The Birthmark was a depressing and tragic story written by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Much like Hawthorne's other stories, this story uses symbolism; and in this instance, the symbol is the birthmark that is on the cheek of the main character Alymer's wife, Georgiana.
The beginning of the story shows conflict and how the husband and wife feud over the hand shaped birthmark. Towards the middle of the story Georgiana almost seems disgusted and appalled that her husband is so affected by the slight imperfection, and so Georgiana agrees to remove the birthmark. And the end results in an easily predicted, but nonetheless tragic death.
Throughout the story, the birthmark represents numerous things. One being imperfection and the other being death. Alymer obsesses over his wife's imperfection and continually makes negative comments about her slight imperfection, and enunciates that fact that she should have a removal of this birthmark. He can't get past Georgiana's flaw and so he starts experimenting how to begin the removal. And though it is human nature to be imperfect, he reacts foolishly and tries to compete with nature to fix an imperfection that ultimately leads to death.
Throughout the story, the birthmark represents numerous things. One being imperfection and the other being death. Alymer obsesses over his wife's imperfection and continually makes negative comments about her slight imperfection, and enunciates that fact that she should have a removal of this birthmark. He can't get past Georgiana's flaw and so he starts experimenting how to begin the removal. And though it is human nature to be imperfect, he reacts foolishly and tries to compete with nature to fix an imperfection that ultimately leads to death.
The birthmark also symbolizes immortality, because no one is perfect an no one can escape from death. Alymer tries to fix the flaw of his wife but tries to dodge the one thing that is unavoidable: death. Alymer shows ignorance because it is obvious that people can never attain complete perfection, only until the moment when their death arrives. And as death does approach the spirit of perfection arises. However, people continue to strive for perfection and immortality. Since the birthmark is shaped like a small hand, another interpretation could be that it symbolizes the hand of God or even an angel. This theory may also lead to the theory that it symbolizes death, because in the end it's God's hand that takes away Georgiana.
In conclusion, death is inevitable; perfection will never be achieved; and nothing can stop God's hand.
In conclusion, death is inevitable; perfection will never be achieved; and nothing can stop God's hand.
I like how you mentioned the "hand of God or even an angel" to refer to taking a life away. It reminded me of the hand of death of the reaper. If you're familiar with the Disney movie Hercules, you may remember the three Fates who spin, measure, and sever the 'string of life'. The Fate who was tasked with severing the strings is in charge of ending one's life, a reference to the "Hand of Death". Along with what you said about how "no one can escape from death", it is similar to the mythological Fates who are elsewhere in the universe, out of reach from humanity, and without the influence of humanity.
ReplyDeleteAs we both know, Aylmer was a man of science who tried to play the role of God, as in he tried to create perfection. So would you say that his own hand was the "Hand of God"?
I found this analysis generally on point as to the general themes of this short story. The various representations the hand can be taken to mean clearly add to the reason it was chosen as the birth mark in this work, and you do a good job of analyzing them. One point I would question through is just how easy it is to discern, from the beginning, that the birth-mark is the binding thread between life and death for Georgiana. It is alluded to by Alymer's assistant, yet he is portrayed as having the role of the fool, so it might be easy for the reader to categorically assume much of his commentary is uninformed. It is not truly until he mentions that were he married to Georgiana, he would not be removing the birth mark that the seed is planted in the reader's mind of the truth to his words. Her death, while tragic, in effect seems to demonstrate that especially those who claim to posses the ability to change nature, need to take the words of those who accept its great power to heart, lest they produce an outcome of grave negative consequence.
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