The Minister's Black Veil

Minister's Black Veil, The,
parable by Hawthorne, published in The Token (1836) and in Twice-Told Tales (1837).

The Rev. Mr. Hooper, a New England Puritan minister, appears one Sunday with his face covered by a black veil. Refusing to explain his action to his terrified congregation, or to his fiancée, who leaves him, he goes through life concealing his face, saying only that the veil is a symbol of the curtain that hides every man's heart and makes him a stranger even to his friend, his lover, and his God.