Forgiveness- Wall manipulates the usual tradition of pressuring criminals, before their executions, to forgive the people that condemned them. Wall says that she is innocent and that “the witnesses who swore against me are surely mistaken, but as a dying person I freely forgive them. This forgiveness and her generosity in “believing” that the witnesses against her were mistaken rather than lying gives her an air of moral superiority and piety that she surely planned.

Curious- Wall seems to be acting for an audience, the “ever-curious public,” who, she says, “will be anxious to know every particular circumstance of the life and character of a person in my unhappy situation.”  Despite her certain guilt as a thief, she manages to play the martyr.  She knows how to work the nosy crowd, but her performances seem like a waste of time because winning over the crowd won’t stop her execution.  She throws in an exoneration of a cripple woman, tools for escaping from jail baked into bread, and other pop favorites.

Conscience- Levi Ames is troubled by his conscience, but it is still one dictated by religion—his main fear is that he will go to hell.  He tries to ease his fears first by drinking and then by reading the Bible, but neither work too effectively: “O! a wounded conscience who can bear?” (182). 

Warning- Levi Ames has all kinds of warnings before he dies—some about how to keep from becoming a criminal (the typical), but also warnings for ordinary people about how to keep from being robbed: what sort of locks to have, where to keep luggage, and how to watch over your children.