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Analysis Of Nathaniel Hawthorne's Short Story 'The Birth-Mark'

1470 Words6 Pages

Francisco Villegas
Dr. Richard Coronado
English 2326
September 29, 2014
Perfection Is Not A Goal Worth Pursuing

In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story, “The Birth-Mark,” Aylmer apparently after getting married with Georgiana noticed the birthmark Georgiana had in her left cheek. Aylmer is very troubled how the birthmark resembles in Georgiana’s face. He proclaimed that it is a natural flaw that has affected her vivid human perfection. Since Aylmer is a scientist he propose to Georgiana to get rid of her birthmark once and for all. At first she angrily questions Aylmer’s proposition, but her love for him changes her thoughts and she accepts to permanently get rid of the birthmark. After intensive research and hours in his laboratory also …show more content…

Since the beginning of the story it is clear that Aylmer’s passion for science is incredible, but the love for Georgiana is not. Hawthorne comments, “… it was not unusual for the love of science to rival the love of woman” (645). According to Hawthorne, “He had devoted himself, however, too unreservedly to scientific studies, ever to be weaned from them by any second passion. His love for his young wife might prove the stronger of the two; but it could only be by intertwining itself with his love of science, and uniting the strength of the latter to its own” (645). As you can see evidence suggests that Aylmer has love for both science and Georgiana, but his love for science exceeds more greatly than his love for Georgiana. Immediately after getting married Aylmer asked Georgiana to get the birthmark removed, and of course by the use of science. It seems that he wants to treat her like a simple experiment nothing more. Aylmer states that it shocks him that something so little ruined her appearance, and tries to convince Georgiana to scientifically get rid of the mark. Hawthorne provides proof by writing, “No, dearest Georgiana, you came so nearly perfect from the hand of Nature, that this slightest possible defect----which we hesitate whether to term a defect or a beauty----shocks me, as being …show more content…

The birthmark in Georgiana’s cheek symbolizes that she is a mortal being, and its nature’s way of showing it. Nathaniel comments, “The Crimson Hand expressed the ineludible gripe, in which mortality clutches the highest and purest of earthly mould, degrading them into kindred with the lowest, and even with very brutes, like whom their visible frames return to dust” (646). Nobody gets away from the hands of death; everybody in this world is destined to die at some point. Again Hawthorne provides evidence that her birthmark is the symbol of mortality by writing, “With the morning twilight, Aylmer opened his eyes upon his wife’s face, and recognised the symbol of imperfection; and when they sat together at the evening hearth, his eyes wandered stealthily to her cheek, and beheld, flickering with the blaze of the wood fire, the spectral Hand that wrote mortality, where he would fain have worshipped” (647). Mortality is written all over Georgiana’s birthmark, if taken away it would resemble nothing else than death itself. According to Hawthorne, “Aylmer now remembered his dream. He had fancied himself, with his servant Aminidab, attempting an operation for the removal of the birth-mark. But the deeper went the knife, the deeper sand the Hand, until at length its tiny grasp appeared to have caught hold of Georgiana’s heart; whence,

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Hawthorne emphasizes on Aylmer’s character shift in the poem to demonstrate his views on obsession. Individuals foolishness to achieve perfection has led to critical decisions in society. Hawthorne explained Aylmer’s characteristics by describing him as a man of science (447). Aylmer’s passion for science help to understand the obsession that he has and Hawthorne showed how much Aylmer

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Intro: Nathaniel Hawthorne’s fictional short story “The Birthmark” and The Twilight Zone’s darkly romantic episode “Eye of the Beholder” both use gothic elements and delve into the realm of science to explore concepts of beauty and perfection. Through their contrasting characterizations of the scientist and employments of irony and allusions, each work comes to its own conclusions about how to define and treat beauty. Body #1: The Birthmark From the very first paragraph, Hawthorne’s story revolves around Aylmer, a scientist who supposedly gives up his career to marry the beautiful woman of his dreams, Georgiana.

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The Birthmark The short story “The Birthmark” was written by Nathaniel Hawthorne in 1834. The story follows a brilliant, yet insane scientist named Aylmer. He creates so many brilliant inventions in hoping to improve his life; his wife is just as perfect, despite a small hand shaped birthmark on her cheek. While Georgiana is considered gorgeous and beautiful by hundreds of men, only Aylmer sees the fault in the birthmark and deems it as a flaw that only he can fix with science. Nathaniel Hawthorne uses symbolism and figurative language to help convey the meaning of the short story to readers.

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In the short story “The Birthmark”, Nathaniel Hawthorne writes about a scientist, his wife, and the unhealthy relationship they share. The story follows Aylmer, a scientist, who is determined to remove his wife Georgiana’s birthmark. One aspect of their unhealthy relationship is Georgiana’s sole dependance on Aylmer. Furthermore, Aylmer does not view Georgiana as his equal. Not only this, but Aylmer frequently belittles her, continuously pointing out her flaws, which drives her to do something dangerous.

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Georgiana took note of Aylmer’s displeasure of the birthmark from the dream and through his stealthy stare, causing Georgina displeasure (Nathaniel Hawthorne 114). Aylmer’s further loathing of the birthmark, causes Georgiana to give up for the sake of his happiness. She tells, Aylmer after bringing up the conversation of the birthmark, “Either remove this dreadful hand, or take my wretched life!” (Nathaniel Hawthorne 114). Aylmer could have avoided tragedy, however he failed to listen to his assistant Aminadab, who stated he would “never part with that birthmark” (Nathaniel Hawthorne 114).

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He provides the story with a character that identifies contrast between the others. He is Aylmer's assistant although we tend to get the impression that he may actually be smarter than Aylmer in a way. As he realizes that Aylmer has killed Georgiana, he begins to laugh. He believes that Aylmer has simply got what was coming to him. He warned him that she already is perfect and says, “If she were my wife, I'd never part with that birthmark”(208).

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It describes him as “Proficient in every branch of natural philosophy”, (Hawthorne, 365) to the extent that he even discovered an elixir that he could determine if a man would drop dead instantly or linger out years after only of a breath of this substance. We see a great irony in how intelligent Aylmer is, and yet how many scientific mistakes he makes. When he uses the elixir of life upon the flower, it grows beautifully but also self-combusts. He then tells Georgiana he will need to use a much stronger substance on her, in order to fix her birthmark. The flower very obviously foreshadows Georgiana’s death, and the result proves that Aylmer’s science can produce extremely unpredictable results.

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Aylmer believed that if people really had the desire to be perfect they would strive for it, but they don’t and in result Aylmer cannot accept the reality that people are imperfect. Hawthorne uses a number of techniques such as, setting, foreshadowing, imagery, tone, etc. With each of these different techniques he uses them to contribute to the story to create the theme or idea of the

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Aylmer believes that he can correct “what Nature left imperfect in her fairest work!” (4). Aylmer, who stands as a symbol for science, obsessively seeks to remove Georgiana’s birthmark and make her ideal. When mankind attempts to change nature in the pursuit of perfection, it never ends well as seen in Aylmer’s attempts at

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In “The Birthmark”, Georgiana tells Aylmer of how she would drink poison if he were ever to instruct her to because she trusts his judgement (Hawthorne 16). Georgiana is rejecting all forms of reasoning in this statement for she knows well of what would happen to her if she were to drink poison, but because she trusts in his “deep science” she would drink it regardless (Hawthorne 8). Also, Eckstein states, “...science ‘has become religion not only for Aylmer but also for Georgina’”(511). The couple has become so reliant on the statistics of science that it has gotten to the point where it is having a negative effect on both of them. Georgina’s negative affect was that her faith in her husband’s science resulted in her ultimate death; according to Eckstein, Aylmer’s obsession made him “ unfit for human companionship”

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The focus on “what could be” instead of “what really is” ruined Aylmer and it’s what ruins so many people in today’s culture. In The Birthmark as Georgina is dying it’s said that Aylmer’s assistant Aminadab, is chuckling but Hawthorne gives no reason as to why. Perhaps Aminadab sees the ridiculous and silliness of what Aylmer was trying to accomplish and can’t help himself from laughing. Maybe Aminadab sees the idiocy of trying to play against nature and is laughing because it took Aylmer so long to figure it

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Aylmer’s views on perfection led to the demise of Georgiana. He skewed Georgiana’s views by making it seem that if she wasn’t perfect then he could not love her. Throughout the process Georgiana was scared of her husband’s actions but she was made to believe that what he was doing was normal so she went along with it.

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This overriding confidence makes him blind to his past failures and logical sense. Georgiana pointes out the faults Aylmer’s past experiments by saying, “His brightest diamonds were the merest pebbles, and felt to be so by himself, in comparison with the inestimable gems which lay hidden beyond his reach.” (Hawthorne, 217). This shows that Aylmer always reached for the unreliable and impossible overcomes when experimenting. This raises concern when Aylmer focuses on using his own wife as an experiment rather than the love of his life.

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Aylmer is consumed with a pursuit of perfection in his scientific studies and also in nature. The leads to Aylmer being appalled at the blemish on his wife Georgiana’s cheek. He tells Georgiana “you came so nearly perfect from the hand of Nature, that this slightest possible defect..shocks me, as being the visible mark of earthly imperfection” (216). This is the catalyst for Aylmer's seeking for perfection in his wife who is a natural being. Aylmer recognizes that there is a “fatal flaw of humanity, which Nature...stamps ineffaceable on all her productions” (216).

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Equally Aylmer and Dr. Rappiccini, both characters in Hawthorne’s works causes destruction of human life with selfish aims to perfect the woman of their choice. In the case of Aylmer’s love interest in science, just as with the case of Beatrice’s father, blinds him to the true beauty and humanity of the woman before him. Aylmer views Georgiana’s birthmark as a symbol of imperfection and tries to remove it. At the end of the story, Georgiana say, "My poor Aylmer," she repeated, with a more than human tenderness, "you have aimed loftily; you have done nobly. Do not repent that with so high and pure a feeling, you have rejected the best the earth could offer.

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