Nathanial Hawthorne made his opinion on science very clear in all of his stories. His religious beliefs and the beliefs of the people in that time period are portrayed through his stories. The stories that showcase his opinion the clearest are The Birthmark, Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment, Rappaccini’s Daughter. In each one of these short stories, there is a scientific experiment that rebels against religion and religious beliefs. They also try and defy nature and the natural being of a person. Hawthorne believes that science is ultimately weak in comparison to God and the natural beauty of the world. In The Birthmark, a scientist Alymer, is married to a beautiful woman Georgiana, whose one flaw in his eyes, is a birthmark located on her cheek. …show more content…
Hawthorne wrote The Birthmark during a time period when the method of science was really being held on a pedestal, and people thought it could let them do whatever they dreamed of. Alymer believes this false theory and challenges God’s natural being and attempts to make his wife perfect. When Alymer uses his science to interfere with his wife’s God given beauty, he ends up killing her. She can no longer live because she is too perfect to be on this earth. He learns that the interference of God’s creations can result in tragedy. To desire perfection is to deny a person’s mortality. In Dr.
Heidegger’s Experiment, the scientist gathers a couple old friends who seem to be unhappy with their lives. All they desire is to be young once again. Since they were so unhappy, they decided to join an experiment, which turned out to be an illusion. Hawthorne creates a false experiment that resists Gods natural purpose. Once the elder friends begin the experiment and drink the youthful elixir, they start to act how they would’ve when they were young. The three men quickly make fools out of themselves by fighting over the widowed woman and showing their extreme lack of wisdom. Hawthorne clearly highlights that science cannot defy God, and that sometimes it is good to not look back and wish things were how they used to be. In Rappacini’s Daughter, Hawthorne tells a story of a scientist whose life is consumed with science. Rappaccini had a daughter named Beatrice who spends her life engulfed by lethal science that her father practices. Unfortunately, Rappiccini is blinded by his science and cannot see how he is effecting his daughter. Rappiccini’s addiction to science resulted in his own daughter’s fatality. This story provides information to the theory that Hawthorne thought that if was played with, that it becomes
deadly. All of these stories have a common theme that Hawthorne wasn’t fond of science. He believed it was some sort of evil and you should trust only God’s will. His representation of science can show how dangerous science can sometimes be if not used correctly. Hawthorne proves through each of his stories that science should not interfere with God’s natural will and Mother Nature. Hawthorne and other people at this time period thought science was not a good thing because there was little to know about it. Now, we have previous scientific experiments that have been done and have proven that when done right, science can be beneficial to human lives. Whether it is curing an illness or finding out through scientific research how we predict the weather, when practiced not for immortal practices, science can be helpful to our lives. However, for Hawthorne’s time, science was misunderstood as a rebellious action against God.
Since the beginning of time, people have lived by the expression, or at least heard
In Nathanial Hawthorne’s “The Birth-Mark,” Aylmer, a crazed, “mad-scientist,” seeks to remove the scarlet handprint birthmark from his wife, Georgiana’s cheek. From the opening of the work, the third person narrator describes Aylmer’s obsession with science and the adverse effects it has had on his social life. Aylmer is tied up in this battle within himself and with his assigned association between the natural and the spiritual world. He wishes to have as much control over these colliding worlds as possible, granting himself god-like power and control in the process. In the art of manipulating nature through science, Aylmer believes he is able to alter the spiritual aspects of the natural as well. Aylmer’s focus on spirituality is Hawthorne’s way of commenting on mankind’s fixation on sin and redemption.
There are numerous instances of ambiguity in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Birthmark”; this essay hopes to explore critics’ comments on that problem within the tale, as well as to analyze it from this reader’s standpoint.
In Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment, Nathaniel Hawthorne creates a fictional experiment that resists both God and natures intentions. Dr. Heidegger gathers a few old acquaintances who seem to be unhappy with their lives and they all wish to be young again. They also hope having their wisdom from over the years, will allow them not to make the same mistakes that resulted in their unhappiness. Since they were so desperate, they joined a unpromising experiment, which turned out to be an illusion. Once the old friends started hallucinating their youth, they began to act out as they would have a decade prior. As well as forgetting all of their insight, as the narrator explains, “The fresh gloss of the soul, so early lost, and without which the worlds successive scenes had been but a gallery of faded pictures, again threw its enchantment over all prospects”(6). Clearly god did not intend the experiment subjects to be given a second chance and painfully strips them of their young age once again, “The delirium which it created had effervesced away. Yes! they were old again. With a shuddering impulse, that showed her a woman still, the widow clasped her skinny hands before her face, and wished that the coffin-lid were over it, since it could be no longer beautiful”(8). The fatal outcome in this story was the hope the old people once had in science. Therefore proving science is incapable of defying God’s power.
with a mortal frame” (Hawthorne 354). By tracing the tipping scales of perfection vs. dissatisfaction, readers of “The Birthmark” witness the slow demise of Georgiana and Aylmer, and gain important insight into human nature.
It would be no surprise if the uprising of positivism in Hawthorne’s time influenced him to write this story. The reader must keep in mind that Hawthorne wrote this story in a time where many perhaps frowned upon scientific research. If he would have written the story in this current time period, it might have been written differently. “The Birthmark” attacks science in a way by presenting it as an unstoppable force determined to find a solution and perfection to everything. Science cannot completely perfect nature but it can try to improve it.
Nathaniel Hawthorne's Rappaccini's Daughter is perhaps the most complex and difficult of all Hawthornes short stories, but also the greatest. Nathaniel Hawthorne as a poet, has been characterized as a man of low emotional pressure who adopted throughout his entire life the role of an observer. He was always able to record what he felt with remarkable words but he lacked force and energy. Hawthorne's personal problem was his sense of isolation. He thought of isolation as the root of all evil. Therefore, he made evil the theme of many of his stories. Hawthorne's sense of the true human included intellectual freedom, passion and tenderness (Kaul 26).
During this time of enlightenment and exploration however, the standards of Christianity and ethical thought challenged science and its moral reasoning. Despite the large progress in society, the church's vast power led the people to fear science. However the church's fear was not just for the salvation of their church, but that science would disprove the proof of God and take God's place in society. For this to happen would bring chaos to society and give little hope to people. The thought of a life without God is daunting to most, and would create an uneasiness to life and an immense fear of death. Mary Shelley's Frankenstein through Victor Frankenstein's perilous journey shows the destruction behind man's thirst for scientific knowledge and the ethical reasons as to why man should not play God.
"Nathaniel Hawthorne- Biography." The European Graduate School. The European Graduate School EGS, 1997-2012. Web. 25 November 2013.
The Birthmark and Symbolism Cloudy headed and conflicted describes Georgina, one of the main characters in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Birthmark.” In this eerie short story Georgina, who is seemingly perfect, is convinced by her husband, Aylmer, who is a scientist obsessed with perfection, that the small birthmark on her face is her only source of imperfection. While others have told her that this birthmark is a sign of magical endowments, Aylmer is disgusted by the sight of the birthmark, referring to it as a defect (Hawthorne 304-5). Georgina is taken aback by this comment and resents her husband for it. As the story progresses, Aylmer convinces Georgina to allow him to try and rid her of the mark.
The Role of Women in Rappaccini's Daughter, The Prophetic Pictures, Lady Eleanor's Mantle, and The Birth-Mark
Every man before has always complimented Georgiana on her sweet imperfection. People would tell her all the time that true beauty was in that little blemish. Aylmer, being the man of Science wanted to change what nature had created. Typically, we all know better than to go against Nature, but not Aylmer. Georgiana finally agreed to let her husband remove the birthmark due to a frightening dream Aylmer had encountered. Aylmer started working on a potion to remove Georgiana 's birthmark. As soon as Georgiana sipped the potion, she suddenly falls into a deep coma-like state. The birthmark magically disappears from Georgina 's face. However, as the birthmark fades away, so does Georgina 's life. Hawthorne uses Georgiana 's character to symbolize beauty in this story. Georgiana is already made perfect in the eyes of Nature and all other men, expect Aylmer. Aylmer, representing Science, tries to change Georgiana 's beauty that Nature has created. Aylmer was successful in removing the birthmark, but unsuccessful in keeping Georgiana alive. Aylmer was too intertwined in Science to realize that Georgiana was perfectly made by Nature. Nature paid Aylmer back for trying to correct Georgiana 's face by taking the life of his beloved
One of the Hawthorne's best examples of the descent into madness (or at least a form of it) is...
One of the main themes discussed in this story is perfection which was evident by Aylmer obsessing over making his wife perfect by removing the birthmark off
Though she consents to having her birthmark removed, Georgiana’s initial reaction to Aylmer’s shock at her facial defect is to redden “with momentary anger” before dissolving into tears (645); though her secondary reaction fits into the stereotypical female response to a physical critique, the fact that her initial reaction is anger implies that she is more than merely a docile housewife. However, her actions still reflect those of a docile housewife; when he confines her to a dimly lit apartment, she acquiesces solemnly and quietly spends her days doing as Aylmer