Aylmer's Obsession In The Birth-Mark By Nathaniel Hawthorne

In “The Birthmark” we first learn about the main character named Aylmer. He is fascinated with science. “He has devoted himself, however, too unreservedly to scientific studies ever to be weaned from them by any second passion” (Hawthorne 952) He eventually finds love with his wife Georgianna, but there is something about her he just will not seem to take much longer. Georgianna has a red birthmark on her cheek which is the shape of a small hand. While she thinks it is beautiful, the most important person in her life doesn’t feel the same way. In fact, Aylmer is truly disgusted and in shock by her mark, claiming it is a “visible mark of earthly imperfection” (Hawthorne 953). Finally telling his wife how he feels, Georgianna is in disbelief. She is upset, hurt, and confused, even questioning their marriage as she tells him “You cannot love what shocks you!” (Hawthorne 953). The last thing she would have thought is that the person she planned to spend the rest of her life with doesn’t see her beauty mark the way she does.

Aylmer is an opposite representation of C. JoyBell’s quote because he loses sight of his love of Georgiana for scientific perfection, without any self reflection upon the matter. Moreover, Aylmer’s want to dispel Georgiana's birthmark produces a change in his feelings toward her. When discussing the birthmark and a possible removal with Georgiana, Aylmer said, “‘you [Georgiana] came so nearly perfect from the hand of Nature… as being the visible mark of earthly

He must have known this at a basic level because he had given up his original lab “to the care of an assistant” (Hawthorne 398) and Aminadab “executed all the details of his master’s experiments” (Hawthorne 402). Aylmer’s experiments presented in the story are always a failure, which foreshadows that his attempts at removal of the birthmark will also fail. The Birthmark becomes a symbol of his ineptitude as a scientist as he continually fails to address and overcome the birthmark. It is strange to think that he never considers the possible correct coarse of action is to consult a surgeon or some other medical professional. This lack of clarity and self-awareness strongly points to Aylmer’s inability to understand his strengths and weakness in his abilities and further reinforces his “unwilling recognition of the truth … that our great creative Mother … is yet severely careful to keep her own secrets” (Hawthorne

The archetypal conflict of Nature vs. Science is shown in Aylmer’s intention to remove the birthmark, nature’s constant reminder of human mortality, from Georgiana’s cheek. Aylmer believed that the birthmark might heighten Georgiana’s beauty if it wasn’t her only visible imperfection, but on Georgiana’s otherwise flawless complexion the birthmark was nothing more than “the fatal flaw of humanity…the ineludible gripe in which mortality clutches the highest and purest of earthly mould,

Once Georgiana also begins to view her birthmark as an imperfection, just like Aylmer does, she begins to hate it and demands it be removed. “’Remove it, remove it, whatever be the cost, or we shall both go mad!’” (Hawthorne 21). Georgiana is sacrificing everything she can in order for this birthmark to be removed, even death. Aylmer warns her of the dangers of performing such a surgery but she refuses to think it over and believes she is “most fit to die” (Hawthorne 21). Of all mortals, she believes that she has reached her potential in the world and there is no more use for her on the world unless she is perfect, with no birthmark and no imperfections.

For instance, when Aylmer felt miserable, she felt miserable too. Nevertheless, it can be seen that then she demonstrated a total opposite attitude, a strong woman who challenges his husband to go ahead with his experiments. A girl with no fear at all. Far from being the typical woman in her house, she is educated and intelligent, and she is able to read and understand the intricate experiments that her husband documents in his diaries. With them she understands how his husband's love for her is, and she accepts it, and that Aylmer's lofty ideals condemn him to permanent dissatisfaction. She also knows that her husband's attempts to erase the birthmark will not succeed. In spite of this, she voluntarily takes the concoction he offers. The drink finishes with the birthmark, yes, but also with her, who says goodbye to her husband making him know that his search for divine perfection has made him despise the best the earth could offer. Therefore, with all those decisions it can be seen that she has the will to do it and she can make her own decisions. She is completely different from Aylmer. She understood and was aware about what happened to the birthmark, and why she died.

Upon realizing just how much his wife’s birthmark bothered him, Aylmer made it his goal to do whatever was necessary to rid Georgiana of her only “imperfection”. While this story is a work of fiction, the way of thinking is anything but fictional. With the gender dynamic in this story in very centered around the man. The man is the one who makes the decisions, and the woman is expected to go along with them. If the man wants something of the wife, she is expected to do everything in her power to satisfy him. The woman, on the other hand, is often heavily pressured into submitting to this kind of unhealthy relationship. Whether she is blinded by love, afraid of what

Aylmer uses Georgiana’s love and trust for him against her, turning her into a scientific experiment, and taking away her life. Aylmer tells Georgiana about his displeasure with her birthmark. After an initial shocked reaction, Georgiana quickly changes her mindset to agree with her husband and lets him know: “I know not what may be the cost of both of us to rid me of this fatal birthmark. Perhaps its removal may cause cureless deformity, or may be the stain goes as deep as life itself” (222). Throughout her life, other men tell her birthmark is beautiful; however, after Georgina marries Aylmer , Georgiana now no longer wants it and wishes for it to be removed because of her husband’s wishes. This accommodates with what Aylmer wants and is the start of his scientific experiments on his wife. Later, Georgiana and Aylmer have a tense conversation debating about the

In “The Birth-Mark,” Aylmer, a natural philosopher, became obsessed with a hand shaped birthmark on his wife’s face. Being completely consumed by the notion of imperfection that graced the face of his wife, Georgiana, he attempted to remove the mark which resulted in her death. Aylmer views Georgiana’s birthmark as something more than a

“The Birthmark” is a short story authored by Nathaniel Hawthorne and published in 1848. The story is about Aylmer, a brilliant scientist who is obsessed with science and is planning to use his experiments to remove a birthmark on the face of his wife Georgiana. Aylmer’s love for science made him yearn to obtain control of the entire divinity. His wife was among his victims of science that was stronger in him than the love he had for Georgiana. Aylmer became blind to science to the extent that he could not realize that he was damaging his wife and putting his marriage at risk. It examines the obsession with science and human perfection that often cause problems if not controlled as seen in the story. Hawthorne’s aim with this tale was to warn its readers regarding the dangers of science and knowledge with the story, and this is analyzed below.

Aylmer began to become bothered by Georgiana’s mark and brought it up to her to see if she felt the same, “. . . has it never occurred to you that the mark upon your cheek might be removed (340)?” Georgiana has always thought of it as more of a charm, but her husband made her feel insecure about the birthmark. The theme of this story can be easily be applied to modern society because people are so often judged by others. Some people judge others about marks on their body and point them out to them or others. There are people that try so hard to become perfect such as reconstructing their bodies. When Aylmer pointed the mark out to his wife he called it an imperfection. Georgiana quickly becomes offended by his remark and defends herself, “. . . then why did you take me from my mother’s side? You cannot love what shocks you (340)!”

     Alymer is an older scientist who marries a beautiful woman much younger then himself. Even though Alymer finds his young bride beautiful, he still says that she is “marked.” Upon Georgiana’s left cheek is a birthmark. The birthmark is small, red, and in the shape of a hand. Alymer believes that this mark takes away from her beauty;

In Hawthorne’s short story “The Birthmark”, Aylmer feels that his wife Georgiana is a miracle and that she is perfect. Her only flaw was the birthmark in the shape of a hand placed on her cheek. Instead of focusing on all her Georgiana’s perfections, Aylmer only focused on one of her flaws, the birthmark. Aylmer constructs a statement about her birthmark saying that, “It was the fatal flaw of humanity which Nature, in one shape or another, stamps ineffaceably on her productions, either to imply that they are temporary and finite, or that their perfection must be wrought by toil and pain.”(Meyer 345)

Aylmer’s craving to make his wife Georgiana perfect is destined to fail because perfection cannot be found on earth and only found in heaven. Aylmer obsesses about the birthmark that is on his wife for an extensive time that it actually starts to inconvenience him. For Aylmer, it symbolizes mortality and sin and comes to mast over Georgiana’s beauty in his cluttered mind. Consequently, her tiny imperfection, which is only a birth-mark, is all he can see and is so prominent to him. The desire for perfection not only kills Georgiana inside and out, but it also ruins her husband. Aylmer starts to break down because his desire to create the ideal woman becomes such a fixation that it prevents him from seeing all the good his wife has to over him and the world. Nevertheless, Georgiana says that she will risk her life for him and have the birthmark erased. Aylmer is very confident about it but ends up killing her in the process, emotionally and

Portrayed as spiritual and intellectual in contrast with his crude laboratory assistant Aminadab, Aylmer becomes disturbingly obsessed with a birthmark on his wife’s countenance. The plot of the short story revolves around the man’s attempt in removing the mark, which results in the death of Georgiana. In the very beginning of the story, the audience discovers through the narration that Aylmer views his wife’s birthmark as more than a congenital, benign irregularity on the skin. In reality, the primary reason why he becomes severely obsessed with the birthmark is because in his eyes, the mark symbolizes something. Aylmer proceeds to further clarify his inner thoughts by replying to his wife, “This slightest possible defect, which we hesitate whether to term a defect or a beauty, shocks me, as being the visible mark of earthly imperfection” (Mays 340). Although Georgiana is initially mortified and even goes as far to question the existence of the marriage between them, the narration later sheds light and explains that the precise reason why Aylmer is excessively bothered with the birthmark is because he regards Georgiana as virtually the embodiment of perfection. As a consequence, perceiving a flaw on his wife’s image that clashes with the concept of her beauty inevitably leads him to feel aggrieved and begin to judge the birthmark as a dangerous blemish residing on her skin.