How Does Nathaniel Hawthorne Use Imagery In The Birthmark

Analysis of “The Birthmark”

In “The Birthmark”, Hawthorne writes:

If there be the remotest possibility of it, 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! –Georgiana (421)

Aylmer is a scientist in a time when electricity was only recently discovered (418). He takes time away from his first love, science, to court and wed the beautiful Georgiana. Soon Aylmer is so repulsed and obsessed with Georgiana’s one mar against her perfect beauty, a tiny hand-shaped birthmark upon her cheek, that they both agree upon an attempt to remove the birthmark (419). Aylmer creates a concoction for her to drink in order to remove the tiny mark. This failed experiment costs Georgiana her life and Aylmer’s love and obsession. Hawthorne in “The Birthmark” argues through characters, setting, and imagery that

women often feel pressured to meet a physical ideal and therefore they may subject themselves to dangerous uncertainty to gain perfection as well as admiration from their objects of desire.
Aylmer, is an intelligent, skilled and well-known man of science and natural philosophy (421). He is devoted to his work and he has conducted many experiments, one being a cosmetic that will wash away freckles. He is obsessed, maybe even delusional, as he believes that he is able to work miracles such as creating human life from nothing and that he will be able to create an elixir that will magically remove the birthmark from his wife’s cheek (425). Aylmer seems more infatuated with how he will be perceived when he removes the mark, not at all concerned with how he has made his young wife feel. He believes that he can [c]orrect what nature left as imperfect. “Even Pygmalion, when his sculptured woman assumed life, felt no greater ecstasy than will be mine” (421). He is so obsessed and out of control about the experiment that you could possibly even define him as a “Mad Scientist”.
Georgiana is a beautiful, young woman. She has recently married Aylmer, the renowned scientist. Georgiana is devoted to her husband and wishes desperately to please him. She has lovely fair skin with a tiny, crimson, hand-shaped, birthmark upon her cheek. The birthmark can be covered with the tips of two of her own fingers and when she blushes the mark blends so well that it is practically invisible (421). Georgiana has not been ashamed of the birthmark in the past, in fact she says to Aylmer “To tell you the truth, it has been so often called a charm, that I was simple enough to imagine that it might be so” (419). The tiny hand print of a fairy that graces her cheek has now become the object of conflict in their lives because she cannot stand to have her husband look away from her as he shudders in disgust at the sight of her imperfection. She too is now very self-conscious of the mark, “Not even Aylmer hated it as much as she” (425). Georgiana agrees to allow her husband, whom she trusts implicitly, to concoct an ambiguous elixir for her to drink that will remove the mark.
Aminadab is the third and last character in Hawthorne’s “The Birth-mark”. He is Aylmer’s laboratory assistant. Aminadab has a minimal part in the story but when he speaks, he says all we need to know. He is described as “vast strength, his shaggy hair, his smoky aspect, and the indescribable earthiness that incrusted him, he seemed to represent man’s physical nature; while Aylmer’s slender figure, and pale, intellectual face, were no less apt a type of the spiritual element.” (2). Aminadab is a character that Aylmer considers to be one of little or low intelligence and even he (Aminadab) states that he would not try to remove the birthmark. "If she were my wife, I'd never part with that birthmark." (422)
Hawthorne places this story in an era when electricity has only been recently discovered, near the end of the 18th century (418). The micro setting involves the boudoir for Georgiana, and Aylmer’s adjacent laboratory. Hawthorne describes the boudoir as, “the walls were hung with gorgeous curtains, which imparted the combination of grandeur and grace that no other species of adornment can achieve; and as they fell from the ceiling to the floor, their rich and ponderous folds, concealing all angles and straight lines, appeared to shut in the scene from infinite space (423). He goes on to describe the laboratory as I presume any lab of that era would look with it test tubes, beakers, potions, as well as a large furnace and an “electrical machine stood by for immediate use” (426).
One example of imagery in “The Birthmark” is, of course, the tiny birthmark itself.

In the grand scheme of things this mark is so insignificant that it even disappears when her complexion becomes flushed. Aylmer is so obsessed with perfection in Georgiana that he almost views this meniscal mark as a personal blemish on his own record as a scientist. The mark is a constant reminder of Georgiana’s mortality which indeed would mean that she is not without flaws. She is imperfect. There is also the dream, or nightmare rather, that Aylmer has. It almost serves as a premonition of what’s to come, how “deeply rooted” the birthmark is. [b]ut 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 (420). The flower in the lab that when plucked, it turned black and died tells us that Aylmer’s experiments are not

perfected.
In conclusion, with all the knowledge that Georgiana has gained while speaking with Aylmer about his fatal dream involving the removal of the birthmark and even seeing some of his failed experiments while in his laboratory; she agrees to move forward with the plan to remove this tiny imperfection. Because of her husband’s intense revulsion in the hand-print upon her cheek, Georgiana becomes extremely aware of this most insignificant mark that she once wore as a charm. She must be rid of this disgrace for it had become detrimental to her well-being. The first quote reveals just how far women will go to meet the ideal of physical perfection in the eyes of others, especially their significant others. This is again evident in Georgiana’s statement, “Either remove this dreadful hand, or take my wretched life!” (421)