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Georgiana's Unhealthy Relationship In The Birthmark By Nathaniel Hawthorne

791 Words4 Pages

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. Georgiana’s dependance on Aylmer, the inequality of the relationship and Aylmer’s disregard for her feelings, are the main ingredients of Aylmer and Georgiana’s unhealthy relationship. Georgiana’s dependance on Aylmer contributes to their unhealthy relationship. When Aylmer and Georgiana got married, Georgiana was taken from her mother's house, forcing her to live an isolated life with Aylmer. Georgiana says, “Then why did you take me from my mother’s side? You can not love what shocks you!” This quote explains that Georgiana is much younger than Aylmer, and suggests that she was taken from her mother's house in order for them to wed. When women are young they often seek comfort and advice from their families, a luxury that Georgiana does not enjoy. Due to the fact that she is stuck in Aylmer's house, where only his opinion is given …show more content…

When Aylmer and Georgiana got married, Georgiana was taken from her mothers home, making her complete dependent on Aylmer and his opinions. In addition to this, Aylmer’s belief hat he is better than God, and has the ability to remove Georgiana’s birthmark, creates inequality in their relationship. Finally, due to Georgiana’s obsession with what Aylmer thinks of her, paired with Aylmer's rude looks and comments, leads her to do something

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In the text, Georgiana demonstrates her tolerance towards Alymer, as she remains obedient, and faithful, as his experiment reveals her a narrow chance of success. She is too tolerant to him, which made her easy to manipulate and control, as Hawthorn writes, “Much as he had accomplished, she could not but observe that his most splendid success were almost invariably failures, if compared with the ideal at which he aimed” (8). Although she noticed the slight chance of success, she still viewed her husband as a god, who she must not reason with further. Jane, on the other hand was intolerant to her husband. She was aware of the mistreatment by her husband, which ultimately compelled her to get revenge against him by making him faint, as Gilman writes “Now why should that man have fainted?

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Georgiana, who is very much content with the way she looks was convinced by Aylmer to do an experiment on her face despite it being unsafe and dangerous. In the line, “He had devoted himself, however, too unreservedly to scientific studies ever to be weaned from them by any second passion,”(Hathorne) Aylmer’s true feelings about Georgiana only being second to science. To Georgiana, loving and taking care of him is her top priority and her fear of losing her husband’s love and her desires to please everyone around her caused her own life. Georgiana exclaims, “‘Shocks you, my husband!" cried Georgiana, deeply hurt; at first reddening with momentary anger, but then bursting into tears.

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Georgiana is evidently uncomfortable by the idea of Aylmer removing the mark. In order to increase Georgiana’s confidence in the experiment, Aylmer reveals some of the secrets of science discovered in the laboratory. However, all of the ‘experiments’ Aylmer shows Georgiana fails in some way. Aylmer found a way of creating portraits using light against metal; however, when used on Georgiana, only the crimson hand upon her face appeared in the image (Hawthorne, 295). Additionally, Aylmer reveals a magical flower to Georgiana, which when plucked released a lovely perfume and withered down to its seeds (Hawthorne, 295).

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