Fatality In Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Birthmark

A character having an ability to be an influence of fatality is a dangerously powerful trait to have. The victim’s life is placed into the hands of the influencer. This power of fatality can be seen within Robert Frost’s poem, “Out, Out,” when a personified buzz saw cuts the hand off the boy using it. This injury causes him to die. This power of fatality can also be seen in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story, “The Birthmark,” a scientist, named Aylmer creates a risky and unreliable potion that was expected to remove his wife’s birthmark but, it ultimately kills her. The saw and Aylmer’s power can be defined as the difference between life and death, in other words fate deciding. With this power also comes intimidation because being the cause

This overriding confidence makes him blind to his past failures and logical sense. Georgiana pointes out the faults Aylmer’s past experiments by saying, “His brightest diamonds were the merest pebbles, and felt to be so by himself, in comparison with the inestimable gems which lay hidden beyond his reach.” (Hawthorne, 217). This shows that Aylmer always reached for the unreliable and impossible overcomes when experimenting. This raises concern when Aylmer focuses on using his own wife as an experiment rather than the love of his life. To conclude, these are the reasons why the saw from Robert Frost’s poem, “Out, Out,” and Aylmer from Nathanial Hawthorne’s short story, “The Birthmark,” have a similar power. Their power can be defined as intimidating and strong enough to be able to end the life of other characters. The saw has the physical means to do it. The saw also has been personified with the characteristics of violent aggression that contributes to its intimidating power. Aylmer’s fatal power is through his obsession with success. His intimidation power is his unwavering mindset of