A Losing Battle In 'The Birthmark' By Nathaniel Hawthorne

Controlling Nature: A Losing Battle
In the story “The Birthmark” by Nathaniel Hawthorne, science versus nature is an essential source of conflict. This theme becomes apparent through Alymer’s persistent desire to interfere with what is natural through his passion for science. This obsession becomes most apparent when Alymer attempts to change his wife Georgiana’s natural appearance. Soon after marrying her, Alymer is shocked by the smallest of imperfection, and expresses desire to remove it, as a result having control over nature. This drive to remove what is natural is what results in the death of his wife. In doing so, Alymer, being a man of science, struggles with nature. In “The Birthmark”, through, Alymer’s attempt to manipulate what
is natural, Georgiana’s victimization, and nature’s power over science, Nathaniel Hawthorne criticizes science for attempting to exercise control over the natural world.
Through Alymer’s series of radical experiments, it is suggested that he attempts to manipulate nature. He is passionate about science, claiming the ability to create potions that give eternal life, being able to transform metal into gold, and more. These ambitions show how Aylmer uses science to try to beat nature. This desire to dominate what is natural gives what Alymer believes to be a god-like status. This is seen when Alymer seeks perfection in his wife and expresses interest in removing her birthmark. Georgiana’s birthmark is a manifestation of nature, and as a man of science, Alymer needs to have control over that, therefore rejecting the birthmark. Because Alymer’s becomes drunk on science, he feels he can dominate and control something as powerful as Mother Nature. At the end of the story, it is clear that science becomes treated as a religion through Georgiana’s last words to Aylmer. She says, “Do not repent that with so high and pure a feeling, you have rejected the best the earth could offer.” (25). The best the earth could offer is not perfection, and in rejecting it, Aylmer again tries to obtain higher status, and be godly by changing his wife and making her perfect. Therefore, science is treated almost like a religion in the story, as science is a religion for Aylmer, but also because Aylmer uses science to attempt to be godly. In both cases, it is clear Alymer seeks control over the natural world.
Furthermore, due to Alymer’s scientific obsession, Georgiana becomes victimized.
Alymer resorts to science in order to remove his wife’s birthmark, making her his patient. He refers to Georgiana’s imperfection as a stain, and finds this one defect becoming more and more intolerable. Georgiana’s birthmark shocks Aylmer, because he saw her as perfect, but to him, the birthmark is a serious imperfection that marks mortality. Hawthorne writes, “It was the fatal flaw of humanity which nature, in one shape or another, stamps ineffaceably on all her productions, either to imply that they are temporary and finite, or that their perfection must be wrought by toil and pain.” (14). As a man of science, Alymer wishes to remove this imperfection, causing tension between him and Georgiana, as she does not see her birthmark as a serious defect. She is deeply hurt by this, to the point where Georgiana learns to “shudder at his gaze” (14). She feels disgusting, and cannot have her husband look at her. Because Alymer loves his wife and science so much, he finds himself torn between the love for his wife and his infatuation with science. Aylmer is unable to accept the imperfections of life, resulting in the love for his wife to be “intertwining itself with his love of science.” (12), thus abusing his relationship with his
wife.
Despite this, Alymer cannot beat nature. Alymer’s drive to remove what is natural is what results in the death of his wife. Even though science allowed Alymer to play creator with his wife and achieve perfection, he looked beyond the fact that science is not perfect and has its flaws as well. As a result, Nature wins over science, as trying to control it only results in the death of Georgiana. It is said that Alymer wishes that “the world might possess one living specimen of ideal lovely” (13). The integration of the word “living” is proof in itself that Alymer, and by that logic science, does not prevail over nature as the result of his experiment is Georgiana’s death. By trying to remove this symbol of death, Alymer only succeeds in killing his wife. As Georgiana is dying she says, “Do not repent that with so high and pure a feeling, you have rejected the best the earth could offer.” (25). The best the earth could offer is not perfection, and Aylmer is unable to accept that. His rash decisions and obsession with science blind him from the reality that science cannot beat nature.
In conclusion, “The Birthmark” suggests that science cannot defeat nature. Through Alymer’s obsession with science, his dysfunctional relationship with Georgiana, and his failed attempt at beating nature, it is evident that there are things that science will never be able to change. Therefore, Hawthorne is suggesting that there are some things that science will never be able to control and attempting to exercise control over these things had destructive consequences.

Works Cited