"The Birthmark:" An Analysis

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses several of the themes in "The Birthmark," by Nathaniel Hawthorne. The writer explores how Hawthorne creates a complex story about the human psyche from the themes of the conflicts between science and nature, and between man and science. The paper also discusses the themes of morality, love, obsession, and madness. The writer concludes that obsession is ultimately the cause of Aylmer's and Georgiana's tragedy.

From the Paper:

"It was not Aylmer's disgust for his wife's birthmark that drove him to commenting on it and calling for its removal, it was his love for science and his need to prove that he could make something that nature made even better. In the very beginning of the story it states that Aylmer didn't even mind the birthmark until after they had been married. "Masculine observers, if the birthmark did not heighten their admiration, contented themselves with wishing it away, that the world might possess one living specimen of ideal loveliness, without the semblance of a flaw.""

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• Book Review # 113909 : "Puritan Zeal in "The Birthmark"

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