Foreshadowing In The Birthmark

There is a thin line between love and hate. Love is having a strong affection for another person, place, or thing and sometimes, it makes people do crazy things. Whether it is a woman chopping off hair due to a bad breakup or placing permanent tattoos on the body for commitment, one will go to major extremities to satisfy their passion for love. In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s story, “The Birthmark,¨ a psychotic scientist strives for perfection not only leading to the death of his beautiful wife, but overall attempting to have power and control over nature. Nathaniel Hawthorne utilizes symbolism and foreshadowing to display the thematic complexities of mortality and human imperfection that the birthmark personifies psychologically and symbolically

in the relationship between scientist and his loving test subject.
In the story, “The Birthmark,” Aylmer, a science fanatic, isolates society and briefly loses interest for his love of science for the love of a woman whom he marries, a beauty named Georgiana. Aylmer believes Georgiana is a charming sweetheart initially, but ends up having a appetite to alter what is unappealing to his eye: a crimsoned birthmark “of the smallest pygmy size” shaped as a hand placed directly under Georgiana’s eye (Hawthorne 6). Georgiana is very beautiful and epitomizes divine perfection that any man would be satisfied to marry. Aylmer, on the other hand, sees the birthmark as a standstill to Georgiana’s true perfection. Jeffrey Howard states, “. . . Aylmer’s unification with and destruction of the birthmark-which parallels his marital unity and eventual destruction of Georgiana-exists as a reaction to the birthmark which he perceives as a threat to his masculine dominance” (133). Georgiana’s flaw literally creates a huge trial in Aylmer’s masculinity and the married couple´s relationship and on in the story Aylmer has a dream about it. Stated by Aylmer, Georgiana listens to Aylmer’s nightmare:
“The mind is in a sad state when Sleep, the all-involving, cannot confine her specters within the dim region of her sway, but suffers them to break forth, affrighting this actual life with secrets that perchance belong to a deeper one.

Aylmer now remembered his dream. He had fancied himself with his servant Aminadab, attempting an operation for the removal of the birthmark; but the deeper went the knife, the deeper sank the hand, until at length its tiny grasp appeared to have caught hold of Georgiana’s heart; whence, however, her husband was inexorably resolved to cut or wrench it away” (Hawthorne 7-8).

The dream about the birthmark on Georgiana’s face gives off as another symbol of Aylmer’s disgust, furthermore feeding into his obsession and making him have nightmares of removing the object only to what he thinks is mental. Consequently, this drives his motive to change the appearance of his wife.

Manipulating Georgiana into feeling ashamed of her outer beauty, Georgiana agrees to the allow Aylmer and his assistant, Aminadab, to perform the removal of the birthmark. Aminadab attempts to give beneficial insight to Aylmer stating, “If she were my wife, I’d never part with that birthmark” (Hawthorne 10). Aminadab symbolizes nature himself as seeing Georgiana for what she really is, imperfections and all, and not trying to scientifically modify her. Lynn Shakinovsky comments, “For Aylmer, the mark supposedly represents Georgiana's connection to earthliness, her lack of heavenly

perfection, and is therefore unacceptable” (269).
Partaking in listening to Aylmer’s selfish feelings and devastating nightmares, Georgiana agrees to make her husband happy again. Aylmer proposes a way to get rid of the birthmark with something Aylmer primarily admired so dearly: science. Despite Aminadab remark’s, Aylmer plans to create an elixir to remove Georgiana’s birthmark. Georgiana states, “Let the attempt be made at whatever risk. Danger is nothing to me; for life, while this hateful mark makes me the object of your horror and disgust,-- life is a burden which I would fling down with joy. Either remove this dreadful hand, or take my wretched life!” (Hawthorne 8). As a wife, Georgiana only wants to satisfy Aylmer. Being a hindrance and unsuitable to the eye, Georgiana felt self-conscious about her appearance that she onced was praised wholly on and now only chooses to submit to being the experiment wholly. Though knowing something terribly wrong could happen, Georgiana risks taking the elixir and endangering her life for Aylmer.
Unfortunately, Georgiana allows Aylmer, along with Aminadab, to subtract the birthmark from her face. The three decide on moving to the apartments, where Aylmer’s laboratory is located. Before the process, Georgiana becomes intrigued by the various studies that her husband can actually do in his profession. On the contrast, Georgiana discovers by reading his journal that Aylmer’s previous experiments don't ever absolutely meet their “full” performance. According to Cindy Weinstein, she provides better insight for Aylmer’s work and personal life intertwining:
Georgiana’s body, and more specifically the birthmark, marks the site where the promises of the laboratory and the home converge. But the laboratory we later learn, has been none too kind to Aylmer, whose scientific experiments up until this point “were almost invariably failures, if compared with the ideal at which he aimed. The birthmark presents Aylmer with a chance both to right these professional wrongs and, in doing so, to establish Georgiana as the “perfection” of hearth and home “where he would fain have worshipped” (48).
Though with the help of science, Aylmer successfully eliminates the birthmark from Georgiana’s face.

Ironically, he gets rid of more than Georgiana’s birthmark: Aylmer potion takes away Georgiana’s life as well. Georgiana states, “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. Aylmer, my dearest Aylmer, I am dying!” (Hawthorne 431). Using Aylmer’s love for science to increase his likeness for Georgiana, Aylmer poorly chooses science over love literally. Michael Tritt states, “Aylmer strives to have power over his environment and even life itself, and in so doing, to transcend his animal (and finite) nature” (1). The author reveals that when one becomes obsessed with love, it can significantly worsen and become corrupt. Leading up to this intoxicating moment, Aylmer knows his refining ¨remedy¨ is dangerous, but he has such a hold on completing his defective experiment, he gives it to her anyway and it kills her. Aylmer loves science more than he loves his wife and shows his obsession by not only removing the untroubled birthmark, but killing Georgiana completely, validating his insane, “obsessive revulsion” to substitute her perfectly imperfect “female physiology” through his own psychological coax (Fetterley 167). Thus, furthermore justifying that the birthmark represents the mortality of Georgiana is subject

to nature and science can not dominate it.
Hawthorne displays many thematic experiences that fortify the intensity of the leading symbol. The difficulties of the birthmark in the relationship between the failing couple illustrates symbolism and foreshadowing through Aylmer’s nightmare, Georgiana’s submissiveness, and through the process of removing the birthmark. Both Aylmer and Georgiana are both accountable for her following death. The tensions in the story play a significant role in evoking the various emotions and building suspense towards a great ending. Aylmer’s love for science lessens the love for his wife after the birthmark had likely threatened his intelligence and masculinity, making him unfit for any type of companionship. The birthmark personifies the liveliness of Georgiana wholly. Even after she was unbothered of jealous women calling it something of a “bloody hand,” Georgiana could not confront her husband of whom she loves that she is uncomfortable with the way he speaks about something that is apart of her. Her subservient ways backfires on both her and the scientist. The story altogether showed the exotic twist on science vs. nature and aesthetic beauty vs. inner beauty, playing big roles throughout the entire story. All of the upcoming actions, one by one, ultimately lead to Georgiana’s death. No one should ever feel the need to drastically change for anyone under any circumstances. All human beings consist of many flaws and striving for perfection is okay, but it could ultimately lead to chaos, destroying the individual as a whole. Overall, Aylmer’s attitude and intellect drives his motive towards the pursuit for perfection.