Obsessions Always Have Meanings Essay

Although love is at often times a great thing, it can blind people and misguide them. The relationship between Aylmer and Georgiana is a scenario of misguided love gone wrong. In “The Birthmark”, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Aylmer expresses his love of science much more than he expresses his love for his wife, Georgiana. This happens despite the extreme love his wife shows him, and her obedience and trust towards him. He ends up ruining her life when turning her into a scientific experiment. His love for science consumes his brain and he is unable to think about the human part of his life and thus, ends up losing it.

Nathaniel Hawthorne like many other writers during the nineteenth century focused their writings on the darker aspects of life. “The Birthmark,” is set in New England and has a Puritan perspective. Aylmer, a well-known scientist, marries Georgiana who has a hand shaped birthmark upon her face. After some time during their marriage Aylmer and Georgiana decided to remove the mark through scientific means. Advancements in science and the ability to change nature were at the center of plots throughout their short stories and poems. Hawthorne believed that it was not unusual for science and women to rival for one man’s love (Hawthorne 12). Hawthorne used his critical thinking to write about taboos and dissention not spoken of during his lifetime to the forefront. In “The Birthmark,” Hawthorne focuses on science verses nature. Hawthorne attempted to create the perfect human being through science by using setting, character, and symbolism to undo the imperfections he saw within God’s work in “The Birthmark”. With all of his intellectual and spiritual qualities, Aylmer still does not have wisdom.

Nathaniel Hawthorne's novel "The Birth-Mark", explains the relationship between Aylmer, a scientist, and his wife Georgiana’s birthmark. The story is told in third person point of view. The story gives access to both Aylmer and Georgiana thoughts. It allows readers to see that because Aylmer is a scientist and a perfection, he feels that Georgiana would be perfect if the mark was to be removed or on another woman besides her. Aylmer sees his wife's birthmark is a symbol of imperfection. The mark is described to be a small deep crimson mark shaped like a hand on her left cheek. As he sees the mark, he sees her becoming less beautiful. Once the mark is removed, she would become perfect and beautiful. However, Georgiana, Aylmer wife feels that the mark is a symbol of a charm because she was told that the mark was placed on her cheek during her birth-hour by a fairy. Hawthorne shows us that people view beauty in different ways.

The conflict between Aylmer's love of science and love for Georgianna leads to her tragic death. The birthmark continually taints his ideal love of woman. As far as Aylmer is concerned, the only thing that keeps Georgianna from perfection is the birthmark; "... seeing her otherwise so perfect, he found this one defect grow more and more intolerable..." (167). This man, intrinsically scientific, would not deem it necessary to attempt perfection if he did not possess a love for and deep attachment to science:" ... had Aylmer not been a scientist, a daring experimenter, the birthmark on his wife's cheek would hardly have come to obsess him" (Brooks and

First, Aylmer’s obsession over perfection is one of the most conspicuous themes in “The Birthmark”. Aylmer’s fixation for perfection is exhibited an abundance of times and during those times Aylmer would attract her by proclaiming her beauty, but then butcher her when drastically changing the subject of the conversation to "this slightest possible defect, which [they] hesitate whether to term a defect or a beauty" (Hawthorne 47). While Aylmer is struggling to find a way to vanquish this “defect” others have “so often called it a charm, that [Georgiana] was simple enough to imagine it might be so" (47). Aminadab, the devil personified, is a perfect example of someone who did view Georgiana's birthmark as a “charm” and preferred to “never part with the birth-mark” (51). Aylmer neglected all of Aminadab’s proclamations and continued to go on with his master plan “that he had formed whereby he might have opportunity for the intense thought and constant

The Birth Mark Relationships are not always the easiest, for Georgiana and Aylmer this is the case because of the imperfection of a birthmark that is on Georgianna’s cheek. This is an imbalanced relationship because Aylmer has control and uses it to his advantage. Georgianna is so in love with Aylmer that she would be willing to do anything even take her life to make her husband be happy, as she states “either remove this dreadful hand, or take my wretched life” (Hawthorne 342). The husband, Aylmer, has found an imperfection in his wife, because of this Aylmer sees his wife as mortal. He goes to say that if she did not have this then she would be perfect, an angel.

As a scientist who views nature not as beautiful, but as flawed, Aylmer feels that it is in his power to “have corrected what Nature left imperfect in her fairest work!” (Hawthorne). Hawthorne added at the beginning of the story that Aylmer “persuaded a beautiful women to become his wife” (Hawthorne). However, it makes the audience question whether or not he truly loved her and her natural beauty or the fact that he loved the idea that he could make her as pretty as he thinks she could possibly be. Aylmer falls in love with Georgiana but soon he becomes very disgusted with her birthmark. Now, since he is coming to realization with his feelings and attraction to her, he wants to be in control of Georgiana’s beauty. Aylmer does not want to remove the mark from Georgiana’s face because it is ugly; he

Soon after Aylmer tells his spouse that the mark on her face bothers him, she practically begs him to remove it. Aylmer is more than happy to remove the birthmark and has no doubt that he can do so. While discussing the removal on page 316, he tells Georgiana that he “feels fully competent” to “render [Georgiana’s] cheek as faultless as its fellow.” He goes on to describe the sense of triumph he will feel when it is finally corrected. He only cares about the removal of the birthmark and not what may happen to his wife. Even though the mark bothers him, he reveals to Georgiana that “even [he] rejoices in this simple imperfection, since it will be such a rapture to remove it” (Hawthorne 318). This shows that Georgiana is not the love of Aylmer’s life, but rather science. He puts all of his faith directly into it. Barbara Eckstein states that “Aylmer’s study of minute details becomes a system of belief for Aylmer” (517). Even after Georgiana faints on page 317, Aylmer is “without alarm; for he was confident in his science, and felt that he could draw a magic circle round her within which no evil might intrude” (Hawthorne). This seems ludicrous to most people, but Aylmer had absolute faith in

In this story, a husband sacrifices his wife’s life over a birthmark, which he feels to be the only thing that stands in the way of her and perfection. (46) The deficient scientist, Aylmer is very much in love with his dear wife, Georgiana. However, only a few days soon following their marriage, Aylmer takes notice of a peculiar mark which sat on the left side of Georgiana’s cheek. After discovering the birthmark, Aylmer hastily digs for ways to rid Georgiana of this defect in which he calls an, “earthly imperfection” to her beauty. Aylmer 's failures arise from his confusion about spirit and matter. In 1841, Hawthorne had written to Sophia, at that time his fiancee, regarding mesmerism: ". . . what delusion can be more lamentable and mischievous, than to mistake the physical and material for the spiritual?" In Aylmer 's "delusion," he mistakes Georgiana 's physical imperfection for a spiritual one, and, in trying to cure her of her human nature, he kills her. As the story precedes, Aylmer and his servant, Aminadab conduct an experiment to relieve Georgiana of this remarkable birthmark only to discover in the end, that the mark symbolizes mortality. Alchemical references and imagery recur throughout "The Birth-mark," as has been amply documented by Shannon Burns, David Van Leer and others. (36). Mary E. Rucker argues that, “Although some critics have asserted that Aylmer is a “scholar-idealist” and a “refraction of the

This imperfection bears the similarity of a tiny “crimson hand” and is visible on Georgiana’s left cheek. Aylmer concludes Georgiana’s birthmark “as the symbol of his wife’s liability to sin, sorrow, decay, and death” (Hawthorne 2). Aylmer destroys Georgiana’s self-esteem by convincing her with his uncontrolled shakes and nightmares that the birthmark upon her face is not the charm that she believed it to be. He views his wife as imperfect and becomes obsessed with this minor imperfection. His obsession is self-created and becomes physically and emotionally damaging for his wife’s well-being. Aylmer is willing to risk Georgiana’s life in order to gain scientific knowledge. This obsession shows how the craving for scientific knowledge can be a dangerous and deadly course. Hawthorne includes a third character, Aminadab who “with his vast strength, his shaggy hair, his smoky aspect, and the indescribable earthiness

The narrator is describing Aylmer as a man of science, which rivals his love for Georgiana. Aylmer notices a birthmark that is impinging on Georgiana’s perfect body, which he describes as a “possible defect”, an “earthly imperfection” (Hawthorne 1), and is determined to “[correct] what Nature left imperfect in her fairest work [.]” (Hawthorne 3). Aylmer’s thought of removing the birthmark is the first flaw of his experiment. The narrator describes what the actual meaning of the birthmark is: “It was the fatal flaw of humanity which Nature, in one shape or another, stamps ineffaceably on all her productions, either to imply that they are temporary and finite, or that their perfection must be wrought by toil and pain.”

Women were meant to just be beautiful and this birthmark hindered her beauty in his mind. Aylmer could no longer even keep a straight face when looking at his wife. When Aylmer looked at Georgiana it was with an expression that Hawthorne described as “ a deathlike paleness, amid which the crimson hand was brought strongly out, like a bass-relief of ruby on white marble” (Hawthorne 3). This birthmark made it hard for Aylmer to even look at Georgiana without making a face of disgust, this was a look that made Georgiana shutter. As time went on thinking about this birthmark started to haunt Aylmer in his dreams; Aylmer would have horrible nightmares about it.

Explaining throughout this story how just about every living thing is simply imperfect in some way, and that everything that lives must die when its time is up. Although to Aylmer the birthmark is, “the symbol of his wife’s liability to sin, sorrow, decay, and death, Aylmer’s somber imagination was not long in rendering the birthmark a frightful object, causing him more trouble and horror than ever Georgiana’s beauty, whether of soul of sense, had given him delight” (Hawthorne 292). In consequence, Aylmer operates on his wife to remove the birthmark to help her become “perfect” but, ironically right as he removes the birthmark Georgiana awakens and says to Aylmer, “Aylmer, dearest Aylmer, I am dying” (Hawthorne 301). Hawthorne in the last paragraph tells us that “The fatal hand had grappled with the mystery of life, and was the bond by which an angelic spirit kept itself in union with a mortal frame”

“The Birthmark” written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, was published in 1843 in a literary journal called the Pioneer. During this time period there were great advances happening in the scientific field. “The Birthmark is a story about a scientist named Aylmer who wishes to make his wife perfect by removing a tiny mark on her cheek and ends tragically for the wife. In the story there is a clear divide between science and nature. Aylmer who wishes to correct it the flaw that he sees on his wife Georgina cheek and nature who put it the tiny birthmark there. By using foreshadowing, allegory and symbolism Hawthorne shows how one must not try to correct Nature for it may have many disastrous consequences for the one that are involved in trying to correct it

Aylmer, the protagonist in "The Birthmark" was a successful scientist and philosopher previous to marrying Georgiana, as he preferred to abandon his background in order to provide his wife with everything she needed in order to feel loved. Science actually seemed to be worth nothing when compared to Georgiana, and even though Aylmer paid great respect to his background, he would rather focus on his wife. "His love for his young wife might prove the stronger of the two; but it could only be by intertwining itself with his love of science, and uniting the strength of the latter to his own" (Hawthrone). While it seems that Aylmer is happy with his condition consequent to marrying Georgiana, it is gradually revealed that he is unable to abandon his love for science. He encounters a significant problem as he comes