The Fate of Women in The Birthmark Essay

In the short allegory “The Birthmark”, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, a newly-wed couple becomes consumed by the existence of a small birthmark on the wife’s face. When the wife, Georgiana, allows her husband Aylmer, a scientist, to remove the birthmark, both realize that Georgiana will inevitably sacrifice her life for the sake of its removal. As the story progresses, so does the confliction of the newlyweds as they realize exactly what the birthmark symbolized to and for each other. Hawthorne’s hallmark use of symbolism also provides a ‘perfect’ glimpse into the mindset of two themes of psychological conflictions: perfectionism and codependency. Hawthorne seems to share this story as a possible moral of the hidden pathos we place upon the ones we love, and the invisible marks or standards we place upon ourselves for the ones we love.

In the story “The Birth-Mark” Nathaniel Hawthorne illustrates a man with an obsession for perfection of the human body. With a desire to reach the ultimate level of perfection, Aylmer’s obsession ultimately creates a path of destruction that tragically ends in the death of his devoted wife, Georgiana.

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

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.

Can you imagine a world without imperfections? A world where everyone is perfect is unattainable, but if scientifically there were a way to eliminate imperfections and life threatening diseases, presumably, many people would be curious. In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story “The Birthmark,” the author explores the idea of perfection with the help of science. Modern examples of this are mentioned in articles posted on NPR.org and time.com, genetically modifying DNA in human embryos has become largely controversial. By using a method called CRISPR, first, it identifies the defective gene, and then it cuts and repairs the gene, not only for that embryo, but for generations to come. With all the scientific knowledge that we are gaining, we

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)

Hawthorne develops the character of Aminadab to serve this purpose. Aminadab is the perfect contrast to Aylmer. Aminadab "seemed to represent man's physical nature; while Aylmer's slender figure, and pale, intellectual face, were no less apt a spiritual element" (48). Aminadab realizes that Georgiana is indeed perfect the way she is, and should not be tampered with. This is shown in a quote from Aminadab, " 'if she were my wife, I'd never part with that birthmark' " (48). He realizes science cannot overtake Mother Nature. Aylmer's view towards it is one of disgust. He thinks "it will be such a rapture to remove it" (48). This shows the contrast of the men, Aminadab and Aylmer. When Aminadab chuckles the "hoarse, chuckling laugh," (55) at the end of the story, it really drives Hawthorne's point home. That is, it is laughable to believe that science can solve all of life's mysteries.

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

Once again this shows Aylmer is not concerned about his wife but rather his victory of nature itself. Aylmer’s true motives can be seen at the end of the story after he has given Georgiana the liquid that supposedly will take the mark away. “’Matter and spirit-earth and heaven-have both done their part in this! Laugh, thing of the senses! You have earned the right to laugh’” (Hawthorne 231). This shows Aylmer’s moment of ecstasy as he seems to have defied nature and begins to laugh in the face of nature itself. This undirected, almost insane laughter shows Aylmer’s true motive of defying nature and creating perfection through science.

Sin, a dark and powerful force, twists the soul and warps the mind to the point where it leaves society with unconquerable difficulties in everyday life. Nathaniel Hawthorne, quite successfully, uses literature to its full potential in order to express sins presence in life. He uses the short story, “The Birthmark” to express this theme. In this story, a man by name Aylmer for the first time sees a small defect in his otherwise beautiful wife, Georgiana. When Aylmer mentions it to her, she feels hurt, but it does not seem to affect her self-image. However, as time went on, the birthmark started to bother her causing her to believe she was flawed and in need of fixing. With the assistance of Aylmer's servant, Aminadab, Aylmer creates a miracle drug that would cure his wife of her imperfection: the birthmark. The possibly deadly drug incites fear in her husband; however, the blemish on her face troubles her, as well as her husband, to the point where she believes her life means nothing unless she could get it removed. After much meticulous preparation, the wife takes the cure. At first, everything seems well as her birthmark faded, however soon everything goes wrong, and Georgina has a terrible reaction. Soon after taking the cure she dies, leaving Aylmer heartbroken and alone without his wife. In, “The Birthmark,” Nathaniel Hawthorne brings to light sin’s presence in society through the use of allusions, symbolism, color, and beauty.

Imagine living your life and not having control over it; imagine having someone tell you what you could wear, what you are supposed to look like, what you’re supposed to do, and when you’re supposed to do them. Having no control is one of the clear issues in The Birthmark by Nathaniel Hawthorne; Hawthorne writes about female roles/norms in the 19th-century perspective, and I would argue that he adheres to these norms, but also challenges them. Challenging gender norms while adhering to them is a little challenging, but this is exactly what is happening in modern-day society. Many people are challenging gender norms and are pushing for equal rights, but many people (my primary focus on women) are changing their looks, and going under the knife to look a certain way that men will find “attractive,” just like Georgiana did for Aylmer. Gender norms for women are being

She knew her husband felt as if the birthmark was disturbing and pushing him away; to please him she decided to let him scientifically remove the crimson colored, hand-shaped birthmark off her left cheek.. She told Aylmer to “remove it, remove it, whatever be the cost, or we both shall go mad!”(Hawthorne 11). She put his feelings before hers, she was lenient to his educational journey, and surrendered her luscious visual appearance to him. During the short story, “The Birthmark,” Hawthorne describes

The short story “The Birthmark” by Nathaniel Hawthorne was written in 1843 at the beginning of the largest feminist movement in the United States of America which occurred between the years 1840 and 1920 (National). Furthermore, during the 1830s and 1840s there were many women who spoke out about women’s rights. They argued for many changes with one of them being a social change in their duties to be subdominant to males. They rallied around the prohibition by fighting for human rights as a whole (Women’s). This period of time had a huge impact on what this story is truly about. Nathaniel Hawthorne, the author of “The Birthmark” and “The Scarlet Letter”, seemed infatuated by incorporating some sort of feminist approaches in these two narratives. In the Scarlet Letter, Hester Prynne and her daughter, Pearl, are burdened by an imperfection that Hester had in a very religious community. She is forced to wear the letter A at all times, which stands for adulteress. In both of these fictional stories, the woman is the one who is burdened by an imperfection within their life (Van Kirk). Although these two women are seen as perfect other than these small imperfections, they are forced by society, or men, to be submissive thus burdening them in the long run. Like in his other story, Nathaniel Hawthorne presented Georgiana, a female, as a submissive character to a male, which happened to be her husband, in “The Birthmark,” therefore, I will argue that

As the narrator states, a scientist’s love for his wife “could only be by intertwining itself with his love of science, and uniting the strength of the latter to his own” (p. 219). This sort of intermingled love is visibly the type of love that Aylmer has for her wife. Aylmer may be in love with his wife, but he cannot ignore her birthmark, which most other men think is very charming. In the story, it’s revealed that Aylmer initially does not want to tell her wife of the possible dangers of his experiment because, as he states “ there is danger” (p. 233). This danger could possibly be the fact that she may die, but also the fact that she may change her mind. However, Georgiana truly loves and trusts her husband, and the depth of her love is seen when she states that she will take “a dose of poison if offered by” (p. 233) Aylmer. Moreover, another indication of her love is the fact that Georgiana is willing to be a guinea pig for his husband’s experiment in order to become more appealing to him and make him happy.

The time setting of the short story “The Birth-Mark” was the eighteenth century, a quite difficult era for the lives of women. In a journal published by Helga Madland, it was mentioned “Since the Graeco-Roman period, women had been perceived as inferior to males in the social hierarchy;..”(pg167). The low status of women in the society has been a big issue in the eighteenth century as reflected in the story “The Birth-Mark” written by Nathaniel Hawthorne. In this story, the unevenly distributed power between male and female eventually result in tragedy of women. “The Birth-Mark” by Hawthorne clearly proves that masculine power always dominates.