The Birth Mark by Nathaniel Hawthorne

“Ah, upon another face perhaps it might,” replied her husband; “but never on yours. No, dearest Georgiana, you came so nearly perfect from the hand of Nature that this slightest possible defect, which we hesitate whether to term a defect or a beauty, shocks me, as being the visible mark of earthly imperfection.” (Hawthorne 34). This statement from Georgiana husband Aylmer marks the journey of finding out solution to her mark on her face. The Birth Mark by Nathaniel Hawthorne is a short story that illuminates how human beings strive for perfection. After marrying Georgiana, Aylmer is not comfortable with the birthmark and suggests for its removal. The husband says, “Have you ever considered that the mark upon your cheek might be removed”? (Hawthorne 7). This demonstrates how people strive for perfection even amidst grave consequences.

The short story is about a young woman Georgiana. Her face is imprinted with a red mark. The mark resembles the shape of a small hand. She is married to Aylmer who is a scientist with skills and experiences in science. Aylmer strongly believes in science as opposed to nature. Georgiana is not happy about the mark and she thinks the mark to be some sought of a charm (Hughes 136). However, on the other hand, other men find the mark enchanting and endeavor to find a chance to kiss it.

Even though other men love the mark, his husband Aylmer considers the mark to be imperfect as it denies her full beauty. Therefore, to restore the beauty Aylmer endeavors to find a solution and restore her beauty by removing the mark. Aylmer is confident in his power over nature and makes a decision to remove it from her face. Aylmer convinces her wife to allow him remove the mark even after he reveals to her that removing the mark will entail curving down to her heart (Hawthorne 45). This is a frightening revelation but despite this, Aylmer is convinced that he is capable of changing the face of his lover to that which is admirable.

After realizing that their marriage would not go on smoothly, Georgiana finally accepts the mark to be removed from her face. This suggests that both Aylmer and her wife admire to be perfect. Even when Georgiana knows that the mark is spiritual she trusts her husband for the mark to be removed in order to look more beautiful and attract her husband more. She endeavors to meet the needs and desires of her husband despite having been born with the scar.

The husband -Aylmer is more obsessed with physical beauty and he believes that nature can be revised or adjusted to the way he wants. He goes a step ahead to invite Georgiana to his laboratory (Nesanovich 5). After her invitation he administers to her substances. The substances/chemicals finally manage to change her face. The red mark vanishes and the beauty which he longed for long is then realized. However, this does not last for long, after a short while, her wife wakes up and dies as foreseen in the dream.

The short story, therefore, provides many insights on the way human being behave or mess up with their lives in quest of finding out things that they cannot comprehend. In the story, the birthmark, as presented by Georgiana, valorizes the natural beauty that people are born with. Natural beauty may contain some misimperfections as compared to ideal beauty that is created by science or art.

The red mark on the face of Georgiana is an example of some of the things that human kind may not feel comfortable about. Therefore, they end up applying other methods that may not be appropriate to change things to the way they want them to be. Georgiana never loved the way she looked. Her husband was not contended with the beauty. This triggered them to seek alternative methods that would ensure or enable them look perfect. However, the step they take leads to her death. This, therefore, is a lesson that the author is sending out to the society to be weary of making decisions that may be difficult to handle.

The author also tries to explore the dangers of arts and science in trying to perfect what nature provides. In other words, the author tries to compare the power of science and nature. Science and art cannot change a person as nature supersedes science (Hawthorne 190). The quest of trying to perfect the beauty of Georgiana led to her untimely death. Even though, Aylmer had seemed to succeed in his experiment, the death of his wife was beyond his imagination. He lost his wife in trying to search for perfectionism. Otherwise, had he accepted the beauty of his wife, he could not have lost her. Therefore, science in itself is not a solution to every problem that human faces.

Furthermore, Aylmer pursuit of perfection turns out to be allegorical and tragic. By refusing to abide by or accommodate what nature has to offer and being obsessed by his wife physical appearance, it leads to destruction. The discontentment of his wife’s birthmark terminates or brings to an end the life of his most perfect companion. There is also use of irony by the author in his quest to bring out the theme of imperfection. Aylmer ironically is much obsessed by his successes making him fail to strengthen on his failures. He often forgets to deal or address his failures as evidenced in the turn of events of his wife. It is ironic that Aylmer, having some weakness and having many failures, pursued to perfect his wife-Georgiana. The question therefore arises on how man with failures is able to trust himself that he can perfect another people.

Human beings have a tendency to see the wrong or the bad things in other people while they cannot see their own problems and imperfections. The author links the events in the story with the biblical verse in Mathew chapter 3 which says,” why see a speck in your friend’s eyes and fail to notice much bigger log that is in your eye. By claiming that he was able to provide a solution to the perceived ugly face of his wife, he himself did not think about many imperfects that he had. Therefore, he takes a decision that eventually turns out to be dreadful. He ends up losing his wife in his quest of making her more beautiful. The end is more painful, and it could be wise if Aylmer could have accommodated the imperfect that Georgiana had and keep her life rather than undertake a risky venture that comes out to be difficult and hard to bear with.

Science and nature in the story provides the basis of the imperfections. Aylmer loved science as well as his wife. When he sees some flaws in his wife’s face, he plays a role of God in trying to change the nature. Aylmer is optimistic that with the advancement in science, he will be able to change her or restore the beauty of his wife. Between love of science and his wife, his love for wife proves to be stronger compared to love of science which makes him to undertake research on the best strategies to change the beauty of his wife. He fails to understand the flaws in science as it is conducted under trial and error. He therefore, kills his loved wife in trying to perfect her to his appeal (Voice of America 3). Aylmer love of science turns into a tragedy that sees her wife succumb to death upon administering certain liquid perceived to eliminate her birthmark.

The use of birth mark also helps to illustrate how human beings are obsessed with perfection. However, the will of nature sets the boundaries that help deter humankind from achieving perfection they admire. Therefore, for human beings to be human there must have some flaws and imperfections. Aylmer is viewed as being foolish and not understanding that nature is difficult to change as opposed to experiments conducted in science even as he tries hard to compete or defeat nature (Hawthorne 230). It is therefore difficult to attain perfection except through the spirit of death which makes it difficult for a person to achieve it. .

Even though, human beings know that they are imperfect in many ways, they tend to employ mortal in striving to attain perfection. However, these striving does not always bear fruits as instead leads to devastation. The author provides a good example to explain this, through Aylmer. He takes away the life of his wife when he gives her the liquid to remove her birth mark that had always formed part of here since she was born. On the other hand, Georgiana behavior and characters as depicted from the story demonstrates obsession to be perfect. Georgiana is wiling to risk her own life by to become beautiful to be perfect and appeal or rather please her husband. Even after she listed to a daring dream by her husband on the dangers the initiative to remove the mark will involve, she goes ahead to accept it. The consequence is her death. She ends up losing her love in striving to be perfect.

The birth nark is also used to portray mortality and the imperfection that human beings have. In the story, Georgiana is mortal and human because of her imperfections that are illustrated through her birth mark on her left cheek. Is human beings were perfect, then the birth mark present on her face could not be their. It is nature that dedicates on how people look and no human being through science and experiment is able to provide a solution to the innate or attributes that people have. This is evidenced through the endless experiments that Aylmer engaged in but in vain. Despite having wide scope of knowledge in science, he was not able to remove the birthmark on cheek of his wife. Even though, he tried, it ended up being fatal and he ended losing her wife through the experiment.

The story also tends to suggest that human perfection solely rests in his death. This is exhibited through Aylmer dreams of cutting the mark on the face of Georgiana. In the dream, he finds out that her heart is connected with her birth mark as he elects or makes a decision of cutting it out in his quest to do away with the birthmark (French 81). Therefore, this is evident when he finally decides to remove Georgiana birthmark through his experiments in the laboratory. The liquid he provides ends up killing her wife. This, therefore, demonstrates this assertion as the mark was spiritual and therefore natural and part of Georgian, removing it meant ending her life.

The short story has actually portrayed how human beings end up losing some of their perfection in striving to achieve more perfection. They have failed to appreciate and be contended with what they are. Instead they look for many other short cuts in life that turn out to be disastrous to them. A character like Georgiana was perfect in her own standing despite her feelings that she did not deserve to have that mark. To demonstrate that she was perfect, the mark was admired by many male who wanted to kiss the mark for their own fulfillment. This shows that she was perfect and valued by other male who despite having the mark she remained important. Her imperfection, to other male was their perfection. On the same, she felt that she was not perfect, which made her to take risk by agreeing to take liquid provided by her husband. The liquid was aimed at removing the birth mark which she perceived to be ugly. She therefore, agrees to the demands of her husband. Her agreement to the decisions by her husband shows that she was not happy with how she was and the mark was like a nuisance to her. It also denied her a chance to be beautiful and appeal to her husband (Fu 145). In search for perfection, she succumbs to death and ends up not living to see, how beautify she was after taking the liquid. Therefore, search for perfection becomes a disaster. If she had accepted her imperfections like any other human being she could not have succumbed to death.

On the other hand, her husband- Aylmer was in one way or another imperfect. Despite having prowess in science, he was not perfect per se in all things that he deed. As human being, he failed to understand that, just like he saw some imperfections in his wife Georgiana, he too had some imperfections even if they were not told to him. Human beings are always born with some limitation however much they claim to be. The fact that her wife had a birth mark on her cheek should not have compelled him to take the drastic steps he took. He ought to have reasoned out, that science is a matter of trial and error and by subjecting her wife to the experiment she was threatening her own life. The desire to see beautiful women compelled him to engage in the initiative.

The short story, has elaborately demonstrated how human beings make decisions that turn out to be dreadful as they compete and through trial and error hope to transform things to be the way they want. In the story, it comes out clearly that, we are imperfect in one way or another. These imperfections cannot be turned into perfection through experimental, science and art (Atkinson 77). It is nature which dictates the way we look and therefore, people need to be cautious on the decisions that make concerning themselves. Even after investing a lot of his time in doing research on how to remove the mark and perfect his wife’s face, his efforts turned to be futile. He lost his wife trying to make her more beautiful. If otherwise, Aylmer was contented with the flaw on her face, he could have accepted the way she was and love her the way she was since before they decided to marry she knew of the flaws. Through the story, Hawthorne endeavored to highlight and teach the society /readers that nature overrides all other things such as science and that people should learn to appreciate whatever they are as it is through this appreciation that they can enjoy life. Furthermore, people should know that they are imperfect in one way or another in order to avoid engaging or taking actions that may turn out to be disastrous to them.

Works Cited

Atkinson, William. The Short-Story: Echo Library, 2007. Print

French, Joseph. Masterpieces of Mystery, vol III- Riddle stories, BoD – Books on Demand, 2010. Print

Fu Rosenberg. `The best that earth could offer’: `The Birth-mark,’ a newlywed’s story.. Studies in Short Fiction, 30.2(1993):145.Print.

Hawthorne, Nathaniel Birthmark. The Birthmark, enotes. Retrieved from http://www.enotes.com/birthmark

Hawthorne, Nathaniel The literature network. The birth mark. Retrieved from http://www.online- literature.com/poe/125/

Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The Celestial Railroad: And Other Stories, Elibron.com, 1980. Print

Hawthorne, Nathaniel. Thirty-Nine Tales of Nathaniel Hawthorne, WA: InfoStrategist.com, 2004. Print

Hughes, Sandra. “A Crimson Stain upon the Snow”: Teaching Hawthorne’s “The Birth-Mark” as an Alchemical Text. Eureka Studies in Teaching Short Fiction, 9.2 (2009):136-148.

Nesanovich, Stel. The Birth-mark. Magill’s Literary Annual 1994, (1994):p1-3. (Work Analysis) Author Name: Howe, Susan

Voice of America. Short story: The birthmark. 25 September 2009. Retrieved from http://www.voanews.com/learningenglish/home/a-23-2009-09-25-voa1- 83142712.html