An Analysis of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Birthmark
The Birthmark is a stark and rousing story of Aylmer who struggles with a birthmark on his wife, Georgiana’s, face. Throughout the story Aylmer reaches multiple conclusions that show his continued descent into darkness and insanity. There are a couple spots in story where Aylmer mentions the allegory of Pygmalion and compares himself to Pygmalion showing his belief that he is a nigh all-powerful creator, ignoring the fact that Pygmalion was sculpting a “perfect” woman where none previously existed and Aylmer already had the perfect woman of his own.
Another theme that can be seen in this story is the belief by Aylmer that Georgiana’s outer imperfection has a base in some moral problems, that she is impure in some way and this is her punishment. Shown by the line, “[H]ere is a powerful cosmetic. With a few drops of this in a vase of water, freckles may be washed away. . . . A stronger infusion would take the blood out of the cheek, and leave the rosiest beauty a pale ghost. . . . Your case demands a remedy that shall go deeper.” This presents itself, much like the Pygmalion story, as a metaphor. This is not only signifying the White man’s burden of perfection and colonial attitude of pushing until something breaks, but can also be read to show the belief that African Americans were somehow morally or intellectually less than their white counterparts, inferring that people who don’t have clean or white skin are somehow inferior on the inside as well.
Perhaps the most important theme is that of Science vs Nature. Despite all of Aylmer's efforts to save Georgiana from a non-existent threat, he ends up creating the threat himself. Hawthorne posits that perfection is only something that can exist in heaven, this thought aligns with the story as although Aylmer cures Georgiana’s birthmark, she dies because she is now perfect and not fit for the human world. This falls in line with the rest of his experiments, each one ending worse than Aylmer expected. His quest for Georgiana’s perfection shows not only his blindness to his own faults and failures, but also that men and women are held to different values in his mind. Despite Georgiana being beautiful, generous, and kind, Aylmer ignores her clearly good morals and decides that there is some kind of deeper problem, all while she gives up her life because she loves him so much that she can’t stand to see him feel the way he does. Georgiana pays the ultimate sacrifice to uphold the ideals of her male counterpart in the way any other race in the world has sacrificed itself physically and morally for the colonization of the White Man.
After Georgiana reads Aylmer’s book of experiments, he implores her to stop reading because it might drive her mad, saying, "Georgiana, there are pages in that volume which I can scarcely glance over and keep my senses.” Her reply to this is "It has made me worship you more than ever," showing that this evidence of his imperfections and failures has made her happier with him, knowing now that he is just as imperfect as everyone else despite his displayed persona of perfect genius.
In line with the theme of Science vs Nature, Georgiana soothes Aylmer with her voice, “So she poured out the liquid music of her voice to quench the thirst of his spirit. He then took his leave with a boyish exuberance of gayety, assuring her that her seclusion would endure but a little longer, and that the result was already certain.” She sings to him to calm his spirit, the powerful force of her gift from Nature at work, contrasting the failure of Science to mend her spirit, instead killing her because it was never required to be fixed or changed.
Aylmer also focuses on eternal life. Though not central to the story he mentions that he believes there is the ability to create a potion of immortality. This is important in characterizing Aylmer, as it shows a belief that man can triumph over nature and deserves to, but it also illustrates a central weakness to Aylmer, that of an immense fear of death. This is an understandably Human fear, and it is reasonable to fear death, but Aylmer doesn’t show any of this fear when it comes to Georgiana, he merely is scared of his own death. This is a criticism of the modern human’s efforts to lengthen human life with science instead of simply improving living conditions and stopping disease. Hawthorne lived during a time of great reform, and this piece criticizes that reform as ineffective and dangerous.
Another heavy theme in the piece is that of religion. The birthmark can be seen as a symbol of the forgiven original sin that Eve, the perfect woman, made in God’s image, brought unto men. This seems to be the base of Aylmer’s struggle to appreciate her with the mark, it is a reminder of Georgiana’s ability to sin and the looming death that all humans face. There is also a very strong similarity to Matthew 7:3, where Christ is quoted as saying, "Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?" This story seems to be a criticism of the Puritan culture in New England, that at the time was focused heavily on criticizing other’s problems and ignoring their own. This is something that can be said of many religions, as humans are the base of religion and it is historically uncommon for us to portray ourselves in a bad light.
Along with a focus on religion and romanticism, Hawthorne was a critic of transcendentalism and his characterizations of Aylmer and his assistant Aminadab symbolize two halves of a person. Aylmer, portraying the transcendental and intellectual part, and Aminadab portraying the physical and human parts of Aylmer. Aylmer is a cunning and often evil sounding person who essentially murders his wife, while Aminadab is a loyal, simple man that does unappealing work for the honor of working hard and appeasing someone he might look up to.
Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the story is that the story can be flipped to focus on Georgiana as the “doomed heroine” of the story. She lives throughout this story trying to humanize and sweeten Aylmer and to get him to be happy, ultimately giving her life for him to have some peace, which he gains at the end when he marvels that the cure worked. This story is not likely supposed to be read this way but it might be comforting to give Georgiana some agency and to change the story from one of murder to one of love and life lost for the improvement of a loved one.
From start to end the piece is symbolic and serves as a warning to people who are not happy with what they are given, as life itself is a gift to you and any people who you find that love you. The other human’s are shown as the most important parts of our world and an attempted triumph over them and Nature will only prove to doom us.
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