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 quote is typical of his clever artifice, giving readers critical information at an important intersection of the novel, but a part where this knowledge is overshadowed and not considered pertinent. The passage is perfect Hawthorne incorporating the plot of the novel, the true nature of people, and his unique writing style.
             The common justice of the scarlet letter is the visual reminder to Hester Prynne of her deemed crime. It was a "lurid gleam along the dark passage-way of the interior"(p.48) placed upon her breast by the tyrannical judiciaries of her town. Her punishment was a demand of the people to burden her with the weight of a jesterlike form in the community, for it was society's right to immediately acknowledging her as a sinner. Society also, in demanding justice, tried to force her religious reconciliation with an overanxious attempt to make her speak the name of her lover. The nature of her punishment, and the damnation that the public was so eager to give, lead Hester deeper into silence making the suffrage of her lover grow with age and the confusion and anger of her child to grow as well. The affect of the society on Pearl is astounding. From her behavior in chapter seven, "...shaking her little hand with a variety of threatening gestures, suddenly made a rush at the knot of her enemies, and put them all to flight. She resembled in her pursuit of them, an infant pestilence, -the scarlet fever, or some such half-fledged angel of judgement,-whose missi...