“The Birthmark” by Nathaniel Hawthorne is a 19th century story that demonstrates that people are obsessed with perfection. Perfection does not exist in the human world because everything has flaws. “The Birthmark” is a story about a man named Aylmer that is disturbed by the birthmark of his beautiful wife, Georgiana. He wants to remove the birthmark because he thinks that the birthmark is an awful imperfection that will make his wife look hideous. It also shows that Aylmer is self-centered because Georgiana gave in to satisfy his interests, even though he often fails at every experiment he conducts. Nathaniel Hawthorne writes about how obsession over a tiny imperfection leads to physically and emotionally harming a loved one.
To begin with,
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the birthmark on Georgiana’s cheek is of the “smallest pygmy size” (Hawthorne 1). The birthmark disappears when she blushes, therefore, a simple compliment will hide the birthmark. According to Jeffrey Howard, “the woman whose life he is willing to sacrifice in order to satisfy his pride and alchemic pursuits, is the center of his existence and the object to which he unifies himself” (134). In other words, Aylmer wants to extract the mark because it will be able to unify himself, not him with his wife. The idea of being able to disappear the mark, will higher his ego. To continue, the birthmark can be identified as a symbol because it represents the sin in a human. Humans will commit sins, which means that they are not perfect. It also symbolizes mortality because every beautiful thing has a flaw, such as death. For instance, Aylmer created a “perfect and lovely flower” (Hawthorne 5), but “its leaves [turned] coal-black as if by the agency of fire” (Hawthorne 5), which meant that the perfect flower was not capable of surviving for a long time. Also, the birthmark symbolizes her soul. In Aylmer’s dream, as he tried to remove the birthmark, the knife sank to her heart. Aylmer described that the knife’s “tiny graspThe reader can infer that the birthmark is a part of her, just like her soul. It might not define who Georgina is, but it still part of her. The mark symbolizes Georgiana’s soul and the sin among the humans. Also, the process of getting rid of the mark symbolizes the ego of Aylmer. Throughout the story, there are moments in the story that help the reader foreshadow the ending of the story.
For example, when Georgiana entered Aylmer’s library, she saw the books that included all the failed experiments of Aylmer. Even though Georgiana knew about the Georgiana and the readers can infer that Georgiana will be part of those books of failures because Aylmer is known to be a failure. Another moment, as mentioned before, the flower died immediately because the touch of Georgiana was a “too powerful stimulus” (Hawthorne 5). By this, the reader can infer that Aylmer did not know the pain tolerance a flower could put up with to be perfect. The flower can be compared to Georgiana, because they are both considered to have beautiful appearances. Also, the flower and Georgiana are compared, because they both have flaws. When the flower dies, because of Aylmer’s experiment, the reader can infer that Georgiana will die as well. Georgiana can sense her death during the removal process because “she spoke the last words with a gentle reluctance” (Hawthorne 10). Correspondingly, she passed away. Therefore, there are moments of foreshowing that can be supported by comparisons that helps the reader infer the ending of …show more content…
Georgiana. The reoccurring theme throughout the story is nature versus science.
Nature can be defined as either Mother Nature or God. Nature, or God, made Georgiana with a crimson birthmark on her cheek. Most people view her as an appealing woman, but only Aylmer and other women see her as a hideous creature. For instance, Aminadab is shocked that Aylmer wants to change Georgiana, because Aminadab is already amazed by her beauty that nature gave her. Women view her as a hideous woman because they do not have a birthmark. The birthmark makes Georgiana stand out more than other women, which creates jealousy amongst the women. After Aylmer and Georgiana got married, Aylmer has been secretly working on different scientific methods to perfect Georgiana because he is getting disturbed by the looks of the mark. The only way to reach perfection was by removing the small birthmark on her cheek using scientific experimentation. Aylmer created an elixir that will remove nature’s mark on her. Nature has a mind of its own. No one will be able to intervene with Nature. For instance, if Nature wants to create a storm, the storm will be created. Therefore, you cannot modify what nature has done or what it will do. According to Reid, “Aylmer is similarly oriented toward the intellectual, constantly aspiring ‘towards the infinite’” (343), which means that Aylmer usually goes with the logical, instead of the spiritual. When Aylmer gave the elixir to Georgiana, it did remove the birthmark from Georgiana’s
cheek. As soon as the birthmark disappeared, the life of Georgiana perished as well. Nature won in the end, because when Georgiana was finally perfect, in Aylmer’s eyes, she was already gone from the world. In conclusion, “The Birthmark” is a story that describes how selfishness and obsession will convince people to change the appearance of others based on their interests. Aylmer wanted to remove the only imperfection from his beautiful wife, but killed her in the process of experimenting on her. “The Birthmark” demonstrates that when some individual attempts to adjust nature through the power of science, the results will not always be as planned. When humans try to fix an imperfection, another conflict will arise, such as death. The world is not a perfect place because everyone can have flaws.
The short story “The Birthmark” demonstrates that nobody can be perfect. Georgiana’s birthmark is a physical representation of this
One of the major themes in "The Birthmark" is man’s obsession with perfection. Through the birthmark on Georgiana, Hawthorne is able to portray that nature didn’t intend for things to be perfect. People are not perfect because the human condition is imperfect. Aylmer’s desire to make his wife perfect is doomed to failure because perfection, Hawthorne suggests, is the exclusive province of heaven that cannot be found on earth. Because she becomes an ideal being, completely unmarred, Georgiana is no longer able to exist in this
Motivation is the driving force behind all actions and reactions. In both Sinclair Ross's "The Painted Door" and Nathaniel Hawthorne's "The Birthmark" motivation is the central influence behind decisions made by the characters. It causes a dilemma that invokes an action which eventually leads to the tragically ironic conclusions.
Since the beginning of time, people have lived by the expression, or at least heard
The words “beautiful” and “perfect” are both vague yet relative concepts as they are defined from person to person. In Hawthorne’s “The Birth Mark,” imperfections perceived by one are also seen as defining in beauty by another. Perfection, as sought by Aylmer, became an obsession which in the end required Georgiana to undergo a process of transmutation to become perfect and therefore a more desirable human being in Aylmer’s eyes. The concept of “bodily perfection” remains the same today as it was in Hawthorne’s time: beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but it is who the beholder is that is of greatest importance when determining the value of the opinion being shared. For Georgiana, Aylmer’s happiness, or lack thereof, defined the way in
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.
medical practices are beneficial; they are done to cure people from illness and to save
Perfection is in the eye of the beholder. Often times scientific advancements attempt to recreate perfection and disregard nature’s way of being. “The Birthmark” by Nathaniel Hawthorne shows the disconnection and battle between science and Mother Nature. Hawthorne creates the character, Aylmer, to show the science side of the spectrum and to show the extent it could go to. The protagonist, Aylmer, believes that with science anything can be done. Aylmer is a very intelligent and famous scientist who has worked in various fields and on various projects. Although he is very successful He is consumed with his idea of scientific perfection and he lets it fog up his vision of his wife. His wife, Georgina, is described as being basically perfect except for a small red mark on her cheek that burdens her husband. The
Uttering heartless words to a partner about their flaws is a reflection of one’s insecurity in the relationship. The short story “The Birthmark” gives readers insight into Aylmer, a questionable scientist who fails at experiments, and his wife Georgiana, an obedient wife who fulfills her husband’s commands. Aylmer is insecure and as a result denigrates Georgiana about her birthmark to purposefully make her despise the mark. Georgiana never thought of her birthmark as a flaw because men were enchanted by her fairy-like miniature hand with a shade of crimson. However, Georgiana being the good wife that she is, agrees to become her husband’s experiment to get the birthmark removed in order to make Aylmer happy. In this story it is evident that
In today’s society, it seems that we cannot turn the television on or look in a
...ection. By removing the birthmark from Georgiana’s face, Aylmer has taken away her humanity thus leading Georgiana to her death. Georgiana cannot live anymore because she is no longer a human being. Therefore claiming that science has its limits over nature and if those limits are crossed the consequences could be fatal.
The story’s tone is one of romantic controversy, a dilemma at a high level of existence. The scientist’s love for his craft competes very intensively with his newfound love for his wife. It is also very psychological, strictly dealing with the raw mind of its subjects as if the ominous narrator told the story from inside their mind, rather than observe it from the outside. He describes the processes that one may take to reach a certain degree of knowledge and to find the elixir of life, which is described in this story as the ultimate goal of the scientific community. Also, the narrator is very opinionated about events in the story.
1. Our society tends to be obsessed with the idea of physical perfection. How does our society manifest that obsession? How is the 'Birthmark'; an early version of our modern obsession with physical perfection?
The tone adopted by Hawthorne from the inception of the narrative toward Aylmer urges the reader to respect Aylmer’s scientific ambition—directly his triumph of head over heart, but indirectly his objectification of Georgiana and subsequent attempts to fix something that she never thought was a flaw. Not only is Aylmer’s obsession with getting rid of her birthmark selfish in that he does it for “the sake of giving himself peace” (647) rather than any desire to make his wife happy, he also admits to feeling guilt over his tyrannical treatment of her. For example, his “horror and disgust” in response to her facial blight rarely escapes her notice, and when she reacts poorly to his “convulsive shudder,” he attempts to soothe her and “release her mind from the burden of actual things” (650) as if she is an empty-headed infant in need of a pacifier. Furthermore, in response to her desperate request for its removal, he isolates her from humanity, administers potentially harmful concoctions into her rooms and body without her knowledge, and ultimately—and rapturously—succeeds in shrinking the mark at the cost of her