Obsession In Nathanial Hawthorne's The Birth-Mark

Hawthorne, Nathaniel proves how a young, pure and happy soul, hit by disappointment on false ideals of the Puritan society is expressing a sin bitter contempt. If Brown, when he leaves his house in the village, he is perfectly integrated in a society that

Numerous people want to be perfect no matter what obstacles they will encounter. However, an individual cannot overcome their obstacles if they are drawn to their ego of perfectionism. Lawrence Sargent Hall believe that having too much confident in an individual result in ignorance by not realizing how some unexpected signals are too easy to miss out. He writes a short story The Ledge to explore a nameless fisherman who has pride in crafting a perfect day of hunting ducks with his son and nephew. But the fisherman did not realize that his pride will put a risk on himself, his son, and his nephew on an unexpected event. In this way, Hall combines the flaws of oblivious and pride together to forewarn the reader about having overconfident in a

In the year 2105, the American culture is a society that thrives off of the obsession of materialism and gaining the approval of others. Culture tells us to worry about how many “likes” we get on a picture of ourselves or the number of comments that tell us how beautiful or handsome we are. Beauty will fade, but people are willing to do anything that they can to preserve it forever. From plastic surgeries for a thiner nose, to silly home remedies for a wrinkly face, we won’t stop until perfection is achieved. The writings of Nathaniel Hawthorne in the nineteenth century did not differ much from the American culture that we see today. In The Birthmark, Hawthorne depicts the obsession for perfection, the tole it takes on one and the consequences it has. The quest for perfection is unrealistic and unobtainable as we are only mere humans incapable of reconstructing our DNA.

Nobody is perfect and no one ever will be. This theme shows up often in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story, The Birthmark. In this story, a scientist named Aylmer becomes obsessed with removing a hand-shaped birthmark from his wife’s, Georgiana, visage. After a series of tests, he is successful, but Georgiana becomes perfect and can no longer stay in the mortal world, so she dies. The Birthmark demonstrates how foolish it is to strive for perfection and this is revealed throughout the story using narration.

From the late 18th century to the mid-19th century America began to experience Romanticism; a period where emotions, spiritual understanding, and a close relationship with nature were emphasized. Romanticism is clearly the style used in Hawthorne’s “The Birthmark” not to mention it is chalked full of symbolism in light of one man’s obsession with nature, science, perfection, and Georgiana. The birthmark resembling a “tiny crimson hand” imprinted on Georgiana’s cheek is clearly a form of symbolism used to represent many concepts in this great literary piece. Many may interpret “the hand” to symbolize such things as mortality, imperfection, humanity, the hand of nature, the hand of God, or even a liability of sin.

The short story “The Birthmark”, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, plunges the readers into the dramatic atmosphere of scientific endeavors. A multitude of emotions arise as the protagonist, a prominent scientist, wishes to remove a birthmark appearing on the cheek of his lovely wife. However, Georgiana seems to disagree with the venture, as readers feel she is seriously threaten by the removal of her birthmark, which could be seen as the impurity among her gorgeousness. The presence of science in the story releases an element anxiousness as it is portrayed somewhat threatening for the readers. Multiple elements of the story sustain the anxious viewpoint of science as readers endure a vast range of negative emotions. Firstly, Aylmer’s inhospitable

Georgiana’s birthmark represents her grasp on humanity as shown in its shape as a hand. The hand symbolizes humanity’s role in nature and the continuous struggle between nature and science. Georgiana is someone who Aylmer sees as created “nearly perfect from the hand of Nature” (Hawthorne 1). Her birthmark is an imprint left by nature and is representative of humanity’s ties to it. Altering nature isn’t something that humans should be able to do because it is more powerful than any creation made by man. Aylmer believes that he can correct “what Nature left imperfect in her fairest work!” (4). Aylmer, who stands as a symbol for science, obsessively seeks to remove Georgiana’s birthmark and make her ideal. When mankind attempts to change nature in the pursuit of perfection, it never ends well as seen in Aylmer’s attempts at

In the story “The Birthmark” by Nathaniel Hawthorne, he uses several techniques to help build his story. Hawthorne tells a story of a man of science whose name was Aylmer. He married a beautiful women named Georgiana, although she was quite beautiful she had a birthmark on her face which, in Aylmer’s eyes was an imperfection. Aylmer tries to perfect Georgiana, but in the end Aylmer’s attempts to change Georgiana causes him to lose her. Aylmer does not accept the idea of imperfections in people. Aylmer believed that if people really had the desire to be perfect they would strive for it, but they don’t and in result Aylmer cannot accept the reality that people are imperfect. Hawthorne uses a number of techniques such as, setting, foreshadowing, imagery, tone, etc. With each of these different techniques he uses them to contribute to the story to create the theme or idea of the

When in the course of events that things go awry, it is human nature to find a person or thing in which to blame for the downfall. The responsibility of the tragedy may be a single person, or a group of people. In the short story “The Birthmark” by Nathaniel Hawthorne, the responsibility of the resulting tragedy is split equally between Aylmer and Georgiana.

Where there are clashing loves, time proves again and again that whichever love is stronger blossoms and its unfortunate counterpart dissipates into the wind. Making room for a second love can be difficult, especially if the second love dares to threaten the prior. This very phenomenon strikes the scientist Aylmer in the short story “The Birthmark” by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Aylmer’s burning passion has been the art of scientific studies. Aylmer shows no intentions of changing his scientific way of thinking for anyone, not even his newly beloved wife Georgiana. In this time period, it is extremely common for a women to have to compete with a man’s love for science. Unfortunately for Georgiana, it is evident that Aylmer’s primary cares are himself

The Birthmark is a short story involving a husband, and a wife named Aylmer and Georgiana. When reading this rather dark story the mind begins to question the ethics within the writing on who was a fault for the ultimate death of Georgiana, Aylmer or herself. I would argue that it was Aylmer who was the true monster within this story. Aylmer makes her shutter at her once charming mark and tells her she is imperfect. It is also Aylmer, who turns this into a crusade of his obsession over defying nature vs. the mark.

Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story, “The Birthmark”, is an exemplary example of Dark Romanticism in early American literature. An abundance of romantic characteristics such as supernatural elements, intuition over reasoning, and the tendency to focus on the tragedy of the story are found throughout the Dark Romantic piece.

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

Many authors in American literature tend to use common themes or outcomes in their writings that can or cannot pertain to real life experiences. Hopefully not many times in ones life does someone hear about a person being murdered solely because of his or her imperfections; however, this outcome seems to be very common in two of our famous writer’s short stories. In both Nathaniel Hawthorn’s “The Birthmark” and Edgar Allen Poe’s “A Tell Tale Heart,” both of the main characters develop such an unnecessary, obsessive hatred with someone’s imperfection that they go to ultimate measures to eliminate them forever. When comparing these two short stories, it is evident to see how both of these themes are concentrated around the idea that one physical imperfection can be a mark of moral shortcoming.

Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote the short story “The Birthmark” in 1843 and it is set at a time when science was an emerging field. Science at that time was unexplainable and mysterious to the common person which lead to it being referred to as magic. One of the themes that is common in Hawthorne's work is the sinful nature and impurity that is at the heart of each person. Hawthorne shows the dilemma of the flawed nature of a person and the ultimate price of perfection that will be paid.