Death of Science

Science Of Death

Nathaniel Hawthorne was a writer with many successful stories. From reading those stories it is evident that he had an obsession with science and experimenting with people. In his stories you can find characters (or scientists) trying to find answers that typically end in death. This tragic result shows how one of Hawthorne’s main themes is the misuse of science.

The misuse of science that Hawthorne establishes in his stories is assiduous, but is most evident in The Birth Mark. In this short story he describes a couple, Aylmer and Georgiana, who are intertwine with science. For Aylmer believed “the love of science [could] rival the love of [a] woman in its depth and absorbing energy” because of Aylmer’s love of science. For Georgiana’s beauty “came so nearly perfect from the hand of Nature” except for a minor blemish. The blemish or defect was in the center of Georgiana’s left cheek, and was the reason that Aylmer thought he needed to experiment on or remove it. This was the basis of Hawthorne’s theme and the reoccurring themes that involved science, which he is emphasizing.

The story of Aylmer and Georgiana goes on to tell how they made the removal of this “singular mark” the justification of science and human experimentation. Before Georgiana can get it removed she has to be convinced of the benefits of this experiment. But his fear that it might be fatal to keep the birthmark is revealed to her through talking in his sleep. She is disturbed on how important it is to him,so she agrees to the removal. With the help of his assistant, Aminadab, he begins the experiments. He locking her in a fumigating room and drugged her to delusions - making “a strange, indefinite sensation creeping through her veins, and tingling, half painfully, half pleasurably, at her heart”.

On one occasion between experiments, she found Aylmer’s journals - “sorcerer’s books”. These journals were “the sad confession and continual exemplification of the shortcomings of the composite man, the spirit burdened with clay and working in matter, and of the despair that assails the higher nature at finding itself so miserably thwarted by the earthly part” that were common failures of a “genius men” or that of scientists. Ending in tragic results were the theme of this collection of journals such as the theme of this tale and of Hawthorne’s stories.

So in the despair of many failed attempts at removing this birthmark, Aylmer and Georgiana fall into insanity over this one minor blemish.