Aylmer's Character In 'The Birthmark' By Nathaniel Hawthorne
Hawthorne uses characterization of the secondary character Aylmer, the third person point of view, and two main conflicts to talk about the subject of imperfection and to achieve the theme, that it is not a person’s appearance that counts; you need to love a person for who they are and never try and change them. Hawthorne uses the Aylmer’s shallowness, scientific need for perfection, and his hatred for his wife’s birthmark to help explain why he is trying so hard to destroy this imperfection. Aylmer is a man who associates love with appearances and cannot love his wife without her appearance being perfect. He says to his wife, “… you came so nearly perfect from the hand Nature that this slightest defect, which we hesitate whether to term
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First, the conflict between Aylmer and his “love” for his wife is the one that eventually leads to his wife’s death. He only notices it after they have been married when one day he just sits and notices it and begins to lose his love for his wife, “One day very soon after their marriage, Aylmer sat gazing at his wife with a trouble in his countenance that grew stronger until he spoke,” (290). The next conflict is with Georgiana and her feelings for this wretched mark on her face. She truly loves her husband and is willing to do anything to make him happy, even go through numerous tests and experiments just to rid her face of this mark to make her husband happy and have him love her. She even says that she would rather die than have to live with this mark and not fell the love of her husband, “‘Either remove this dreadful hand, or take my wretched life!’” (292). This conflict only appears and was completely avoidable had Aylmer just love Georgiana for the way she was and never tried to change her. The second conflict only occurred because the first existed. Had Aylmer loved Georgiana for who she was in her entirety then she would have never been forced to go through these awful tests and she would still be alive. Him deciding that he could not love her unless that mark was gone and eventually causing her death is prime example of why you should love a person for who they are imperfections and all or it may force the nicest of people to do some very rash things and cause someone to get hurt either physically or
First, the conflict between Aylmer and his “love” for his wife is the one that eventually leads to his wife’s death. He only notices it after they have been married when one day he just sits and notices it and begins to lose his love for his wife, “One day very soon after their marriage, Aylmer sat gazing at his wife with a trouble in his countenance that grew stronger until he spoke,” (290). The next conflict is with Georgiana and her feelings for this wretched mark on her face. She truly loves her husband and is willing to do anything to make him happy, even go through numerous tests and experiments just to rid her face of this mark to make her husband happy and have him love her. She even says that she would rather die than have to live with this mark and not fell the love of her husband, “‘Either remove this dreadful hand, or take my wretched life!’” (292). This conflict only appears and was completely avoidable had Aylmer just love Georgiana for the way she was and never tried to change her. The second conflict only occurred because the first existed. Had Aylmer loved Georgiana for who she was in her entirety then she would have never been forced to go through these awful tests and she would still be alive. Him deciding that he could not love her unless that mark was gone and eventually causing her death is prime example of why you should love a person for who they are imperfections and all or it may force the nicest of people to do some very rash things and cause someone to get hurt either physically or