Introduction
During Nathaniel Hawthorne’s lifetime, there was a tremendous advancement in science and technology. People began believing that all of life’s unanswered questions would soon be answered in the laboratories of the scientists if they would just have the patience to wait long enough. It was felt that with just a little time, all the evils of society would be ironed out and all imperfections would be cured. These are the issues examined in Hawthorne’s short story “The Birthmark.”
The story is essentially the story of a scientific man who cannot stand a small birthmark visible on his wife’s cheek and which she agrees to attempt to remove in a process that eventually kills her. In this story, Hawthorne illustrates through the symbolism of the birthmark science’s approach toward ‘perfecting’ society, society’s acceptance of this approach and the true nature of this type of imperfection.
The brief basic plot of the story
Hawthorne uses the symbol of the birthmark as a way of illustrating science’s approach to the aberrations of nature as a problem that needs to be fixed. Aylmer’s wife Georgiana has a tiny hand-shaped birthmark on her face that shows most clearly when she is pale and upset and tends not to show at all when she is happy and rosy. As Hawthorne points out, there were generally two approaches taken toward this small defect in her otherwise perfect face. “Georgiana’s lovers were wont to say that some fairy at her birth hour had laid her tiny hand upon the infant’s cheek, and left this impress there in token of the magic endowments that were to give her such sway over all hearts.”
On the other hand, “some fastidious persons – but they were exclusively of her own sex – affirmed that the bloody hand, as they chose to call it, quite destroyed the effect of Georgiana’s beauty, and rendered her countenance even hideous.” This was the approach taken by Aylmer to such a degree that his only consideration of it was to find a means of removing it, regardless of the dangers this process might present to his lovely wife’s ultimate health or future. Aylmer feels the wife of a scientist as prestigious as himself should be absolutely free of any perfections nature might have bestowed upon her. Because he is unable to accept her ‘imperfections’ as signs that she is a natural and very human woman, he is unable to enjoy the life of happiness the couple should have otherwise enjoyed.
It is through the actions of Georgiana that the attitudes of society toward science are reflected in this short story. When Aylmer first suggests that Georgiana could have the birthmark surgically removed, she is shocked and reluctant to even consider the possibilities. “To tell you the truth it has been so often called a charm that I was simple enough to imagine it might be so,” she tells him. However, his continued horror at the sight of the mark works on her spirit as does the continued calls of science, shocked and dismayed at the rest of society’s reluctance to experiment where it is perceived only God should go, work on society itself.
Finally, Georgiana gives in to Aylmer’s suggestion, passively agreeing to participate in whatever form of experiment he might choose to present to her and asking few, if any, questions as to what he’s been doing. “Georgiana began to conjecture that she was already subjected to certain physical influences, either breathed in with the fragrant air or taken with her food.” Finally, when she finally perceives the danger involved in the experiment, she confronts Aylmer with a desire for more knowledge, but when he refuses to give her any details, she readily agrees to do whatever is asked of her again.
Finally, Hawthorne illustrates that not all natural imperfection is necessarily something evil that must be cured by science as the fading of the birthmark results in the death of the lady. Its shape and the suggestion that it is the loving result of a fairy touch indicate that the birthmark has some sort of spiritual connection to the lady.
This is emphasized in Aylmer’s dream: “He had fancied himself with his servant Aminadab, attempting an operation for the removal of the birthmark; but the deeper went the knife, the deeper sank the hand, until at length its tiny grasp appeared to have caught hold of Georgiana’s heart; whence, however, her husband was inexorably resolved to cut or wrench it away.” This foreshadows the destructive task he has embraced as well as the purity and tenderness externally represented in the form of the mark.
The essential nature of the mark to the lady’s person is again brought forward when Aylmer finally comes partially clean to Georgiana, just before administering the final draught: “Know, then, that this crimson hand, superficial as it seems, has clutched its grasp into your being with a strength of which I had no previous conception. I have already administered agents powerful enough to do aught except to change your entire physical system.” When he does give her the drink to change her system, she is perfected and can no longer remain on earth in human form.
Conclusion
Through this short story, which sees very little in the way of actual action, Hawthorne is able to criticize the aims of science and to question its relative merits. Through the symbolism of the birthmark and its wearer, Hawthorne manages to illustrate how science remains fixated on fixing things that may not need to be fixed or that should be appreciated for their own intrinsic value. By focusing on the behavior of the wearer of the birthmark, and thus its guardian and protector, Hawthorne demonstrates the less than ideal reaction of the public toward the more outlandish scientific ideas as well as illustrates how the public is eventually won over to these ideas.
Finally, by showing his readers that the birthmark is valuable in protecting the life of this lady, that it is a necessary part of her humanity, Hawthorne indicates how science has the power to destroy something special and irreplaceable without bringing any benefit to mankind in its place.
Works Cited
Hawthorne, Nathaniel. “The Birthmark.”