The Birthmark by Nathaniel Hawthorne
The Birthmark by Nathaniel Hawthorne
In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story The Birthmark, the narrator introduces us to Aylmer, a brilliant scientist who spent his life studying nature extensively to the detriment of his own personal life. His wife, Georgiana, has been marked with a small, red birthmark on her cheek that most men found attractive all her life. Aylmer only sees this birthmark as a flaw and his desire for perfection can only result in death for Georgiana because becoming an ideal, perfect being means she cannot exist in this world. He decides he is going to remove the birthmark to make his wife perfect, without knowing that by doing so he kills her.
Aylmer sees Georgiana’s birthmark as a symbol of human imperfection, which results in hi insatiable desire to perfect her. Tensions grew strong between the two and their marriage slowly began to suffer. One night, Aylmer dreamed that he had surgically removed the birthmark on Georgiana’s cheek and he goes on to explain to her this dream. The more he cut into her birthmark, the deeper the birthmark went until it led to Georgiana’s very heart. He kept cutting and cutting until he cut through her heart to completely remove the birthmark. Once Georgiana hears this dream, she became infatuated with removing her birthmark so she could be perfect for her husband.
Hawthorne warns us that the birthmark is deeply interwoven into Georgiana's face. He does this through Aylmer's dream that anticipates that the birthmark goes deeper than the surface. Little by little, Aylmer becomes so intertwined with his love of science and his love for Georgiana that he feels compelled to “correct with Nature left imperfect” (207).
The death of Georgiana happens so quickly that there really is nothing that Aylmer can do to stop it. Aylmer begins his procedure by taking Georgiana into his laboratory, where he has set up elixirs for her to drink. Once the elixir is ready, Georgiana drinks it and quickly falls asleep. As she lay
In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story The Birthmark, the narrator introduces us to Aylmer, a brilliant scientist who spent his life studying nature extensively to the detriment of his own personal life. His wife, Georgiana, has been marked with a small, red birthmark on her cheek that most men found attractive all her life. Aylmer only sees this birthmark as a flaw and his desire for perfection can only result in death for Georgiana because becoming an ideal, perfect being means she cannot exist in this world. He decides he is going to remove the birthmark to make his wife perfect, without knowing that by doing so he kills her.
Aylmer sees Georgiana’s birthmark as a symbol of human imperfection, which results in hi insatiable desire to perfect her. Tensions grew strong between the two and their marriage slowly began to suffer. One night, Aylmer dreamed that he had surgically removed the birthmark on Georgiana’s cheek and he goes on to explain to her this dream. The more he cut into her birthmark, the deeper the birthmark went until it led to Georgiana’s very heart. He kept cutting and cutting until he cut through her heart to completely remove the birthmark. Once Georgiana hears this dream, she became infatuated with removing her birthmark so she could be perfect for her husband.
Hawthorne warns us that the birthmark is deeply interwoven into Georgiana's face. He does this through Aylmer's dream that anticipates that the birthmark goes deeper than the surface. Little by little, Aylmer becomes so intertwined with his love of science and his love for Georgiana that he feels compelled to “correct with Nature left imperfect” (207).
The death of Georgiana happens so quickly that there really is nothing that Aylmer can do to stop it. Aylmer begins his procedure by taking Georgiana into his laboratory, where he has set up elixirs for her to drink. Once the elixir is ready, Georgiana drinks it and quickly falls asleep. As she lay
Cited: Eckstein, Barbara. "Hawthorne 's The Birthmark ': Science and Romance as Belief." Studies in Short Fiction. 26: 1989, 511-19. Shakinovsky, Lynn. "The Return Of The Repressed: Illiteracy And The Death Of The Narrative In Hawthorne 's `The.." Atq 9.4 (1995): 269. Academic Search Premier. Web. 26 Mar. 2013. Quinn, James and Ross Baldessarini. " 'The Birthmark ': A Deathmark." University of Hartford Studies in Literature: A Journal of Interdisciplinary-Criticism. 1981, 13: 2, 91-98. Zanger, Jules. "Speaking of the Unspeakable: Hawthorne 's 'The Birthmark. ' " Modern Philolosopy. May 1983, 80:4, 364-71.