Compare And Contrast Cathedral And The Birthmark

Raymond Carver’s “Cathedral” and Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Birthmark” illustrates how spirituality and humility helps a person to understand the meaning of life, allowing one to grow in wisdom and love. In the beginning, it was evident that the main characters of the two stories, Aylmer and the narrator of “Cathedral”, were unwittingly arrogant and lacked understanding of spirituality. Although it turned out a little differently for Aylmer, it wasn't until towards the end of the stories when both characters finally came to a better understanding. The authors of these stories convey a personal message and teaches readers an important lesson. The point of this analysis is to show how Carver and Hawthorne used these stories to convey this message.

The main character in “The Birthmark”, is a well-known scientist named Aylmer who is supposedly “proficient in every branch of natural philosophy” (Hawthorne 276).

The plot of the story begins in the late 1800s when Aylmer marries a spiritually and physically beautiful yet “flawed” woman named Georgiana who was born with a red birthmark in the shape of a hand on her left cheek. According to Aylmer, she is “nearly perfect from the hand of god” (Hawthorne 241) except for the hideous birthmark on the side of her face. Blinded by his arrogance and a lack of spiritually, Aylmer is obsessed with his wife’s physical appearance and is unable to understand the true meaning of beauty. Shortly after their marriage, Aylmer questions Georgiana about the appearance of the birthmark. He asks her if she has ever considered having it removed. At first, Georgiana admired the birthmark because townsmen referred to the birthmark as an enchanting “charm” that she could not part with. Once she sees how aylmer is disgusted by the sight of the birthmark and viewed it as a sole flaw of his “almost perfect” wife, Georgiana begins to dislike it even more than Aylmer. Aylmer then has a dream that prophesies what will happen if he proceeded to remove the birthmark. In the dream, he describes how he was trying to surgically remove the mark, but instead he found himself cutting deeper

and deeper into the heart of his beloved wife's. After realizing the dream’s message, Aylmer felt guilty and expressed empathy towards his wife. After hearing this, blinded by love, and wanting to please her husband, Georgiana confessed she was more than willing to take the risk of removing the mark even if it cost her her life. The couple begins to obsess over the birthmark leading Aylmer to desperately try to find a cure to get rid of it. Reaching the climax of the story, Georgiana drinks the potion that Aylmer concocted. She falls asleep, and as the mark begins to disappear, Aylmer rejoices, not knowing of what is to come. Moments later Georgiana awakes and informs him that she is dying because he “rejected the best of what the earth had to offer”. It is unfortunate for Aylmer that he lacks a spiritual connection and is unable to humble himself and understand that his wife’s birthmark is connected to her inner beauty, and it is a part of who she is. His assistant Aminadab, understands that real beauty lies within our souls, and it creates trust and love among people for life, but he was unable to convey this message to his friend. Aminadab said “if she were my wife I'd never part with that birthmark”, insinuating what a fool Aylmer is for not recognizing the spiritual connection Georgiana and the birthmark shared.