are so afraid of feeling ourselves to be alone, the only sinner, and judged by our fellows, ourselves, and our God.  Though all...

"The Minister's Black Veil" helps to reveal the extent to which the Puritans valued sinlessness as well as conformity.  Hawthorne implies, through a sympathetic depiction of Mr. Hooper's character and beliefs, that all human beings are sinful and, further, that we all try to hide our sinfulness from one another because we are so afraid of feeling ourselves to be alone, the only sinner, and judged by our fellows, ourselves, and our God.  Though all of Mr. Hooper's parishioners experience some recognition of this fact, at least after the first sermon he delivers after putting on the veil, they uniformly continue to pretend sinlessness even after Mr. Hooper has pointed it out and continues to do so by wearing the veil.  Conformity is so important for them; even more important, Hawthorne seems to say, than actually being sinless is having the appearance of it. 

Likewise, Hawthorne shows, they value piety, but they value the appearance of piety more.  When Mr. Hooper begins to wear the veil, he signals to his community that he questions his own and their piety, and this makes them so dramatically uncomfortable with him that he becomes a social outcast for the remainder of his life.  If piety were their primary concern, then they would be far more willing to admit that Mr. Hooper is telling the truth and work together to become less sinful; however, since it is the appearance of piety that they value, they are more scared of the implications of Mr. Hooper's veil (his truth-telling) for their community than they are of the repercussions of their own lack of piety.