The Scarlet Letter,a representative work of Nathaniel Hawthorne,is a classical novel in American literature of 19th century.It vividly portrays people’s life which was greatly influenced by Puritanism and Calvinism.And the author Nathaniel Hawthorne,who lived in that er-a,is also inevitably influenced by these mainstream thoughts.He ex-pressed his black romanticism,black view of human nature and original sin theory in almost each of his work.In his masterpiece,the Scarlet Let-ter,one important theme is original sin.This essay will first analyze where the original sin theory stems from and how it’s developed by Hawthorne,and secondly will study how this theory influences the plot and major characters. The Scarlet Letter, a representative work of Nathaniel Hawthorne, is a classical novel in American literature of 19th century. It vividly portrays people’s life which was greatly affected by Puritanism and Calvinism. And the author Nathaniel Hawthorne, who lived in that er-a, He is ex-pressed his black romanticism, black view of human nature and original sin theory in almost each of his work. In his masterpiece, the Scarlet Let-ter, one important theme is original sin. This essay will first analyze where the original sin theory stems from and how it’s developed by Hawthorne, and secondly will study how this this theory influences the plot and major characters.