In terms of ambiguity in the story, something that doesn't have a single clear meaning, Mr. Hooper's wearing the veil in the first place is somewhat ambiguous. Does he hope to inspire others to be honest about their own "secret sin" so that they can have a more truthful relationship with the world? Or does he only wish to be honest, himself, so that he doesn't become a hypocrite about his own secret sin? Is his intention to make his parishioners alter their behavior or does he only wish to point out the truth that he has ascertained about the world? If it's the former, why does he not simply reveal the veil's meaning and his intentions explicitly? He is the town's spiritual leader after all.
Further, whether or not his congregation completely and totally understands the veil's meaning is another ambiguous uncertainty. When Mr. Hooper preaches his first sermon after he begins to wear the veil, its subject is secret sin, and his auditors "felt as if the preacher had crept upon them, behind his awful veil, and discovered their hoarded iniquity of deed or thought." Do they connect this to the meaning of the veil? They later send some church elders to ask about it, but the people can never bring themselves to ask; this would imply that they don't know. But it seems possible that they actually do understand and only pretend not to so that they don't have to publicly admit to the truth that the veil represents: that we are all secretly sinful and seek to hide it from everyone else. Elizabeth, Mr. Hooper's fiancee, comes to understand the veil's meaning after a brief conversation with him, and she abandons him and their betrothal as a result of it. This implies that the others who keep him at a distance have had similar realizations, but it could also just be that they are intimidated and frightened by the veil without actually understanding its significance.
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