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The Birthmark (2000)

by Nathaniel Hawthorne(Favorite Author)

3.67 of 5 Votes: 4

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English

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review 1: Read for Literary Interpretation ClassHawthorne's stuff is so fun to study for school because there is so much to think about and analyze. I liked this one better than Young Goodman Brown or The Minister's Black Veil (although those are good too). This talks about playing God and the dangers of trying to improve upon what God has created. Of course, science is a good thing and I am super thankful for corrective eye wear and modern medicine but at what point have we gone too far? At what point are we no longer satisfied or grateful for what we have been given, and what are the dangers of trying to one-up God? This had religious themes like much of Hawthorne's work but this one was less about faith or guilt and more applicable to a general audience. You do not have to believ... moree in God to see that all of our advancements in science and technology are a double edged sword.
review 2: Published in 1843, The Birthmark was written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, who explored various themes like science versus nature, mortality and marriage through the story of a scientist who was so obsessed with removing a birthmark on his wife’s beautiful face that he ended up killing her with his fixation on absolute perfection. Hawthorne stressed that no man could be without flaws and the plot itself contained several anti-science sentiments, thus categorizing The Birthmark into the Dark Romanticism genre. In many ways, the genre of the story was influenced by the time when it was written. The Birthmark was written in the mid-1800s - a period when man’s increasing faith in science suppressed the faith in God, leading to the Age of Enlightenment and the movement of Positivism (i.e.: the belief that all authentic knowledge comes from science). However, as shown by the storyline, it was evident that Hawthorne strongly questioned the movement of Positivism. Like many other of Hawthorne’s works, the whole story was an allegory, which he achieved through the use of symbolism. The death of the scientist’s wife, Georgiana, after the scientific treatments administered by her husband, Aylmer, mirrored the author’s view towards science and nature, which was a major theme in the book. Symbolism played an integral part in substantiating the theme of science and nature in the story. A feverish scientist, Aylmer symbolized science and intellect. A man with great scientific knowledge, he could achieve marvelous things like doing some “optical phenomena”, which was “almost perfect enough” that Georgiana believed that her husband “possessed sway over the spiritual world”. This showed the disappearance of boundaries between science and nature, highlighting the spirituality of scientific Aylmer, which was a paradox in itself. Furthermore, there were other symbols like the laboratory and the boudoir where Georgiana resided in, which represented earthly and heavenly realms respectively. There was great contrast in the imagery of the two symbols. The boudoir had “an atmosphere of penetrating fragrance”, and according to Georgiana, the place looked like “enchantment” and seemed to be “a pavilion among the clouds”. This revealed a spiritual realm, freed from all the humanly, earthly imperfections. It was like heaven – a place of perfection and creation. However, the lab was the exact opposite of the “beautiful” boudoir. It was literally littered with “soot” and was “tainted with gaseous odors” with an “oppressively close” atmosphere. With its “naked walls and brick pavement”, it was obvious that the laboratory was an image of the earthly realm. The blatant contrast between the boudoir and the laboratory held heavy meaning: The dwelling place of all Aylmer’s “lofty”, spiritual ambitions, the boudoir symbolized everything he wanted to accomplish as a scientist. But the laboratory reeked of his failures, not as a scientist, but as a moralistic scientist who learns to respect the boundaries between nature and science. The lab also held reminders of his own mortality and inability to compete with nature and discover her “secrets”. The stark contrast between the lab and the boudoir mirrored the “spiritual” Aylmer and earthly Aminadab – Aylmer’s assistant, a man of “low stature, but bulky frame, with shaggy hair”. As clearly stated by the narrator, Aminadab seemed to represent “man's physical nature” with his “vast strength… and the indescribable earthiness that incrusted him”. It was apparent that the two men could not be any more different, just like the lab and the boudoir. However, they were forced to co-exist together in close proximity with an unbreakable link, just like science and nature. Moreover, it should be brought into attention that physically, the lab and the boudoir were separated by a single wall only. This emphasized the boundary between nature and science that no man could cross and hinted at the theme of the iron boundary that Nature set for science. Apart from the above symbols, the most significant symbol of all was certainly the birthmark. In fact, it was so important that it was made into the title of the story, which made sense as the whole story revolved around the birthmark on Georgiana’s otherwise perfect face. The birthmark itself symbolized mortality and humanity. It was the “sole token of human imperfection” and showed the inextricable link between one’s character and imperfections. In some way, it was the birthmark that made Georgiana mortal and by taking away the birthmark, Aylmer was taking away Georgiana’s mortality, thereby leading to her death. This echoed the theme of mortality in the story, which was linked to the theme of science and nature. Aylmer challenged Nature by trying to become a creator himself – to “repair” a “flaw”, to “corrected what Nature left imperfect in her fairest work”. By doing this, Aylmer crossed the boundary and like a “jealous patentee”, the Nature fiercely guarded her secrets by taking away Georgiana’s mortality, thus proving to be more powerful than science. Although in truth, the birthmark symbolized Georgiana’s mortality, Aylmer saw it as a “symbol of his wife's liability to sin, sorrow, decay, and death”. He was so disgusted by imperfections that he “rejected the best the earth could offer”, as proclaimed by Georgiana upon her death. It was ironic that Aylmer searched so hard for perfection when the perfect wife was before him. His obsession with perfection made him “flung away the happiness which would have woven his mortal life of the selfsame texture with the celestial”. In other words, Georgiana could help him experience heavenly joy, yet Aylmer threw it away with his scientific pursuits and spiritual aspirations. This brought out the theme of marriage in the story. The marriage between Aylmer and Georgiana was not an ideal one. Although Aylmer’s love for his young wife might prove to be 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”. It was clear from the start that science replaced the romance in Aylmer’s marriage. Aylmer’s foremost duty was to science, instead of his wife. On the other hand, Georgiana was totally dedicated to Aylmer. Her whole existence depended solely on the opinions of her husband. Before, Georgiana believed that her birthmark as part of her “charm”. But after Aylmer’s negative reactions towards it (i.e.: the shudders of revulsion and the declaration that it “shocks” him), Georgiana gradually became disgusted of her birthmark that she would even “fling down” her life “with joy” if the “hateful mark” remained on her face still. In the end, Georgiana got her wish but she died after achieving perfection, which was one of the morals in the story. The first message was that science was not omniscient – it had its limitations. As presented in the beginning, The Birthmark was set in a time when men believed that science could prove everything’s existence and make anything possible. However, Hawthorne was obviously against this notion. A top scientist of his time, Aylmer failed to discover nature’s “secrets” and failed in his past experiments. As Georgiana had discovered after reading his journals – “his most splendid successes were almost invariably failures, if compared with the ideal at which he aimed”. He had failed in the past and he had failed yet again, when the birthmark finally faded away but Georgiana died in the process. This showed that nature was so omnipotent that it even defeated science. The ambiguous ending of the story proved the moral of the story. In the last few lines of The Birthmark after the death of Georgiana, there was a “hoarse, chuckling laugh”, which was Aminadab’s distinctive laugh. In fact, the name ‘Aminadab’ was rooted deeply in the Bible – the Genesis to be exact. This led to a paradoxical result – Aminadab was shown as an “earthly” man, yet he represented religion at the same time; Aylmer was the manifestation of the “spiritual element”, yet he was a symbol of science. The conclusion was that although Aylmer was a man of science, he had the ambition to be the creator, to be God Himself, thus intruding upon the spiritual realm. On the other hand, although Aminadab was a man of “physical nature”, he did not dare to interfere with Nature nor replace the heavenly powers. In the story, Aminadab declared that if Georgiana were his wife, he would “never part with that birthmark”. This showed that he was, in certain aspects, wiser than Aylmer. Although Aminadab was of lower status than Aylmer (i.e.: earthly power was submissive to science), his compliance with Nature enabled him to have the last laugh – both figuratively and literally. Another message was that no man was perfect and flaws was what made men mortal. Therefore, it could be concluded that if someone was without flaws, they were no longer humans, which was the case with Georgiana, when “the parting breath of the now perfect woman passed into the atmosphere”. This gave substance to the theme of mortality – to the fact that mortality means imperfections, and that absolute perfection can never exist on the mortal plane. The morals of the story were narrated in a moralistic, subjective tone. The narrator was omniscient and strangely though, seemed to have a character of its own. It had a strong voice and rushed to give details of every symbol. For example, it clearly stated that Aminadab “represent man's physical nature” while Aylmer was “no less apt a type of the spiritual element”. Apart from the narration, Hawthorne adopted the technique of foreshadowing to bring out the major themes of the story. The “fatal birthmark” itself foreshadowed the tragic end of Georgiana and the phrase “the stain goes as deep as life itself” hinted that if Aylmer removed Georgiana’s “sole” imperfection, he was removing her mortality as well. This approached the theme of mortality, especially with the “the lifeless form of Georgiana”, which Aminadab saw after she fainted upon entering the boudoir. Also, Aylmer’s dream was a major hint to the ending of the story. In the dream, Aylmer was operating on Georgiana to cut the birthmark away. But Aylmer cut so deep that he reached Georgiana’s heart and in the end, he was “inexorably resolved” to cut it away too. Other examples of foreshadowing included the “perfect and lovely flower” that withered the second Georgiana touched it. The metal plate showing Georgiana’s birthmark was later thrown into “corrosive acid” by Aylmer, thus foreshadowing Georgiana’s death. Personally, I found the foreshadowing too excessive and it gave away the ending too much. I was a little disappointed when the ending proved to be the same as it had been foreshadowed. Hawthorne’s writing style was very distinctive with its moralistic tone and blatant foreshadowing. In this story, he gave very minute details of Georgiana’s birthmark but added in very little of the characters’ background – too little in my opinion. For instance, Hawthorne dedicated a large paragraph describing the “singular mark”, which was “deeply interwoven… with the texture and substance” of Georgiana’s face. He even painstakingly described the exact shade of the birthmark when Georgiana’s face changed colour with her emotions – the “tint of deeper crimson” and the “brilliant glow”. On the other hand, apart from the fact that Aylmer was a brilliant scientist who was “too unreservedly” dedicated to science, readers knew almost nothing of him and the other supporting characters. Hawthorne even missed out the climax of the story when Georgiana died and no one knew anything of Aylmer’s reaction towards his wife’s death. This further enhanced Hawthorne’s moralizing throughout the story. To him, the messages and morals of the story were far more important than the story itself. All in all, I found The Birthmark with delightful, philosophical depths and the text was well connected to the modern world. The conflict between science and nature still exist at the present. Technology and science had advanced so much that men could even take the role of God, like determining the sex of babies and cloning people. The Birthmark was an excellent book that explored the permanent struggle between science and nature. less

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