THE BIRTHMARK NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE

Context

Nathaniel Hawthorne was born in 1804 in Salem, Massachusetts, to a family

descended from Puritans. He was born Nathaniel Hathorne but changed the
spelling of his name out of shame after learning that his paternal grandfather, John
Hathorne, had been a judge at the Salem witch trials. When Hawthorne was four,
his father, a sea captain, died in Dutch Guinea. Hawthorne spent much of his
childhood in Maine with his mother, alone and sheltered. He attended Bowdoin
College, earning his degree in 1825. Among his fellow classmates were several
men who would go on to achieve great things, including poet Henry Wadsworth
Longfellow and President Franklin Pierce. Hawthorne returned home after
graduation and tried his hand at writing fiction, calling his efforts articles and
tales rather than stories. Genre fiction was popular at the time, but Hawthorne
was interested in going beyond the Indian stories and ghost stories that many
magazines were publishing. In 1828, Hawthorne self-published a novel
called Fanshawe, which failed to sell many copies and prompted Hawthorne to try
to destroy every copy he could find. He succeeded in publishing some of his stories
in the United States Democratic Review and the Token, among other publications.
In 1837, Hawthorne published a collection of stories entitled Twice-Told Tales. Two
years later, U.S. senator and fellow Bowdoin alumnus Jonathon Ciley appointed
Hawthorne to a post at the Boston Custom House. While at this post, Hawthorne
became interested in transcendentalism, a philosophical movement led by Ralph
Waldo Emerson that emphasized the individual over organized religion. For a time
Hawthorne lived at Brook Farm, a utopian community near Boston that attempted
to support itself via agriculture. In 1842, Hawthorne married his fiance, Sophia
Peabody, and moved to Concord, Massachusetts, which was also the home of
Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, and Louisa May Alcott. The Hawthornes had three
children: Una, who was mentally ill and died young; Julian, who was eventually
convicted and jailed for defrauding the public; and Rose, who founded a Roman
Catholic group called the Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne.
Hawthorne published his second collection of stories, Mosses from an Old Manse,
in 1846, which was also the year he quit writing for a time and began working as a
surveyor for the Salem Custom House to better provide for his family. His
experiences as a surveyor inform his romance The Scarlet Letter (1850), which
opens with a description of customs house business. Perhaps his most famous
novel, The Scarlet Letter tells the story of a young woman who bears the
illegitimate child of a preacher, keeps the fathers identity secret, and is ostracized
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by her community. During the next several years, Hawthorne published what would
become some of his best-known works, including The House of the Seven
Gables (1851), The Blithedale Romance (1852), and The Marble Faun (1860). His
other works include the childrens books A Wonder-Book (1852), Tanglewood
Tales (1853), Grandfathers Chair: A History for Youth (1841), and Our Old
Home (1863). The Birthmark, like much of Hawthornes work, is set in New
England and has a Puritan sensibility. Along with Young Goodman Brown (a
favorite of Stephen Kings), it is one of Hawthornes best-known and most
frequently anthologized stories.
In 1850, Hawthorne met the author Herman Melville. The two men were close
friends for a time, so close that Melville dedicated his masterpiece, Moby-Dick, to
Hawthorne. When his old college friend Franklin Pierce ran for president of the
United States, Hawthorne wrote his campaign biography. Pierce rewarded
Hawthorne in 1853 after winning the election by naming him the American consul
in Liverpool, England. Hawthorne died in his sleep in 1864 at age sixty while taking
a trip to the White Mountains with Franklin Pierce.
Plot Overview

The narrator introduces Aylmer as a brilliant scientist and natural philosopher who
has abandoned his experiments for a while to marry the beautiful Georgiana. One
day, Aylmer asks his wife whether she has ever thought about removing the
birthmark on her cheek. She cheerfully says no but grows serious when she sees
that he asked the question seriously. Many people, she says, have told her the
mark is a charm, and she has always thought maybe they were right. Aylmer says
that because her face is almost perfect, any mark is shocking. Georgiana is angry
at first, and then she weeps, asking how he can love her if she is shocking to him.
The narrator explains that the birthmark in question is a red mark in the shape of a
tiny hand on Georgianas left cheek. The mark disappears when she blushes.
Georgianas male admirers love the birthmark, and many would risk their lives just
to kiss it. Some women think the mark ruins her beauty, but the narrator says this
is nonsense.

Aylmer obsesses about the birthmark. For him, it symbolizes mortality and sin and
comes to tower over Georgianas beauty in his mind. He can think of nothing else.
One night she reminds him of a dream he had. He spoke in his sleep, saying they
must take out her heart. Aylmer remembers dreaming that he had removed the
birthmark with a knife, plunging down until he had reached his wifes heart, which
he decided to cut out. Georgiana says that she will risk her life to have the

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birthmark erased. Thrilled, Aylmer agrees to try. He professes complete confidence
in his own abilities, likening himself to Pygmalion. He kisses his wifes unmarked
cheek.

They decide to move to the apartments where Aylmer has his laboratory. He has
already made stunning discoveries about volcanoes, fountains, mines, and other
natural wonders. Now he will resume his studies of the creation of life. As the
couple enters the laboratory, Aylmer shudders at the sight of Georgiana, and she
faints. Aminadab, Aylmers grotesque assistant, comes out to help. He says he
would not remove the birthmark if Georgiana were his wife.

Georgiana wakes up in sweet-smelling rooms that have been made beautiful for
her. Aylmer comforts her with some of his more magical creations: airy figures,
absolute bodiless ideas, and forms of unsubstantial beauty. He shows her moving
scenes that mimic real life. Then he gives her a fast-growing flower that dies as
soon as she touches it. Next he tries to create a portrait of her with a metal plate,
but when the plate shows a hand, he throws it into acid.

Between experiments, Aylmer tells Georgiana about alchemy. He believes that he

could turn base metal into gold and create a potion that would grant eternal life if
he wanted to, even though he says he knows that doing so would be wrong. He
disappears for hours and then shows her his cabinet of wonders. One such wonder
is a vial that holds a powerful perfume. Another is a poison that, depending on the
dose, would allow Aylmer to kill someone instantly or after a long period of time.
Georgiana is appalled, but Aylmer says the poison is more good than bad. He
shows her another potion that can wipe away freckles, but he says her birthmark
needs a much deeper cure.

Georgiana realizes that Aylmer has been doctoring her food or making her inhale
something in the air. Her body feels strange. She reads the books in his scientific
library, as well as his accounts of his own experiments. She realizes that his
achievements always fall short of the goals he originally sets. Still, the accounts of
his studies make her worship him. Aylmer catches her crying over his journals, and
although his words are kind, he is angry. She sings to him, restoring his spirits.

A few hours later, Georgiana goes to the laboratory to find Aylmer. When he sees
her, he grows angry, accuses her of prying, and tells her to go away. She stands
her ground and refuses, saying he should trust her and not try to hide his fears.
She promises to drink whatever he tells her to drink. Moved, Aylmer says the mark
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 goes deep into her body, and its removal will be dangerous. In her room,
Georgiana thinks about how noble it is that Aylmer refuses to love her as she is,
insisting instead to create his ideal version of her.

He brings her a potion that he says cannot fail. He shows her how it cures a
geranium of blots. She drinks the liquid and sleeps. Aylmer watches her with
tenderness but also as if he is watching a scientific experiment unfold. Gradually
the birthmark fades. Aminadab laughs. Georgiana wakes, sees herself in the
mirror, and tells Aylmer not to feel bad about rejecting the best the earth could
offer. Then she dies.

Character List

Aylmer - A brilliant yet misguided scientist and the protagonist of the story.
Aylmers experiments and creations have made him famous in the scientific
community. He has investigated volcanoes, mines, and clouds; bottled the worlds
most delicious scents; created a powerful poison; and made a potion capable of
erasing physical flaws such as freckles. Although his intentions are good, Aylmer is
a selfish and cruel man whose delusions ultimately kill his wife.
Read an in-depth analysis of Aylmer.

Georgiana - Aylmers wife. A beautiful, intelligent, and caring woman, Georgiana

is physically and spiritually lovely. Her only flaw is a small red birthmark shaped
like a tiny hand on her left cheek. Georgiana worships her husband and submits to
his unreasonable demands, despite her suspicions that they will kill her.
Read an in-depth analysis of Georgiana.

Aminadab - Aylmers assistant. A hulking, strong, grubby man, Aminadab is an

able helper but simultaneously disgusted by Aylmers desire to erase Georgianas
birthmark. Because Aminadab represents the physical side of existence, his
disgust is a strong indictment of Aylmer. Ironically, Aminadab feels more
compassion for Georgiana than her own husband does.

ANALYSIS OF MAJOR CHARACTER

Aylmer
Aylmer is an intellectual run amok, a man whose mind has overpowered his sense
of decency. An incredibly skilled scientist, he has made many exciting discoveries
about the physical world. His inquiries into the spiritual world, however, tend to be
more disturbing. Although he protests that he would never actually carry out his
more outlandish ambitionssuch as turning base metal into gold, making a potion
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that would give its drinker eternal life, or creating humans from nothinghe
believes that he is at least capable of performing such miracles. And his actions
belie his claim to respect life: he has invented a poison capable of killing a person
instantly or during the course of years, depending on the administrators whim.
Such an invention proves that Aylmer longs to control nature itself. Aylmers
journals reveal that he considers his greatest achievements worthless in
comparison to his ambition, which is nothing less than to exercise a godlike control
over life.

Aylmer is a character, of course, but he also functions as a symbol of intellect and

science. Unlike modern writers, Hawthorne is less interested in plumbing the
psychological depths of his characters than he is in using them to prove a point. He
also provides almost none of the details about Aylmer that we expect. We never
learn his age, birthplace, childhood, or habits of speech. But it is not Hawthornes
aim to convince us that Aylmer is a real person. Indeed, he goes out of his way to
make Aylmer a fantastical, nonrealistic being. By making Aylmer a symbol for the
mind and then showing how dangerous it is when the mind operates independent
of morality, Hawthorne warns us that unchecked ambition without regard for
morality will result only in disaster and death.

Georgiana

A beautiful and passionate woman, Georgiana is undone by her allegiance to her

husband. The ideal wifeat least according to the ideals of a bygone era
Georgiana considers Aylmer to be her master. Although every other man she has
encountered has swooned over her beauty and many would risk death for the
privilege of touching her birthmark, Georgiana cares only about Aylmers opinion of
her. Because he is horrified by her appearance, she discards years of praise and
becomes disgusted with herself. Because she believes she should do anything to
make Aylmer happy, she willingly risks death. Living in rooms decorated like
elegant boudoirs; breathing in mysterious, character-altering fumes; and looking at
fake vistas, Georgiana acts as if she is a robot under the control of her creator. If
Aylmer is the villain of the story, Georgiana is the heroine. She acts as society says
she should, trusting her husband absolutely, and her only reward for her obedience
and deference is death. Perhaps Hawthorne is suggesting that although devotion is
a laudable trait, women should not be expected to obey their husbands at all costs.

Even though Hawthornes characters can often be two-dimensional people,

Georgiana is far more complex and believable a character than is Aylmer. Even
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though she submits to her husbands demands, she is not simply the familiar and
stereotypical downtrodden wife. A highly intelligent woman, she passes the time
by reading the works of philosophy she finds in her husbands scientific library. She
examines Aylmers accounts of his experiments and understands everything she
finds there. She is also far nobler than her husband, willing to risk her life to make
someone else happy. When the occasion calls for it, she can also be feisty. She
refuses to apologize for entering Aylmers laboratory, for example, and chides him
for keeping her in the dark about the danger of the experiment. And she does not
die a silent martyrs death. Before passing away, she demonstrates a final burst of
self-confidence by urging Aylmer not to feel bad about rejecting the best the earth
could offer.

Themes, Motifs, and Symbols

Themes

THE FOOLISHNESS OF STRIVING FOR PERFECTION

Aylmers desire to make his wife perfect is doomed to failure because perfection,
Hawthorne suggests, is the exclusive province of heaven and cant be found on
earth. In fact, the very success of Aylmers perfection-inducing potion may
doom Georgiana to death. Because she becomes an ideal being, completely
unmarred, she is no longer able to exist in this world. The desire for perfection not
only kills Georgiana, it also ruins her husband because his desire to create the
ideal woman becomes a fixation that prevents him from seeing the good in his
wife. Eventually, her tiny imperfection is all he can see. It grows in his mind until
the very sight of the beautiful Georgiana repulses him, a ludicrous turn of events.
The wisest men in the story are those who understand that perfection is not a goal
worth pursuing. These men, Georgianas admirers, never appear in the story, but
Hawthorne stresses that their appreciation of her is far more sensible than
Aylmers fixation on her single imperfection. For these men, Georgianas slight flaw
only enhances her loveliness. In the same way that life seems more precious
because we know well die, Georgianas beauty seems more amazing because it
isnt seamless.

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SCIENCE VERSUS NATURE

In a story full of wildly successful, almost magical, scientific experiments, it is

untouched nature itself that is shown to be more powerful than any manmade
creation. Aylmer has the ability to make lovely sights and amazing aromas from
nothing, but he doesnt have the ability to control his wifes spirit or prolong her
life. On the other hand, Georgiana does have some measure of power over her
husbands spirit, a power that comes not from science but nature. For example,
when Aylmers spirits flag, he asks Georgiana to sing to him, and the beauty of her
voice restores his good mood. Unlike her husbands potions, her voice is entirely
natural but has a much greater effect. In addition, Georgianas birthmark also
demonstrates the power of nature because it captivates and intoxicates almost
everyone who sees it. In the end, Aylmers attempt to control nature with science
ends only in death and unhappiness.

Motifs

RED AND WHITE

The colors red and white recur throughout The Birthmark to highlight both
Georgianas purity and imperfections. Hawthorne uses lyrical language to describe
Georgianas skin. Her birthmark is described as crimson and ruby-colored, while
the skin around it is likened to snow and marble. These words reveal that the
narrator thinks Georgianas birthmark and the red and white shades of her face
make her more beautiful, not less. The loveliness of the language he uses to
describe her puts the narrator in opposition to Aylmer. So too does his description
of the blending of the two colors. In general, the birthmark is red and Georgianas
skin is white, but these categories sometimes overlap: when she blushes, her skin
turns the same color as the birthmark. This overlapping suggests that no clear
boundary exists between Georgianas beauty and one flaw.

Symbols

THE BIRTHMARK

Georgianas birthmark symbolizes mortality. According to the narrator, every living

thing is flawed in some way, natures way of reminding us that every living thing
eventually dies. The hand-shaped mark on Georgianas cheek is the one blemish
on an otherwise perfect being, a blemish that marks her as mortal. Aylmers
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 revulsion for his wifes birthmark suggests the horror he feels at the prospect of
death. He is a smart man, but his misinterpretation of the symbol on Georgianas
face leads him astray. He mistakenly comes to believe that if he can root out this
symbol of transience, it will mean that he has the power to prolong life indefinitely.
Aylmer also mistakenly believes that the birthmark represents Georgianas moral
decrepitude and spiritual flaws even though she isnt a woman prone to sin at all. If
anything, the symbol of death on her cheek clashes with her natural generosity
and sunny spirit.

THEMES, MOTIFS, AND SYMBOLS

Foreshadowing
The Birthmark is rife with the kind of foreshadowing that may strike modern
readers as heavy-handed. Aylmer dreams of cutting off Georgianas birthmark and
finding that the roots plunge down into her heart, which he decides to cut out;
Georgiana faints the first time she sees the laboratory; the beautiful, fast-blooming
flower Aylmer creates withers and turns black as soon as Georgiana touches it; a
reflection of Georgiana in a metal plate reveals the shape of a hand, so Aylmer
throws the plate into acid, destroying it. Over and over, we see that Aylmers
experiments usually go awry and have destructive, unintended consequences.
Georgianas death, therefore, comes as no surprise to the attentive reader. In fact,
some modern readers may feel disappointed that the final scene of the story
adheres so closely to what has been foreshadowed and contains so little that is
surprising.
If we are not shocked, however, neither is Georgiana, who serves as a stand-in for
us, a reader of the events around her. Georgiana overhears Aylmer muttering in his
sleep, realizes what hes dreaming about, and presses him to recall the dream the
next morning. She interprets it correctly, firmly believing that the birthmarks
removal may lead to her death. She analyzes the incidents of the past such as the
broken flower and disfigured plate, and reads Aylmers journals as catalogues of
his failures. In this light, the lack of surprise at the end of the story emphasizes
Georgianas bravery: like us, she knew exactly what would probably happen, but
she submitted to her husbands experiment to make him happy.

Narration

The Birthmark is told in a strong, subjective voice that draws attention to the
narrator and makes him a key player in the story. At nearly every moment, we

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know what the narrator is thinking and how he views the characters behavior. It is
clear from the beginning that the narrator dislikes Aylmer and his quest to
eliminate the birthmark and that he sympathizes with Georgiana. The narrator
might be characterized as a chatty, intelligent friend sharing a particularly juicy
piece of gossip. At several points in the story, he all but addresses us directly,
imploring us, for example, to notice how bad Aylmer looks in comparison even to
an animal like Aminadab. The narrator can also be characterized as a moralist who
condescends to his readers. Rather than trusting us to figure out the symbolism of
the birthmark, for example, or allowing us to draw our own conclusions about the
soundness of Aylmers experiment, the narrator rushes to explain every metaphor
and symbol as if we might miss his point.
The strong narrative voice of The Birthmark epitomizes a key difference between
modern American short stories and nineteenth-century American short stories.
Modern stories are often told in an objective, distant, even ironic voice, whereas
nineteenth-century stories were usually told by passionate narrators who infused
their own strong opinions. Because we are not used to encountering this brand of
subjective third-person narration, it is tempting to conclude that Hawthorne and
the narrator of The Birthmark are the same person. In recent years, however,
critics have suggested that Hawthorne never put himself into his stories but
consciously created narrators who had distinct voices of their own. These critics
argue that although Hawthornes narrators are often pious and preachy, we
shouldnt automatically conclude that he shared these characteristics. It would be
a mistake, therefore, to decide that Hawthorne abhors Aylmer and likes Georgiana,
simply because his narrator does.

The Story of Pygmalion

Aylmer thinks of himself as a godlike creator, a self-perception thats revealed
when he says that he will be happier than Pygmalion when he erases Georgianas
birthmark. The story of Pygmalionoriginally from Ovids Metamorphoses and
recreated in countless poems, novels, and filmsis about a sculptor who falls in
love with an ivory statue of a woman he has made. Venus, the goddess of love,
brings the statue to life, and Pygmalion marries it. Aylmers reference to the story
reveals much about his own character. By comparing himself to the smitten
sculptor, Aylmer believes that he is clever enough to create the perfect woman.
More important, he reveals a fundamental misunderstanding of his own project.
Unlike Pygmalion, Aylmer isnt creating a woman where none previously existed.
Rather, he is tampering with a perfectly beautiful woman whom, the narrator

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suggests, God created. The reference to Pygmalion reveals that Aylmers self-
regard has blinded him to the true nature of his experiment.
An earlier, subtler reference to sculpture reveals the narrators distaste for
Aylmers image of himself as a magical creator of life. Before Aylmer refers to
Pygmalion, the narrator condemns those jealous women who claim that the
birthmark spoils Georgianas beauty, saying that making such a claim is as silly as
pretending that a tiny blue mark in marble would turn a statue of Eve into a
monstrosity. It is a small moment, but a revealing one. The narrator suggests that
God created Georgiana in the image of the mother of all humans and that just as
Eve was tainted by sin and forgiven by God, so Georgiana is tainted and forgiven.
In the narrators estimation, Aylmers classical reference could not be more
misguided.

Important Quotations Explained

1. [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.

Even though Aylmer isnt evil, he is nevertheless despicable and sinister because
he considers himself an apt judge of his wifes moral fiber. In this passage, we see
that Aylmer doesnt merely want to wipe away the physical birthmark on his wifes
cheek. If that were his aim, he would use the powerful cosmetic that he claims
can wipe away freckles as if they were specks of dirt. Because he has become
convinced that the mark is merely the external evidence of some deep moral and
spiritual rot, he believes the so-called remedy must be applied internally. As we
read the passage, we realize with mounting horror that Aylmer has become a
madman. He no longer sees Georgianas birthmark as a minor physical defect but
as a terrifying symbol of death and sin.

2. [W]ith her whole spirit she prayed that, for a single moment, she might satisfy
his highest and deepest conception. Longer than one moment she well knew it
could not be; for his spirit was ever on the march, ever ascending . . . [requiring]
something that was beyond the scope of the instant before.

This quotation investigates the myriad problems inherent in Aylmers quest for
perfection. Although Aylmer has managed to con Georgiana into believing that she
isnt worthy of his affection, the narrator reveals here that Aylmers insistence on
perfection is insane. In fact, this passage makes it clear that even total perfection
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wouldnt satisfy him. Georgiana realizes that if she managed to satisfy his
demands, her triumph would last only for a single moment. After that, he would
want still more from her. The removal of the birthmark is something of an artificial
goal, and the narrator suggests that Aylmer wouldnt be happy even if shed never
had the birthmark in the first place. His lust for flawlessness will never be sated
he has become deranged.

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