Nathaniel Hawthorne's gothic story ''The Birthmark'' set us into the world of the scientist Aylmer who carried by his obsessive madness used his wife to go beyond to what is naturally conceived to transform it into a mortal perfection. As the story unfolds, distinctive gothic elements are portrayed. In terms of characters, there are represented three figures: the mad scientist, his assistant, and his victim or object of experiment. First, there is Aylmer who in the story represents the motif of the mad scientist. Since the beginning, we can see his obsessive nature when suddenly he get obsessed with the birthmark on his young wife's cheek, a birthmark that strangely did not annoy him until they got married. As his obsession with the idea of the birthmark stealing his wife's perfection grow, his psychotic manner becomes more and more notable up to the point in which it materializes in the idea of taking away that imperfection by any cost. In this point of the story, the image of his wife is reduced by an object of experiment of which he gives himself the permission to manipulate by his will to pursuit an unearthly perfection. What it is curious is what drives him to this obsessive repulsion to his wife's birthmark: his own obsessive behavior or something else hidden deeper into his mind. A possible theory could remain in the fact that maybe his abruptly resignation to science could have driven him to unconsciously or consciously search a way to continue practicing it in a different manner, in this case, by experimenting with his wife to fix her imperfect nature. His assistant Aminadab has this image of the creepy laboratory assistant that will help to his master in whatever he wants him to do, even thought the experiment could lead to a tragic ending. Georgina, Aylmer’s wife, is going to be the object of Aylmer’s obsession that is so deep that will contagious Georgina up to the point in which she will let her husband to do whatever he thinks is necessary to do to get rid of the ‘’hateful’’ birthmark. This gothic tale portrayed two themes that are strongly connected with the psychology of Aylmer. The first one deals with the pursuit of perfection. This pursuit drives the character to a madness that becomes so dangerous and blinding that makes him unconscious of its deathly nature. He looks to get rid of the imperfection of his wife that is represented on the birthmark. But what he is unable to see is that this mark is part of Georgina being, so when he tries to get rid of it, he is actually killing her. And at the end, we can see this. We can see that he actually could eliminate the birthmark, but by doing it, he end up poisoned her. The second theme is the one that deals with a complex resulting from his scientific nature. This will be the god complex in which he feels that he has a power, giving by science, over the forces of nature. This is reflected on how he gets obsessed with the idea of fixing the imperfection impose on Georgina by nature, so he feel that he has that power of changing things by his own will as a god would do. I really liked the story, and it really trapped me since the beginning mainly because of his psychological themes that can make you think about this human nature of trying to control everything around us in our own will and how this desire can drag us into madness
I agree with your comment. I think Aylmer's love for science was stronger than his wife's. For him science and specially Nature is perfect, so everything around him has also to be "perfect" including his wife. Aylmer becomes very obsessed with Georgina's birth-mark because it is a birth "defect". He cannot accept that that birth -mark is part of Georgina as you mentionned. Definitely the issue of playing God or using science to change what is already done is a central topic in the story because at the end the manipulation of nature can lead to a tragedy.
Mónica's comments about the story are well-founded. We definitely run into three staple Gothic characters here: mad scientist, his creepy assistant and the unfortunate victim, the helpless wife. Also, the topics of obsession for science or power and playing to be God are very important. I also liked Sofia's mentioning of the birthmark as a "defect" within quotation marks. In other words, a defect for some, like Aylmer, but an interesting trait for others.
For other course, I wrote this analysis. The main conflict in the Birthmark is the disgust of Aylmer to the birthmark of Georgiana after their marriage because it makes her “imperfect”. The conflict is external: man vs man. Well, in this case: Man versus woman. More specifically, man versus the woman’s birthmark. In this story, we can find three different characters:Aylmer, Aminadab and Georgina. Three different characters betweem them. Aylmer, the main protagonist, or the antagonist if we see Georgina as the main character, is a man dedicaded to science and experiments. This is remarked throughout the story. In the first sentence of the story, Hawthorne wrote that Aylmer is “a man of science-an eminent proficient in every branch of natural philosophy”(3). In this case, he believes only in studies and science; not in other aspects of life. He does not change this way of thinking at the end of the story, when Georgiana died as a result of his experiment. In this case, he is a static character. He did not grieve Georgiana’s death because he reached his goal: the perfection of his wife. Aylmer is a round character because Hawthorne described perfectly his phisycal traits, his intencións and motivations, his background. Aylmer is a pale, slender, extremely intelligent man. An ambitious man who wants the power of knowledge via scientific and alchemist methods. Aylmer is the classic example of the motif of “The Mad Scientist”, extremmely common to find in gothic literature of the 19th century. Other examples are Dr. Giacomo Rappaccini from “Rappaccini’s Daughter of the same writer, or the famous Victor Frankestein from “Frankestein.” Aminadab is other character in this story. He is a short, stupid but strong servant to Aylmer. He cannot understand the experiments of his master; he is just an assistant. Hawthorne described him as “"a man of low stature, but bulky frame, with shaggy hair hanging about his visage, which was grimed with the vapors of the furnace.” For me, Aminadab sounds like a biblical name. It is interesting to compare and constrast these two characters: One is an intelligent scientist, the other a dumb servant; one is pale and large, the other browny and small; One represents science, the other one religion. Aminadab is the same througout the story. He laughed when the experiment ended, and when Georgiana died. He is the same half-wit assistant in the story. As a result, he is a static character. He is the motif of “Igor”, or the assistant of the mad scientist who is dumb, strong, slow, but loyal. This type of character is also common in other gothic literature, for example, Frankenstein. The only purpose of this character is to help Aylmer. Thus he is a flat character. The last character is Georgina, Georgina is a very beautiful woman who has a birthmark in her right cheek. The mark is described as a “fairy hand.” She loves her birthmark in the beginning of the story; however, she starts to hate it because Aylmer says it represents imperfection in her beauty. Georgiana is a dynamic character because she changes not only physical, but also in her way of thinking. She is the motif of “The Good Wife,” very common to find in gothic short stories from the 19st century. She can be the protagonist or the antagonist of the story. She is extremely important within the story, because she has the mark of imperfection that Aylmer craves to eliminate. We know what she thinks, her physical appearence, her motivations. As a result, she is a round character. “ The theme of this story would be “Playing to be God can bring terrible consequenses.
I totally agree with what you said about the motif of the mad scientist and I would like to add that, as Eduardo says the motif of the good wife is perfect to describe Georgiana because she lives to pleace her husband even if by doing that she is destroying herself
Something that caught my attention about the birthmark of Georgiana is the relationship between imperfection and the sense of being a human. Humans will never be perfect and if someone tries to change this statement, the result will not be the expected
Nathaniel Hawthorne's gothic story ''The Birthmark'' set us into the world of the scientist Aylmer who carried by his obsessive madness used his wife to go beyond to what is naturally conceived to transform it into a mortal perfection. As the story unfolds, distinctive gothic elements are portrayed. In terms of characters, there are represented three figures: the mad scientist, his assistant, and his victim or object of experiment. First, there is Aylmer who in the story represents the motif of the mad scientist. Since the beginning, we can see his obsessive nature when suddenly he get obsessed with the birthmark on his young wife's cheek, a birthmark that strangely did not annoy him until they got married. As his obsession with the idea of the birthmark stealing his wife's perfection grow, his psychotic manner becomes more and more notable up to the point in which it materializes in the idea of taking away that imperfection by any cost. In this point of the story, the image of his wife is reduced by an object of experiment of which he gives himself the permission to manipulate by his will to pursuit an unearthly perfection. What it is curious is what drives him to this obsessive repulsion to his wife's birthmark: his own obsessive behavior or something else hidden deeper into his mind. A possible theory could remain in the fact that maybe his abruptly resignation to science could have driven him to unconsciously or consciously search a way to continue practicing it in a different manner, in this case, by experimenting with his wife to fix her imperfect nature. His assistant Aminadab has this image of the creepy laboratory assistant that will help to his master in whatever he wants him to do, even thought the experiment could lead to a tragic ending. Georgina, Aylmer’s wife, is going to be the object of Aylmer’s obsession that is so deep that will contagious Georgina up to the point in which she will let her husband to do whatever he thinks is necessary to do to get rid of the ‘’hateful’’ birthmark.
ReplyDeleteThis gothic tale portrayed two themes that are strongly connected with the psychology of Aylmer. The first one deals with the pursuit of perfection. This pursuit drives the character to a madness that becomes so dangerous and blinding that makes him unconscious of its deathly nature. He looks to get rid of the imperfection of his wife that is represented on the birthmark. But what he is unable to see is that this mark is part of Georgina being, so when he tries to get rid of it, he is actually killing her. And at the end, we can see this. We can see that he actually could eliminate the birthmark, but by doing it, he end up poisoned her. The second theme is the one that deals with a complex resulting from his scientific nature. This will be the god complex in which he feels that he has a power, giving by science, over the forces of nature. This is reflected on how he gets obsessed with the idea of fixing the imperfection impose on Georgina by nature, so he feel that he has that power of changing things by his own will as a god would do.
I really liked the story, and it really trapped me since the beginning mainly because of his psychological themes that can make you think about this human nature of trying to control everything around us in our own will and how this desire can drag us into madness
I agree with your comment. I think Aylmer's love for science was stronger than his wife's. For him science and specially Nature is perfect, so everything around him has also to be "perfect" including his wife. Aylmer becomes very obsessed with Georgina's birth-mark because it is a birth "defect". He cannot accept that that birth -mark is part of Georgina as you mentionned. Definitely the issue of playing God or using science to change what is already done is a central topic in the story because at the end the manipulation of nature can lead to a tragedy.
ReplyDeleteMónica's comments about the story are well-founded. We definitely run into three staple Gothic characters here: mad scientist, his creepy assistant and the unfortunate victim, the helpless wife. Also, the topics of obsession for science or power and playing to be God are very important.
ReplyDeleteI also liked Sofia's mentioning of the birthmark as a "defect" within quotation marks. In other words, a defect for some, like Aylmer, but an interesting trait for others.
For other course, I wrote this analysis.
ReplyDeleteThe main conflict in the Birthmark is the disgust of Aylmer to the birthmark of Georgiana after their marriage because it makes her “imperfect”. The conflict is external: man vs man. Well, in this case: Man versus woman. More specifically, man versus the woman’s birthmark.
In this story, we can find three different characters:Aylmer, Aminadab and Georgina. Three different characters betweem them. Aylmer, the main protagonist, or the antagonist if we see Georgina as the main character, is a man dedicaded to science and experiments. This is remarked throughout the story. In the first sentence of the story, Hawthorne wrote that Aylmer is “a man of science-an eminent proficient in every branch of natural philosophy”(3). In this case, he believes only in studies and science; not in other aspects of life. He does not change this way of thinking at the end of the story, when Georgiana died as a result of his experiment. In this case, he is a static character. He did not grieve Georgiana’s death because he reached his goal: the perfection of his wife. Aylmer is a round character because Hawthorne described perfectly his phisycal traits, his intencións and motivations, his background. Aylmer is a pale, slender, extremely intelligent man. An ambitious man who wants the power of knowledge via scientific and alchemist methods. Aylmer is the classic example of the motif of “The Mad Scientist”, extremmely common to find in gothic literature of the 19th century. Other examples are Dr. Giacomo Rappaccini from “Rappaccini’s Daughter of the same writer, or the famous Victor Frankestein from “Frankestein.”
Aminadab is other character in this story. He is a short, stupid but strong servant to Aylmer. He cannot understand the experiments of his master; he is just an assistant. Hawthorne described him as “"a man of low stature, but bulky frame, with shaggy hair hanging about his visage, which was grimed with the vapors of the furnace.” For me, Aminadab sounds like a biblical name. It is interesting to compare and constrast these two characters: One is an intelligent scientist, the other a dumb servant; one is pale and large, the other browny and small; One represents science, the other one religion. Aminadab is the same througout the story. He laughed when the experiment ended, and when Georgiana died. He is the same half-wit assistant in the story. As a result, he is a static character. He is the motif of “Igor”, or the assistant of the mad scientist who is dumb, strong, slow, but loyal. This type of character is also common in other gothic literature, for example, Frankenstein. The only purpose of this character is to help Aylmer. Thus he is a flat character.
The last character is Georgina, Georgina is a very beautiful woman who has a birthmark in her right cheek. The mark is described as a “fairy hand.” She loves her birthmark in the beginning of the story; however, she starts to hate it because Aylmer says it represents imperfection in her beauty. Georgiana is a dynamic character because she changes not only physical, but also in her way of thinking. She is the motif of “The Good Wife,” very common to find in gothic short stories from the 19st century. She can be the protagonist or the antagonist of the story. She is extremely important within the story, because she has the mark of imperfection that Aylmer craves to eliminate. We know what she thinks, her physical appearence, her motivations. As a result, she is a round character. “
The theme of this story would be “Playing to be God can bring terrible consequenses.
I totally agree with what you said about the motif of the mad scientist and I would like to add that, as Eduardo says the motif of the good wife is perfect to describe Georgiana because she lives to pleace her husband even if by doing that she is destroying herself
ReplyDeleteSomething that caught my attention about the birthmark of Georgiana is the relationship between imperfection and the sense of being a human. Humans will never be perfect and if someone tries to change this statement, the result will not be the expected
ReplyDelete