The birthmark characters. The Birthmark by Nathaniel Hawthorne Plot Summary 2022-12-22
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In Nathaniel Hawthorne's short story "The Birthmark," the protagonist, Aylmer, is a brilliant scientist who is obsessed with removing a small, birthmark-like blemish from his wife Georgiana's cheek. Despite Georgiana's initial reluctance, she eventually agrees to undergo the experimental procedure that Aylmer has designed to remove the birthmark.
Aylmer is portrayed as a highly intelligent and ambitious man, driven by his desire for perfection and his belief that he can achieve it through science and reason. He is confident in his abilities and convinced that he can successfully remove the birthmark, despite the inherent risks involved in the procedure. However, as the story progresses, it becomes clear that Aylmer's obsession with the birthmark is not just about achieving perfection, but is also a reflection of his deep-seated fear of death and his desire to control the natural world.
On the other hand, Georgiana is a much more complex character. Despite her initial reservations about the procedure, she ultimately agrees to undergo it out of her love for Aylmer and her desire to please him. She is deeply devoted to her husband and believes that he can do no wrong, even when it becomes clear that his pursuit of the birthmark is causing him to neglect his other responsibilities and to risk his own life.
Throughout the story, Hawthorne uses the characters of Aylmer and Georgiana to explore themes of perfection, science, and the dangers of obsession. Aylmer's pursuit of the birthmark ultimately leads to his downfall, as he becomes so consumed by his desire to remove the blemish that he neglects to consider the consequences of his actions. In contrast, Georgiana's love and devotion to Aylmer ultimately leads to her own tragic end, as she sacrifices herself in order to fulfill his desire for perfection.
Overall, the characters of Aylmer and Georgiana in "The Birthmark" serve as cautionary tales about the dangers of pursuing perfection at any cost, and the importance of balance and moderation in all things.
Characters In The Birthmark
He even suggests that the presence of the birthmark in the room will ruin his work. While Aminadab laughs, Georgiana dies, for with the disappearance of her only flaw and mark of mortality, she has become too perfect to remain on the earthly plane. Many a desperate swain would have risked life for the privilege of pressing his lips to the mysterious hand. The next day, Aylmer tells Georgiana his plan to bring her to his laboratory, where he can closely monitor her while he treats the birthmark. Not even Aylmer now hated it so much as she. Thus ever does the gross fatality of earth exult in its invariable triumph over the immortal essence which, in this dim sphere of half development, demands the completeness of a higher state.
Aylmer now remembered his dream. My earthly senses are closing over my spirit like the leaves around the heart of a rose at sunset. Because he is horrified by her appearance, she discards years of praise and becomes disgusted with herself. Longer than one moment she well knew it could not be; for his spirit was ever on the march, ever ascending, and each instant required something that was beyond the scope of the instant before. When she blushed it gradually became more indistinct, and finally vanished amid the triumphant rush of blood that bathed the whole cheek with its brilliant glow. While Georgiana is considered gorgeous and beautiful by hundreds of men, only Aylmer sees the fault in the birthmark and deems it as a flaw that only he can fix with science. He then has Georgiana drink the liquid.
Then a hoarse, chuckling laugh was heard again! It was a sensation in the fatal birthmark, not painful, but which induced a restlessness throughout her system. The story is based on a man of science named Alymer and his wife Georgiana. In effect, nature has triumphed over science even though science has completed what it meant to do. Georgiana is awakened by the powerful fragrance in the beautiful room that her husband has prepared for her in his laboratory. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2004. Although his intentions are good, Aylmer is a selfish and cruel man whose delusions ultimately kill his wife.
His brightest diamonds were the merest pebbles, and felt to be so by himself, in comparison with the inestimable gems which lay hidden beyond his reach. His spirit recoiled, however, in the very act, and Georgiana, out of the midst of her deep sleep, moved uneasily and murmured as if in remonstrance. Aylmer shows Georgina his laboratory where he conducts his experiments. After hours of absence, Aylmer reappeared and proposed that she should now examine his cabinet of chemical products and natural treasures of the earth. This ironical change of her mind brings changes into her attitudes. The presence of science in the story releases an element anxiousness as it is portrayed somewhat threatening for the readers. He was pale as death, anxious and absorbed, and hung over the furnace as if it depended upon his utmost watchfulness whether the liquid which it was distilling should be the draught of immortal happiness or misery.
Aylmer brings Georgiana into his laboratory to begin the treatment. After his departure Georgiana became rapt in musings. Hawthorne may have been criticizing the epoch of reform in which he was living, and specifically calling attempts at reform ineffective and the reformers dangerous. A faint smile flitted over her lips when she recognized how barely perceptible was now that crimson hand which had once blazed forth with such disastrous brilliancy as to scare away all their happiness. Aylmer believes that by removing this one tiny blemish his wife will finally be the pinnacle of physical perfection, and sets about performing all kinds of experiments and potions with which to achieve this aim.
No king on his guarded throne could keep his life if I, in my private station, should deem that the welfare of millions justified me in depriving him of it. Hurt and angry, Georgiana questions why Aylmer agreed to marry her if he felt this way. Until now he had not been aware of the tyrannizing influence acquired by one idea over his mind, and of the lengths which he might find in his heart to go for the sake of giving himself peace. The strength of the dose would determine whether he were to linger out years, or drop dead in the midst of a breath. His past is revealed when Georgiana looks at the books in his laboratory.
Georgiana's death is foreshadowed in Aylmer's dream of cutting out the mark, in which he discovers the birthmark is connected to her heart. As we unpack the passion behind the obsession that Aylmer presents with his genius in science, on the surface, one may recognize his obscenity and categorize it as a reflection of masculine control. Though unsure of herself at first, she becomes willing to fix her flaw just so her husband can love her the way he loves his sciences, even if it means killing her in the long run Diorio… Essay On Symbolism In The Birthmark In his story The Birthmark, Nathaniel Hawthorne uses the female character, Georgiana and her corresponding traits and personalities to symbolize traditional femininity and male dominance found in earlier times. You have earned the right to laugh. All these antique naturalists stood in advance of their centuries, yet were imbued with some of their credulity, and therefore were believed, and perhaps imagined themselves to have acquired from the investigation of Nature a power above Nature, and from physics a sway over the spiritual world. However, Georgiana discovers that he has failed to achieve most of what he aimed for, defeated by his own earthly imperfections, and the journal is in fact a sad record of human inadequacy.
Aylmer proposes to remove the birthmark so as to make his nearly-perfect wife completely perfect in every physical aspect. The flower will wither in a few moments and leave nothing save its brown seed vessels; but thence may be perpetuated a race as ephemeral as itself. He is hairy and squat, looking primitive in appearance. Ironically, mortality triumphs precisely because the only sign of it on Georgiana has gone, and so she becomes too perfect to remain human. She sees not only the Transactions of the Royal Society that include all the respectable and modern scientific studies, but also the ancient texts of the alchemists that portend Aylmer's interest in the occult and his desire to discover Mother Nature's secrets, as he puts it. Mingled with this mood, however, was the philosophic investigation characteristic of the man of science. Tell me all the risk we run, and fear not that I shall shrink; for my share in it is far less than your own.
