The Death-Mark: Vanity In Marriage

The Death-Mark: Vanity in Marriage Marriage has always been a social staple that’s been ever-present in America before it was even colonized by Europeans. It has changed over time as cities expand and communities grow. Marriage during the Renaissance was definitely different from marriage during the Dark Romantic Period due to the changes not only in groups, but the changes in individuals thinking. During the Dark Romantic Period, an abundance of previous ideas were challenged, one of them is marriage due to advances in literature that questioned the social norms established by the early Puritan culture. One of the instances marriage was challenged during the Dark Romantic Period was in the novel, The Birth-Mark by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Hawthorne
utilizes gender role dynamics in his main characters, ethics regarding the birthmark, and confrontation between Science against Nature to deal with the dilemma of vanity in marriage. In the American culture here in the United States, marriage is and has been a remarkable deal of importance.
For a self-reliant nation, we can’t help but feel the need to find our significant other and settle with them to form the perfect relationship. People are willing to give up almost all of their self-identity to intertwine lives with the one they love. This specific idea was present in the beginning of The Birth-Mark when a man of science left all of his equipment and experiments to wife the beautiful woman he fell in love with (Hawthorne 418). The people that compose the married couple are Aylmer, the husband, and Georgina, the wife; both of them fall under designated gender roles. For instance, Aylmer is a logical scientist who conducts experiments, a power hungry man, but also a loving household leader. We can detect that Aylmer is governed by logic, since he is a scientist at heart as we can observe
here: “Aylmer apprized his wife of a plan that he had formed whereby he might have the opportunity for the intense thought and constant watchfulness, which the proposed operation would require…” (421).
In this instance, we can regard that Aylmer has thought of the removal proceedings in exceptional detail corresponding to how a regular scientist normally would. He has probably come up with the plan way before he convinced Georgina to partake in the operation since he needed a method to sway her. He constantly tries to establish his credibility as we can note in later events. A few examples include his experiments with the unfolding flower, the metal portrait maker, and the Elixir of Immortality. The constant development of new inventions leads him to become a power hungry man. For instance, his wife even puts light on the situation when she questioned, “Aylmer, are you in earnest? It is terrible to possess such power, or even to dream of possessing it!” (424). Aylmer shrugs this off and justifies why it is not as harmful as his wife believes. This was not the only instance we can observe that Aylmer is power hungry since he is awfully proud of his work even though they are rarely successful. Even though Aylmer holds these questionable qualities, he is quite devoted and loving to his wife. For instance, Aylmer has a tendency to profess his love in his own way: “Noblest – dearest – tenderest wife! Doubt not, my power. I have already given this matter the deepest thought – thought which might almost have enlightened me to create a being less perfect than yourself. Georgina, you have led me deeper than ever into the heart of science.” (421).
In this scene, Aylmer consoles his wife about the impending operation and admits to her that she is such an inspiration to him. Aylmer desires to proceed with the operation for Georgina’s sake, so she may be perfectly flawless because he loves her. Aylmer is the Nous to Georgina’s Hyle. On the other side of the equation, Georgina definitely fits her Hyle role. Georgina is emotional, a follower, and daintily worthy. From the actual start of the narration, we can distinguish that she bends to the controlling pressure that her husband gives her about her birthmark. She had an outburst the moment she was crushed by the pressure, and it prompted her in saying:
“Life – while this hateful mark makes me the object of your horror and disgust – life is a burden which I would fling down with joy. Either remove this dreadful Hand, or take my wretched life!” (421)
Georgina’s outburst shows that she has had enough with the birthmark. The birthmark has caused her stress and misery where she no longer finds joy in living her life. This scene portrays her moment of weakness where she’s ready to follow whatever it is Aylmer can achieve to rid her of her curse. And follow she did. Georgina was a typical wife since he succumbed and followed whatever her husband led her to – the idea being the operation to remove the mark. She submits to her husband since she believes he is the only one who is able to cure her. She even states, “You have deep science! All the world bears witness of it. You have achieved great wonders!” (421). Georgina is obviously supportive and admiring of her husband so this is why she goes and follows him with immense confidence. Even though Georgina is not as assertive as her husband, she is not meek, but bold enough to dictate her true worth to her husband and to her. For example, she tells Aylmer: “Think not so unworthily of me, my husband! Tell me all the risk we run; and fear not that I shall shrink, for my share in it is far less than your own!” (427).
In this scene, Georgina demands that she be informed of information regarding the experiment so she makes her opinion known to Aylmer. She defends herself as being worthy not only in the sense of beauty, but also of the brain. She does not wish to be known just as a woman with a beautiful face, but a beautiful face with a functioning brain. The pair is appropriately melded with each other so Aylmer understands and respects Georgina while Georgina praises and worships her husband. Even though they somewhat represent a typical and healthy American marriage, they are not immune to marital problems. Their biggest problem right now being the damned “Bloody Hand.” The main conflict of the tale revolves around the damned birthmark. This birthmark initially represented a signature mark of Nature, but due to the constant fixation by the couple it has come to symbolize “[Georgina’s] liability to sin, sorrow, decay, and death” (420) according to Aylmer. How the birthmark was viewed was dependent on a certain person’s perspective. This would thus lead to the question: is it ethical to remove the birthmark? Since ethics is the best choice for the certain culture, so to the married couple, it was ethical to remove it. Aylmer and Georgiana both believed that the removal of the birthmark is wise since it will help their marriage. Georgina once cried, “Remove it! Remove it! – Whatever be the cost – or we shall both go mad!” (427). Georgina became desperate for the birthmark’s removal since she believed a life with the flaw will be worse than death since it will be a life of constant suffering. The birthmark will plague her wherever she is if it continues to exist since it is now viewed so negatively. As for Aylmer’s case, he was obsessively fixated on the mark since it was the only flaw that her wife had. Aylmer let the obsession rule him so it affected everything between the couple. He probably thought that the two could not attain a perfect marriage together if Georgiana remains only as almost perfect. Even though it is ethical to remove the birthmark for the couple’s culture since it will resolve their looming problem, is it moral in their perspective? Initially, it was implied that Georgina found it wrong to remove it since she first believed the mark as a “charm” (419) but the soon changed when Aylmer believed the opposite of it. Aylmer has always found it morally correct in his eyes that the removal of the birthmark is a need since he only ever perceived it as a scorching stigma that derails him from reaching total happiness and bliss. The wrong becomes right and the right becomes wrong, and together, these events led to the ethical extermination of the birthmark. Earlier, the two main characters have been paralleled to Nous and Hyle, but now they will be further paralleled to Science and Nature.
It has long been established that Science is a major influence on Aylmer; Science is what rules his universe. Science can be represented through Aylmer since it has always been his best defining factor. It was said “His love for his young wife might prove stronger, but it could only be by intertwining itself with his love of science, and uniting the strength of the latter to its own” (418). This signifies that without Science, Aylmer and the love between him and Georgina will cease to exist. Aylmer has been surrounded by Science all of his life that it’s almost impossible to detangle himself from it. This may be due to the settings of the time: post American Enlightenment. After this distinguished movement, people became more curious about the world around them, and they started to question everything logically. They started to challenge the rules of the church and the justification “because God made it so.” Because of this, man also started to challenge Nature. In the novel, Nature is presented as a cunning and powerful
deity: