The story The Birthmark is about Aylmer who is a scientist and philosopher. He is married to Georgiana. One day Aylmer asks her is she had ever thought about removing the birthmark that is on her face. At first Georgiana thinks he is joking, but when she realizes that he is serious, she tells him that she and many others see her birthmark as a blessing and charm. He says that it takes away from her face, which is almost perfect except for the birthmark.
The birthmark is a small hand-shaped red mark that disappears when she blushes. Women seem to think like Aylmer that the mark ruins her looks. Many men find the mark attractive and want to kiss it. However, for Aylmer that birthmark becomes an obsession. He cannot accept that his wife has a small blemish on her otherwise perfect visage. After Georgiana hears Aylmer talking in his sleep, referring to a dream he was having, where he was trying to remove her birthmark with a knife and plunged down until he had reached her heart, which he promptly removed from her. Georgiana decides that she will let Aylmer try to remove the birthmark. He then kisses her unblemished cheek because to him the birthmark is so hideous and wrong that he cannot acknowledge it with any affection. Upon arrive at Aylmer’s laboratory he winces when he sees her birthmark and she faints. Aylmer’s assistant comes out and says that he would not touch her birthmark if she was his wife.
Soon Aylmer begins doing experiments on Georgiana. He also tells her about his experiments with alchemy, a fast acting poison, which Georgiana finds disgusting, but Aylmer says is a good thing, a potion to give eternal life. Georgiana realizes that he has been drugging her as she has been waking up amidst bizarre events such as figures that are made up of spirit. At one point he tries to create an image of her face on a metal plate. The plate however, grows a hand and he destroys it. She begins reading his journals and realizes that his experiments tend to fail more than they succeed. He finds out and gets angry, but she is able to calm him. A few hours later when she goes to his laboratory to see him, he accuses her of getting in his business and insists that she leaves. In order to appease him she tells him that she will drink whatever he asks her to. She then reflects on how noble it is of Aylmer to refuse to love her with a flaw, instead insisting that she becomes his idealized image of her. He gives her a potion, which she drinks and it removes her birthmark, but she dies.
In the story Aylmer’s obsession with his wife’s birthmark eventually kills her. This is because it was the only flaw on an otherwise perfect face. Hawthorne did not believe that perfection could exist on earth. This is why as soon as the perfection that Aylmer was seeking in his wife came into existence, she died. Aylmer’s inability to accept Georgiana’s minute flaw not only destroyed her physically (her death) but mentally and spiritually (she convinced herself that she was flawed and that she needed to allow him to fix her), it also destroys him as he is unable to focus on anything other than fixing her. This causes him to become blind to Georgiana’s beauty and goodness. This is because he chooses to focus on the one aspect of her that proves that she is mortal. This is because to him if she had the birthmark removed, she would be like a like a goddess, but what he fails to consider is that gods and goddesses do not remain on Earth. Thus, this is the reason that once he is successful in removing the birthmark she dies.
Works Cited
Hutchinson, Emily, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and James McConnell. Nathaniel Hawthorne. Milwaukee, WI: Gareth Stevens Pub., 2005. Print.
Miller, John J. "Gothic Mystery Meets Puritan Belief." WSJ. N.p., 24 Apr. 2015. Web. 18 May 2016.
