The Birth-Mark The Birth-Mark is a piece of literary work that demonstrates the struggles between Man vs. Nature. The short story epitomes of the 1800s, is a time where the field of philosophy began to grow. It is believed that the only way people can learn is through experimentation and observation. The theme of The Birth-Mark can clearly be perceived as the foolishness of striving for perfection. Throughout the story a natural philosopher named Aylmer is famous for his scientific discoveries and he strives to be perfect in all of his experiments.
In the short story Aylmer is obsessed with his work. That is until he meets the most beautiful woman in the world named Georgiana. Georgiana represents the human imperfections that everyone is born with. Aylmer thinks that everything about Georgiana is perfect, that’s until he notices she has a distinct birthmark that is shaped like a hand on her left cheek. Aylmer, being the scientist he is, ask Georgiana “has it never occurred to you that that mark upon your cheek might be removed?” Georgiana replies that it has often been called a charm. Aylmer then exclaims “No dearest Georgiana, you came so nearly perfect from the hand of Nature.”
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Instead he wants to use his science knowledge to try and debunk the birthmark from her face. “Aylmer’s somber imagination was not long in rendering the birthmark a frightful object, causing him more trouble and horror than ever Georgiana’s beauty, whether of soul or sense, had given him delight.” In this particular part of the story Hawthorne is foreshadowing the everyday common person. Instead of being thankful for the things we as individuals have, we would rather strive to be perfect and do everything we possibly can to fit in. He demonstrates this by later saying “With the morning twilight Aylmer opened his eyes upon his wife’s face and recognized the symbol of imperfection.” (Hawthorne
Yet they have not fully considered the implications of its underlying philosophy for many of the social and ethical concerns that dominate his canon and, importantly, for his aesthetic.” I found this article extremely hard to read and get through although some things throughout the article were quite interesting. In my opinion, the writer, Mary E. Rucker, did a fine job at staying on point throughout the entire article covering all the points she was making. I do agree with the interpretation that Mary E. Rucker did of the story “The Birth-Mark.” She does a good job going in depth on the character “Aylmer,” who is a brilliant yet misguided scientist and the protagonist of the story. Aylmer’s experiments and creations have made him famous in the scientific community. Although his intentions are good, Aylmer is a selfish and cruel man whose delusions ultimately kill his wife. Ultimately, this article did help me to understand “The Birth-Mark,” written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, somewhat
Hawthorne uses imagery in order to depict both the birthmark that “blemishes” the skin on Georgiana’s cheek, and the hospital-esque area
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.
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
the portion of the rising action we discover what type of man Aylmer is. He is a man of science, and held with high regard by other scientists. His love for science is first priority; anything else means nothing compared to his studies. Even though he decided to search for a wife, he does so with hardly any enthusiasm. “He had left his laboratory to the care of his assistant, cleared his fine countenance from the furnace smoke, washed the stain of acids from his fingers and persuaded a beautiful woman to become his wife.”
Nathaniel Hawthorne’s, “The Birthmark” was on the darker side of the Romantic Movement, but it was still a love story. There was a love of science and obsessing over beauty and perfection. Aylmer love Georgiana and she loved him. She was willing to die for him, and he was willing to experiment on her, even if meant losing her. Hawthorne put himself into his work, expressing fears, and emotions that was hard to put into words. His surroundings impacted the outcome of his
After Georgina eventually passed, Aylmer was left to deal with what his obsession for perfection had brought upon his wife, who was thought to be the closest thing to perfection. Hawthorne uses many different literary devices throughout this story, with the most prevalent being his use of symbolism. of the book. Ed. Michael Meyer.
Our society has many ways of manifesting its obsession with physical perfection. In our society people go to extreme lengths to achieve perfection. The 'Birthmark';, written more than a century ago, is an early version of our modern obsession with physical perfection.
...eard again! Thus ever does the gross fatality of earth exult in its invariable triumph over the immortal essence which, in this dim sphere of half-development, demands the completeness of a higher state” (Hawthorne 231). This laughter appears to come from no one in the room but rather Nature itself. Nature is laughing at Aylmer in his attempt to try and overpower it and create his own form of perfection. Since the hand on Georgiana’s face is viewed as Natures touch on her, it is not difficult to view Nature as an actual character in the story.
“The Birthmark” is a short story written by author Nathaniel Hawthorne. This short story is filled with symbolism and destructive criticism. It follows the scientist Aylmer and his obsession of removing his wife Georgina’s birthmark. The crimson hand-shaped birthmark on the face of an otherwise perfect, beautiful woman contains deep meanings. Through the use of symbolism, Hawthorne demonstrates the issues and themes of the unattainability of perfection, science and nature, humanity’s flaws, and mortality.
Nathaniel Hawthorne did not do much explaining when it came to the characters involved in "The Birthmark". He did not portray the main characters: Aylmer, Georgiana, and Ambidab as human beings, but rather as symbols. While analyzing the story "The Birthmark", I have achieved some great insight of the author 's articulate writing style; especially, his style of making characters have symbolic meaning. In this story, Hawthorne uses his characters to symbolize specific things. In this ambiguous, short story, the three characters each symbolize Science, Beauty, and Nature. Each character represents an unusual force that has equally worked against each other.
In Hawthorne’s story The Birthmark, the main character, Aylmer thinks his wife is the most beautiful person in the world and the only feature that keeps her from being perfect is a birthmark that is upon her cheek. When Aylmer mentions the birthmark to Georgiana, his wife, she becomes upset that her husband does not think he loves her, because of her birthmark. He tries many different ways to remove the mark, but all end with no solution to the problem. When Aylmer believes he has finally cracked the code of removing the unsightly blemish his concoction ends up killing his wife, for as the birthmark faded so did her life. Thus violating nature to remove the mark, committing a sin because he killed his wife, and standing alone since he killed the woman he loved. In The Artist of the Beautiful, main character, Owen Warland spent many years working to achieve the most beautiful creation he could make. Owen threw away his life and a chance at love just because he became obsessed with achieving the most beautiful creation. Owen later found himself disappointed even
In addition to his other works, Hawthorne’s “The Birth-Mark” is another example of female inferiority in society. Unlike The Scarlet Letter and “Old Esther Dudley,” which focus on the strength of women, “The Birth-Mark” focuses on the importance society places on female beauty. Aylmer, a scientist, marries the beautiful Georgiana, but she has one flaw: a red birthmark resembling a “human hand, though of the smallest pigmy size.” Aylmer asks Georgiana if she has ever considered having it removed since he feels that she “came so nearly perfect from the hand of Nature, that this slightest possible defect…[is] the visible mark of earthly imperfection” (419). It can be observed that Georgiana is already a pretty woman, but Aylmer is obsessed with her being perfect. Georgiana was never concerned about the mark until Aylmer mentions it. After months of Aylmer obsessing over the birthmark, Georgiana becomes self-conscious and confronts him about the matter. She asks him if he thinks he could successfully remove the mark, and when he says that he could, she replies, “let the attempt be made at any risk. Danger is nothing to me; for life—while this hateful mark makes me the object of your horror and disgust—life is a burthen which I would fling down with joy” (421).
Becoming consumed by his hatred of Georgiana's birthmark, Aylmer attempts to use his science to remove the flaw. Though Aylmer believes that he is an accomplished scientist, evidence from his workbooks shows that even his “most splendid successes were almost invariably failures, if compared with the ideal at which he aimed” (BM). But despite the evidence which shows that he is not as accomplished of a scientist as he says he is, he continued with the experiment. His obsession of fixing Georgiana’s complexion and ridding her of her birthmark pushes him to experiment on her despite the risks. Unfortunately, because Aylmer did not change or better himself after judging his wife, he continued with the risky procedure which resulted in ending her life. Aylmer was blinded by his obsession with creating the perfect wife to realize that he was actually insecure with his own ability in science. He so badly wanted to prove to the world that he was able to rid his wife of her blemish and reveal her true beauty. Because he was unable to use his judgements to better understand his own true nature, Aylmer destroyed his own chance for
He did not want to hurt her, but he did without knowing so. The rival of art simply won over the wife because he was so passionate about art. Hawthorne’s male character, Aylmer is a scientist who is obsessed with the birthmark and the assumption that he will do anything to get rid of it is evident. His motivation throughout the story is to make Georgiana the epitome of perfection. “...he found this one defect grow more and more intolerable with every moment of their united lives.