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The fate of all characters in The Scarlet Letter was determined by Hawthorne’s revealing statement in the middle of the novel. This impenetrable truth dictates the behavior of the characters in the entire story. The public and the hierarchy of the society demanded punishments for all involved of such severity that even years after the crime its potential still resonated throughout the town, effecting the plot through its ending. Hawthorne’s placement of this …

…bore her letter each day. Dimmesdale died on the platform and Hester followed years after, still bearing her letter which burns through to her interior. The original dictations of society’s punishments resonated throughout the end of the novel by Hawthorne’s system of sticking critical themes in where they matter. Through a deep plot and the unchanging instincts of human nature he is able to make common justice the critical theme of the novel.