The Problem with the Birthmark

Introduction

“The Birthmark” is a short story written in 1843, by Nathaniel Hawthorne and is analyzed by Michael Meyer (Michael, 2010). It was the period during which tremendous progress had been made in the areas of science and technology. The story describes the life of a scientist, Alymer who attempted to use his scientific knowledge for controlling the nature. Ultimately, in his battle against nature he lost his wife Georgiana. The major problem highlighted in the story “The Birthmark”, is the selfish nature of the scientist. The author described the fact that how the technological inventions which were originally been designed for the purpose of serving mankind, ultimately result in the destruction of humanity. The scientific knowledge and research experiments brought up adverse results, in the story as Alymer tried to make the nature perfect through his experiments.

Problem in the Story

The story is set in the period when Science and experiments were not as common as today; most of the scientific ideas and theories were misunderstood. This is the reason why science is considered as mystical in the story. Alymer was a great scientist and had a loving nature (Smith, 2011). He had a beautiful wife, who was very dear to him. Despite of all Alymer's love for his wife, he was keen to know that how the birthmark which she had on her cheek could be removed. The birthmark was in a shape of small red hand on the cheek of Alymer's wife which irritated him. He told his wife that she was so perfect in beauty that the slight defect had shocked him. Alymer believed that the natural beauty of her wife was defected due to the presence of that birthmark; this becomes the reason for Alymer's battle against nature.

It is to be noted that although Aylmer being a man of intellect (Wineapple, 2001), remained disturbed due to the birthmark on her wife, Georgiana's cheek, she herself was completely satisfied with her beauty. The story reveals the fact that Georgiana was a desire of many men out of her beauty; those men did not even consider the birthmark as a defect of hers, rather they considered that it was a sign of some angel's kiss. However, as Alymer constantly pointed to the birthmark, she began to hate it and was ready to go through any experiment so that the mark would remove.

Alymer had a dream about conducting an operation to remove the birthmark from Georgiana's cheek. He found himself digging through her cheek and ultimately reaching to her heart, in his dream. Thus, he had gotten an indication that the attempt to create perfection in his wife's beauty may result in creating even more imperfection. Georgiana was so much in love with her husband, that she allowed him to go ahead in order to remove her birthmark even if her life was the price. Finally, the scientist conducted many experiments and gave a potion to his wife. Initially, nothing happened but slowly the ...