Science and ethics are often in a conflict because of different goals pursuing by scientists and humanists. In his stories “Rappaccini’s Daughter” and “The Birthmark”, Nathaniel Hawthorne presents the characters of men of science for whom the scientific experiments are more significant than any ethical questions.
The main goal of the scientists depicted in “Rappaccini’s Daughter” and “The Birthmark” is to make the world perfect with the help of their great knowledge and practice that is why there are no barriers for them at the path to the scientifically perfect world, and Hawthorne accentuates the idea that perfectness is impossible.
Hawthorne discusses the conflict of the scientists’ goals and ethical questions with the help of analyzing the impact of the scientists’ activities on the life of their close people. In “The Birthmark”, Aylmer is unable to accept his wife’s imperfectness which is in her birthmark. Aylmer discusses himself as the powerful man because of his scientific knowledge, and there are few aspects which cannot be improved with the help of science.
From this point, he is able to provide objects and things with “an angelic spirit”, and guarantee the perfectness with references to the “perfect practicality” (“The Birthmark”). The birthmark should be removed to state the power of Aylmer as a scientist because this imperfectness is a kind of a challenge for him (Frank). Aylmer is involved in experiments and the world of science more than in any other aspects of the life, and his passion in relation to science leads to killing his wife.
Dr. Rappaccini in “Rappaccini’s Daughter” is also a mad scientist who forgets about ethical issues to realize his scientific goals. Thus, Dr. Rappaccini “cares infinitely more for science than for mankind. His patients are interesting to him only as subjects for some new experiment” (“Rappaccini’s Daughter”).
As a result, the conflict between Dr. Rappaccini’s science and the other world based on the ethical norms is inevitable because of the man’s insane zeal for science” (“Rappaccini’s Daughter”). Working with poisons, Dr. Rappaccini does not think about the consequences for the other people, the perfect world depending on the principles of science is the only goal (Daly 26).
Hawthorne provides some hints in his stories which make the readers think about the characters’ inability to see the picture of the real world fully. They concentrate on drawbacks and failures which need to be removed, but Aylmer and Dr. Rappaccini become the victims of their intention to make the world more perfect (Wright). Thus, the scientists not only create threats for their close people but they also fail themselves.
In “The Birthmark”, Hawthorne states that Aylmer cannot bear his scientific gift, and he fails “to look beyond the shadowy scope of Time, and, living once for all in Eternity, to find the perfect Future in the present“ in order to make the world better, but not perfect (“The Birthmark”).
Being involved only in the world of science and feel happiness only as a result of a successful experiment, Aylmer and Dr. Rappaccini are inclined to deprive themselves of the ordinary joy to see beauty of the world without intending to change and improve it.
It is stated in the stories that Aylmer and Dr. Rappaccini are only men in spite of their talents, and it is impossible to concentrate on something without paying attention to important ethical or philosophical issues. The deaths of people involved in the scientists’ experiments cannot be justified with the needs of science.
Works Cited
Daly, Robert. “Fideism and the Allusive Mode in ‘Rappaccini’s Daughter’”. Nineteenth-Century Fiction 28.1 (1973): 25-37. Print.
Frank, Albert. Critical Essays on Hawthorne’s Short Stories. Boston: G. K. Hall & Co., 1991. Print.
Rappaccini’s Daughter. n.d. Web.
The Birthmark. n.d. Web.
Wright, Sarah. Critical Companion to Nathaniel Hawthorne: A Literary Reference to His Life and Work. New York: Facts on File Inc., 2007. Print.