The Minister's Black Veil

The Minister's Black Veil is the story of Mr. Hooper, a minister. Hooper comes to church one Sunday morning wearing a black veil on his face, leaving only his mouth and chin able to be seen. The town begins to feel uneasy around Mr. Hooper. After many attempts by the people of the town and even Mr. Hooper's own fiance Elizabeth, Mr. Hooper will neither remove the veil nor explain why he must wear it. Mr. Hooper is almost completely shunned by the town unless they are near death, in which case he is sought out. Mr. Hooper becomes a great minister full of love and kindness, but he lives his entire life being fear and casted out because of the black veil he wears. Mr. Hooper is on his death bed when Reverend Mr. Clark tried to remove the veil so Mr. Hooper doesn't die wearing it. Mr. Hooper refuses and speaks of how everyone feared him because he outwardly showed what they all had within, secret sin.

I see two ways to tie this story to the themes in The Crucible.
The first is the idea that social deviance leads to exhile. Everyone in town from members of the church to Mr. Hooper's fiance tried so hard to figure out what was going on, but he refused to remove his veil under any circumstances. Mr. Hooper ended up dying alone because of this. I'm going to be honest though. Personally, I do believe that Mr. Hooper either 1) suffered from mental illness  2) bore a secret sin so great that he could no longer live with himself or 3) sacrificed his life so that, in the end, he could save others.
That brings me to my second idea. It's mentioned several times what a great man Mr. Hooper is. And although people avoided him when they were healthy and happy, they flocked to him when they needed him, and he was always there for them. If my third thought of Mr. Hooper is true and he is indeed a sort of scapegoat for the town, he is similar to John Proctor. Even if it's my second idea that's true, he still showed the town that they all had a black veil; they just didn't wear it physically.