Nathaniel Hawthorne named one of his short stories based on the main symbol within the plot. Of course the short story being discussed is “The Birthmark.” Why would a story about a birthmark be filled with symbolism in regards to motives and actions? Hawthorne based his story around a couple who decide to take a risk to try and remove a birthmark. What is so special about a birthmark? Well according to Aylmer the birthmark is “deemed an almost fearful distinctness.” Aylmer goes into great detail in providing the location, size, shape, and color of the birthmark. Readers may wonder why does he worry about the mark so much, and Hawthorne provides Aylmer’s thought process. “It was the fatal flaw of humanity which Nature, in one shape or another, …show more content…
“‘Noblest dearest, tenderest wife,’ cried Aylmer, rapturously, “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.” “I feel myself fully competent to render this dear cheek as faultless as its fellow; and then, most beloved, what will be my triumph when I shall have corrected what Nature left imperfect in her fairest work!” The story takes these two opposing symbols and creates the theme of Nature versus action against nature. “Man playing God,” is a common example, and in this story, Aylmer tries to remove the birthmark. Aylmer is trying to change something that Nature has produced, and in most cases, man loses when playing God. The birthmark fades as the wife dies. Hawthorne wrote a story injected with symbols about the dangers of symbols. Why would he do that? Examples are often times the best ways to teach and learn. The reader can examine the symbols in the story and understand that they are following the same path. “The Birthmark” is a complicated read, but it is a story that can be analyzed and used in
At the end of the story Aylmer regretted pressuring his wife to change herself and feels remorseful for what he did. The Birthmark follows the struggles of man versus nature and man versus self. The main character Aylmer suffered no not being about to accept the flaws of his wife but also the fact that he cannot do everything, mostly because it is not his place to do these things. As the story develops the need for Aylmer to reach perfection grows stronger and later kills his wife.
Which leads him to the point of using science to remove the birth mark. Aylmer’s obsession of removing the birth mark led to the death of his wife, Georgina. Hawthorne uses Aylmer to present a common issue that individuals have. Furthermore, each scholar help better understand the theme of obsession and achieving a goal that leads individuals to a path of negativity because of individuals’ foolishness to achieve perfection, science vs naturality, and mental isolation.
Intro: Nathaniel Hawthorne’s fictional short story “The Birthmark” and The Twilight Zone’s darkly romantic episode “Eye of the Beholder” both use gothic elements and delve into the realm of science to explore concepts of beauty and perfection. Through their contrasting characterizations of the scientist and employments of irony and allusions, each work comes to its own conclusions about how to define and treat beauty. Body #1: The Birthmark From the very first paragraph, Hawthorne’s story revolves around Aylmer, a scientist who supposedly gives up his career to marry the beautiful woman of his dreams, Georgiana.
Written almost two centuries ago, “The Birthmark” is an early form of our present-day obsession with a flawless, perfect physical state. Our society has numerous ways of showing just how far they will go to show their passion for physical perfection. Like in “The Birthmark” our society makes physical changes through plastic surgeries because for one reason or another they are not happy with themselves. While most of the time people make their own decisions about changing their look, it was Aylmer who convicted Georgina to let him change her look.
The true essence of “The Birthmark” is infiltrated through the hidden structure of the strength of a woman. As we unpack the passion behind the obsession that Aylmer presents with his genius in science, on the surface, one may recognize his obscenity and categorize it as a reflection of masculine control. Though, this is in fact true, what strikes as an unbeknownst strength is the hidden sacrifice that Georgiana represents as she succumbs to her spouse and his desire to make her “perfect”. As Hawthorne structures this sacrifice as a mere testament of how women of the late 1700’s - 1800’s valued the perspective of their spouse, it is necessary to extract how this act of selflessness attributes to the amount of love and respect Georgiana has for
Hawthorne uses imagery sense of smell to get readers to imagine the scene, “When Georgiana recovered consciousness she found herself breathing an atmosphere of penetrating fragrance, the gentle potency of which had recalled her from her deathlike faintness” (Hawthorne). “The Birthmark” also creates irony with “Aminadab, the less inferior man to Aylmer is the one who speaks sensible to Aylmer by disclaiming that if Georgiana was his wife, he would not try to remove the birthmark” (“The Birthmark”). The figurative language helps enhance the story. Nathaniel Hawthorne’s meaning for the story was a man’s strive to perfection only caused the death of his wife. Aylmer was too focused on what perfect could be, and Georgiana blindly agrees with him and decides to remove the birthmark, despite never having a problem with it.
Everyone comes across something in their life that speaks to them--a symbol as it will be called. In the book, The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, there are many symbols, but there is one that really stands out above the rest, and that is the mark on Dimmesdale’s chest. The Scarlet Letter’s primary focus is on the life of Hester Prynne, who had an affair with someone and was accused of the crime and forced to wear a scarlet letter A for the rest of her life. The mark on Arthur Dimmesdale’s chest (although it was never truly stated what the mark actually was) can be seen as guilt in physical form which slowly begins to show over time.
“Pray do not look at it again. I never can forget that convulsive shudder”(Hawthorne 5).We see how Aylmer is controlled by obsession of the birthmark and Georgiana has become his project to achieve perfection, but in dark romanticism nature is not meant to be perfect. Aylmer also has a assistant named Aminadab who can be seen as “nature” or “earthiness” because he says “If she were my wife, I’d never part with that birthmark. ”(Hawthorne 4).
Symbolism in “The Birthmark” In “The Birthmark” Nathaniel Hawthorne gives us a story that is telling us on some level to accept your own, as well as other people's imperfections or it could destroy not only your relationship with them, but also your relationship with yourself. In this story Hawthorne uses symbolism to show us exactly how this kind of behavior can lead to not just ruining relationships, but in this case even death. In “The Birthmark” Hawthorne uses a wide variety of objects and people such as a withering flower, a birthmark, poison, Aylmer's dream and Georgiana's death, and even a character named Aminidab to symbolize that nobody is in fact perfect and we all must accept each others flaws in order to have good and healthy relationships.
Nathaniel uses a birthmark as a symbolic representation of mankind's desire to remove imperfections from our world. “The mark, as the subject around which the entire narrative revolves, is quite obviously of central thematic and structural concern in the story, but, from the outset, what is regarded as most interesting about it is its signifying quality. its capacity for different readings by different readers is presented to us as one of its first and major characteristics”(Britannica). What the author of this article is saying is that the mark is perceived differently by different people where one perceives it as an imperfection another could perceive it as an enhancement to her own beauty. Which could be related back to human instinct to remove imperfections from the world, but what they see as imperfection is really an enhancement for mankind.
Georgiana’s birthmark is a symbol of her mortality. The narrator explains that everything in nature is flawed and dies. The hand shaped mark is the only thing on an otherwise perfect person, the thing that portrays her as mortal. Aylmer believes that the birthmark marks his wife’s premature death. Being the smart man that he is one would believe that he would just see the birthmark for what it is, but he makes a fatal misinterpretation.
Equally Aylmer and Dr. Rappiccini, both characters in Hawthorne’s works causes destruction of human life with selfish aims to perfect the woman of their choice. In the case of Aylmer’s love interest in science, just as with the case of Beatrice’s father, blinds him to the true beauty and humanity of the woman before him. Aylmer views Georgiana’s birthmark as a symbol of imperfection and tries to remove it. At the end of the story, Georgiana say, "My poor Aylmer," she repeated, with a more than human tenderness, "you have aimed loftily; you have done nobly. Do not repent that with so high and pure a feeling, you have rejected the best the earth could offer.
In Nathaniel Hawthorne short story “The Birthmark,” Aylmer is an astute run amok, a man whose mind has inundated his sense of decency. An incredibly adroit scientist, he has made many exiting revelations about the physical world. His inquiries into the spiritual world, however, incline to be more perturbing. Albeit he protests that he would never genuinely carry out his more outlandish ambitions – such as turning base metal into gold, making a potion that would give its imbiber sempiternal life, or engendering humans from nothing – he believes that he at least capable of performing such miracles. And his actions belie his claim to venerate life: he has invented a poison capable of killing a person instantly or during the course of years, depending
This shows Science’s front in the “battle” of Science vs. Nature. The Scientists playing god are trying to control nature. This is evident in the story in places such as how Aylmer wants to make Georgiana perfect which would require him to play god and remove the birthmark which Nature placed on her as her only imperfection. Not only do you have this throughout the story but you have other things that are more specific such as “It is
The story about The Birthmark is about a scientist named Aylmer who is in love with his work, but at the same time he is love with a young woman named Georgiana. Later Aylmer and Georgiana get married, however Aylmer slowly beings to pay close attention to Georgiana’s birthmark on her cheek. The narrator describes the shape of the birthmark as a little hand and due to its shape Georgiana believes it’s from a fairy that has blessed her. Aylmer one night brings up Georgiana’s birthmark and suggest why she doesn’t get rid of it, at that moment Georgiana was insulted. Thus grew Aylmer’s obsession over the birthmark he could not stop thinking about it, he thought that it was a mark that signified as a sinful person.