The sin that Aylmer shows throughout the story is in relation to Georgina’s birthmark, which dramatically and suddenly grabs hold of his character. Aylmer becomes egotistic in the ways of his actions and thoughts, not considering that he himself has a problem but that his wife’s imperfection is the problem. By Aylmer’s immoral and obsessive desire for perfection, he took Georgina’s liberty and self-confidence away, which reveales his sins. First, before the marriage, Aylmer had not been bothered by the birth-mark on Georgiana’s cheek. James Quinn and Ross Baldessarini note that “[s]oon after marrying, however, Aylmer discovered that he can think of little else but the birth-mark,” and that it disturbed him and took away from her true beauty. In relation, it is implied that this omission in Aylmer “seems to suggest that insights into human behavior are likely to be subjective, imperfect, unsatisfying” (Quinn and Baldessarini). Subsequently, Aylmer’s sin is presented through a dream in which he is conducting a surgery on Georgina to perfect her beauty. Aylmer’s idea of having a perfect wife “is characterized by Hawthorne as a mark of ‘original sin’” (Quinn and Baldessarini) or even that mankind’s race is born with imperfection. This is stated by Hawthorne as “the fatal flaw of humanity, which Nature, in one shape or another, stamps ineffaceably on all her production . . . to imply that they are temporary and finite” (120). Most considerable is with the intention of Aylmer’s dream, clearly “suggests the intense, violent and remarkably sexual reaction the birth-mark evokes in Aylmer” (Quinn and Baldessarini).
Alymer is so wrapped up in his own world that he forgets reality, for he “senses that escape from the human condition is hubr...
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...n Aylmer’s obsession of removing her birthmark, so she encourages him to do what is required so that their lives won’t be torn apart by this birthmark of hers, as to have it removed, even if it is to take her life.
Through the actions of Aylmer’s obsession, greed, guilt, sin, his intolerance to imperfection and his ability to not except himself for who he is, he must therefore, reap what he sowed. Giving Georgiana the poison to drink, watching as the mark faded away; Aylmer feels he had successfully rid himself from the imperfection that troubled him so, unknowing the birthmark was actually the key to Georgiana’s heart and her life. As the poison took hold of her life she said to Aylmer “do not repent that with so high and pure a feeling, you have rejected the best the earth could offer” (Fetterly 172) and then she died, leaving Aylmer alone and empty.
He succeeds in removing the birthmark; however, he unfortunately causes his wife’s death in the process. Through “The Birthmark”, Hawthorne suggests that nothing paradoxical can exist on this earth, and that being imperfect is just part of being human. Being a man of science, Aylmer rendered Georgiana's birthmark "as a symbol of his wife's liability to sin, sorrow, decay, and death." Through the birthmark on Georgiana, Hawthorne is able to portray that nature didn’t intend for things to be perfect. People are not perfect because the human condition is imperfect.
Alymer's categorial thinking leads to idolize his wife. He refuses to allow her fault, instead, he makes her insecure with his incessant stares and questions regarding the virth-mark. He is a perfectionist and will not rest until his wife is flawless, even it may cost her dearly. He even projects his perfectionism onto Georgiana, who says she will go mad if he does not remove ger birth-mark. This is shown when we read about his dream, in whhich he attempts to remove the birth-mark, and though he has discovered that it connects to Georgianas heart, he persists, even to her certain death.
The attempted removal of Georgiana’s birthmark by Aylmer signifies a desire to conquer nature and reveals a hidden quality within Aylmer. The first instance in which the reader sees Aylmer trying to conquer or control nature is subtle, it is near the beginning of the story and the narrator says “[Aylmer] persuaded a beautiful woman to become his wife” (211). The common belief is that love occurs naturally and cannot be forced. It seems as though the narrator chooses to state that Aylmer persuaded his wife, rather than fell in love with her, in order to indicate early on in the text Aylmer’s tendencies toward manipulating nature. Later in the
This extract emphasises the lonely, outworld feeling that would have been felt living in such settings. This puts into perspective the feeling that will be felt during the coarse of the plot development.
Following a vivid dream in which Aylmer surgically removes Georgiana’s birthmark, Aylmer assures Georgiana with extreme faith in himself that he can heal their woes by removing the birthmark. The birthmark serves as a symbol for the uncleanliness of the sin that could be in her; not that she has been terribly unrighteous, but the birthmark, like sin, is an imperfection that he wishes to purify. I think the birthmark is a part of Georgiana that Aylmer cannot understand or explain, so he condemns it as sinful. It is possible that Aylmer may feel that what man cannot fathom is not of good nature. The idea that man associates evil with things he does not understand shows the close-mindedness that humans continue to carry through to the next generations through socialization. It could be a defense mechanism that we use to avoid physical or social harm. The shape of the birthmark also adds to its sin-like nature due to the negative co...
In the short story The Birth-mark, Aylmer: scientist, philosopher and perfectionist, is married to Georgiana, a woman of unthinkable beauty and possibly the closest woman to ever reach perfection. However, the tiny hand shaped mark that lay on the surface of her cheek aggravates Aylmer and he thinks day and night of how he may get rid of it in order to help Georgiana reach the perfection that he longs for. The actions that he proceeds to take, prove that he is indeed the villain and the one to blame for Georgiana’s death. He does so by tearing her down with crude words, making Georgiana feel insecure and self-conscious about her outward appearance as well as keeping his failed experiments a secret to her.
It is a reminder that any living thing will die. Aylmer is a smart man, but he forgets that he cannot make his wife immortal. He is only trying to make his wife’s blemish go away. Just like clearing acne, if you try too hard it gets worse or leaves a scar. His guts to push forward even though he knows the dangers lead him astray.
He failed to look beyond the shadowy scope of time,and,living once all in eternity, to find the perfect future in the present.” Basically saying the missing part of him, which was shown through Aminadab, was the key to see that he had everything he could possibly want. That is when he no longer fights with this inner struggle. What is even more tragic is that even with the passing of his wife, he is unable to learn from this experience because his own wife basically says, don't feel guilty it is going to be ok. This totally disturbs the possibility of learning from this horrible incident, because his wife eases the guilt. Aylmer does not incorporate his missing characteristics from Aminadab.
...ection. By removing the birthmark from Georgiana’s face, Aylmer has taken away her humanity thus leading Georgiana to her death. Georgiana cannot live anymore because she is no longer a human being. Therefore claiming that science has its limits over nature and if those limits are crossed the consequences could be fatal.
One of the main themes discussed in this story is perfection which was evident by Aylmer obsessing over making his wife perfect by removing the birthmark off
Out of love for her husband, Georgina agrees to go on with the experiment. Aylmer shows her that the elixir will cure her of her imperfection by putting it on a plant that was covered in spots and before their eyes, the spots on the plant disappeared. Right away, Aylmer gave his wife the elixir and, like magic, the birthmark disappeared. As the two were looking at what the elixir did to Georgina, they neglected to see the plant dying. Before they knew it, Georgina started to slowly die right in front of her husband’s eyes.
Georgiana is a fine wife, and a seemingly beautiful one, too. Aylmer expresses deep affection towards his wife, but it is hinted from the beginning that his two passions in life will eventually have to come in conflict. The meaning of the birthmark shifts suddenly in the end, but in the beginning, it is viewed as Georgiana’s ability to be imperfect and to sin. It is in the shape of a human hand because an angel supposedly has a grip on her, linking her to the other world. That is most men’s reactions, but some women viewed it as disastrous to her beauty. Although Aylmer is not initially concerned with it, it eventually gets to him, obsessively occupying himself with it. He would stare at it whenever he had a chance, and tried to be candid about it. When it became apparent that Aylmer was quite concerned with this, Georgiana asked him to elaborate. He was more disgusted by the mark than Georgiana assessed. Her most significant reply to him was “You cannot love what shocks you!”
The tone adopted by Hawthorne from the inception of the narrative toward Aylmer urges the reader to respect Aylmer’s scientific ambition—directly his triumph of head over heart, but indirectly his objectification of Georgiana and subsequent attempts to fix something that she never thought was a flaw. Not only is Aylmer’s obsession with getting rid of her birthmark selfish in that he does it for “the sake of giving himself peace” (647) rather than any desire to make his wife happy, he also admits to feeling guilt over his tyrannical treatment of her. For example, his “horror and disgust” in response to her facial blight rarely escapes her notice, and when she reacts poorly to his “convulsive shudder,” he attempts to soothe her and “release her mind from the burden of actual things” (650) as if she is an empty-headed infant in need of a pacifier. Furthermore, in response to her desperate request for its removal, he isolates her from humanity, administers potentially harmful concoctions into her rooms and body without her knowledge, and ultimately—and rapturously—succeeds in shrinking the mark at the cost of her
Even though it is ethical to remove the birthmark for the couple’s culture since it will resolve their looming problem, is it moral in their perspective? Initially, it was implied that Georgina found it wrong to remove it since she first believed the mark as a “charm” (419) but the soon changed when Aylmer believed the opposite of it. Aylmer has always found it morally correct in his eyes that the removal of the birthmark is a need since he only ever saw it as a scorching stigma that derails him from reaching total happiness and bliss. The wrong becomes right and the right becomes wrong, and together, these events led to the ethical extermination of the birthmark.
Nathaniel Hawthorne describes Aminadab, "With his vast strength, his shaggy hair, his smoky aspect, and the indescribable earthiness that encrusted him, he seemed to represent man 's physical nature" (Hawthorne 337). That statement foreshadows the events to come. Amindab was behind Aylmer the whole time during his experiments. Although, Amindab once murmured, "If she were my wife, I would never part with that birthmark" (Hawthorne 337). So, Amindab did not agree with what Aylmer was doing, but he continued anyway. Aminadab wanted Georgina to except herself as beautiful and not let Aylmer use her as a guinea pig. Nevertheless, I assume Georgiana 's love for Aylmer was strong enough that she was willing to do anything to be beautiful in his eyes. In this whole story, Aminadab has been Nature with no voice. Aminadab 's only line in this story shows that he thought what Aylmer was doing was truly wrong. Hawthorne even goes through the trouble to describe Aminadab to us as a "man 's physical nature". The statement that Hawthorne makes, lets us interpret Aminadab as Nature 's force. At the end of the story, Hawthorne tells of slight laughter coming from Aminadab right before Georgiana passes away. The laughter from Aminadab symbolizes that Nature has won the battle with Science. The battle between Nature and Science strung poor Georgiana and her endless beauty along, and eventually ended in her