The short story "The Minister's Black Veil" by Nathaniel Hawthorne is about a minister who some day starts wearing a black veil concealing his face and never taking it off not even when he dies. After reading the story three different interpretation possibilities came to my mind.
             One simple and maybe even obvious interpretation is that of excluding someone because he's different. When the minister appears at Sunday mass wearing a black veil everyone is shocked but no one is courageous enough to address him about it. People often judge others because of their appearance but don't try to look behind what's obvious.
             Another approach could be that the minister is wearing the black veil to conceal the sins he has committed. The parish believes that he's feeling guilty about something and therefore hides his face. The saying that "eyes are the windows to ones soul" comes to mind. He hides his eyes as to prevent the parishioners to look into his eyes and see the sins he has committed. They even ask themselves if he "seek[s] to hide [something] from the dread Being whom he was addressing".
             However I believe that Hawthorne was aiming at something different. In my opinion the minister is wearing the black veil rather to show the parish their own sinful behaviour than his own. The parish is clearly affronted and scared by their ministers actions but they don't even try to look 'behind' the veil to understand what he's trying to show them. They only think that the minister has done something wrong but they don't even consider that he's trying to make them look at themselves. And thus it shows that the parishioners are very narrow minded. They rather look at other people and point out their faults than to think about their own crimes and sins.
             I believe that the minister is quite a smart man. He sees the sinful behaviour of his parish maybe even heard about it when they were confessing to him. Bu he is unable to change something through his...