Symbolism in the Birthmark by Nathaniel Hawthorne - Research Paper Example

Elements of symbolism in ‘the Birthmark’ INTRODUCTION The Birthmark is a short story, with Nathaniel Hawthorne as the author. The book was published in 1843. Following its publication, it afterwards was among the stories in Mosses from an Old Manse, which was published later in 1846. The Birthmark analyses obsession in respect to human perfection. The purpose of the essay is to elaborate on the elements of symbolism in ‘the bithmark. At The beginning of the story, Aylmer is witnessed to have an unnatural obsession concerning a birthmark on the cheek of Georgina. One night, Aylmer dreams of eliminating the birthmark from his wifes cheek, and then proceeding to the heart (Bird 113). Aylmer later reveals the dream to his wife, who swears to put her life to risk in order to remove the birthmark, rather than continuing to endure his husbands distress and horror that accompanies him on the sight of her. On the following day, Aylmer takes his wife to his laboratory, where he throws glances at Georgina and violently shudders on the sight of her imperfection. This action causes Georgina to faint, and after awakening, her husband gives her warm treatment accompanied by his concoctions of science. Later on, from her husband’s actions, suspects that he has been experimenting on the imperfection on quite some time. She decides to investigate on her suspicions, and she is consequently caught and accused of stoking him (Fetterley 25). This results to an argument. Georgina afterwards consents on drinking a concocted portion, despite Aylmers warning on the portion being dangerous, and the side effects expected of it. Aylmer then brings her the portion, which was witnessed to be working since it rejuvenated a plant with just some few drops. Upon the sight of this, Georgina takes the remaining concocted portion and falls asleep as a result. Her husband then watches the mark fade slowly by slowly and when it is almost gone, his wife wakes up. She, like Aylmer, is pleased upon the sight of the results. Soon afterwards, unexpectedly and tragically, she speaks to Aylmer on her slow death, which came by as a side effect of the portion. On the completion of the birthmark, his wife dies (Bird 113). From The Birthmark, it is evident that the book is an allegory, which mostly and entirely puts symbolism into use. Therefore, the following elements of symbolism are widely illustrated within the book. The birthmark on Georginas face is an element of symbolism in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s story, The Birthmark. It is a symbol of mortality. According to the story, every being is flawed in a way, and this is natures point of reminder that each being eventually dies. The birthmark on Aylmer’s wife’s cheek, which was hand shaped in from, is an example of one blemish that subjects her to mortality (Doma 210). Her husbands revulsion for her birthmark illustrated the horror he is subjected to at death prospectively. He is an intelligent man, but the misinterpretation he had for the hand-shaped symbol on the face of his wife lead him on the wrong direction. He mistakenly believes that if only he could do away with this transience symbol (Robert 100). It will automatically imply that he posses the power with regard to prolonging the indefinites associated to life. Aylmer, on the other hand, believes that the hand-shaped birthmark is a symbol of Georginas decrepitude of their morals, and flaws of the spirit even though Georgina is not prone to atrocities at all. If any the death symbol on Georginas cheek contrarily clashes with the sunny spirit and generosity that she posses (Hawthorne 422). The birthmark also symbolizes imperfection. Aylmers wife is mortal and human due to the imperfection, which is in his cheek, in form of a hand. The mark further illustrates Nathaniel belief in inseparable nature of human imperfection. This idea of the author is illustrated when he writes that the type hand of crimson expresses a grip of inaudibility within which mortality grips the purest and highest mould of earth. The author further writes that Aylmers imagination was not long in terms of perceiving the mark as a frightful object. It is the nature of all humans to be imperfect. The birthmark’s shape therefore represents Gods hand. The red color of the mark represents sexuality and passion. Furthermore, Aylmers control over the mark on Georginas face is a representation of the coercive power of Georginas sexuality and Aylmers inadequacy of control when with her. Aylmer is therefore viewed as foolish since he makes an attempt of competing with nature in order to correct an imperfection, which ultimately leads to death. It is unable to attain perfection except by means of the death spirit that renders it an impossible state to achieve physically (Hawthorne 422). Georginas boudoir, a place where her husband secludes her with intent of treating her, is also an element of symbolism. The boudoir symbolizes heaven that is created by “god,” which is Aylmer. The descriptions accompanied with the boudoir all focus on strange ethereal and derive from heaven. The author writes that the boudoir is not an ordinary heaven, since the functioning god associated to it is Aylmer, who regarded himself as self-important. He does away with natural sunshine, divine lights, and replaces them with lamps of perfume, which emit flames of several hues and all joining in one soft radiation (Hawthorne 425). Aylmer takes playing god to a new level, doing away with the world of nature and supplanting it with the ideal reality of his own. Perfection, as a pursuit of Aylmer, is also an element of symbolism in The Birthmark. Aylmer refuses to appreciate what best that nature has for him; instead, feeling obsessed over Georginas physical flaw. This pursuit becomes his destruction. His discontent concerning Georginas birthmark completely ruins one of the perfect factor thought his life (Robert 100). The irony associated with his pursuit and obsession regards him being an individual whose most marvelous successes were almost failures. Instead of feeling obsesses over correcting the failures in his life, he rather forgets them. Similarly, instead of feeling obsessed over his wifes beauty, he forgets it. The fact that a man carrying several failures in his life is making great attempts to make another individual perfect is allegorical (Doma 210) At first, the fact that Nathaniel equates or associates science with spirituality/loftiness with regard to the character of Aylmer, and religion with physicality/earthliness with regard to the character of Aminadab was hard in terms of reconciliation. Rather, the opposite is expected (Fetterley 25). The spiritual men are religious men, contrarily to the earthly men, who derive from science. However, in The Birth-mark, this is not the case. These associations are widely understood by putting into recognition that Nathaniels intention lies in a certain type of inquire of science. The scientific inquiry is one that, in the authors point of view, is constructed upon human beings desires to triumph over nature in the struggles of becoming like God. Aylmer is not precisely experimenting with the pea plants. He is instead attempting to eliminate the symbol concerning human beings flaws spirit. This is the reason why spiritual or religion is equal to science (Hawthorne 424). Aminadab, a laboratory assistant in Aylmers laboratory, is an element of symbolism in The Birth-mark. He symbolizes the physical, earthly and erotic self, which has been widely separated from Aylmer. Aminadab is described by the author as bulky and short, and having a shaggy look. It is because of Aminadabs possession of erthinessand physical strength that he resolves on performing unpleasant jobs with intent of freeing Aylmer to make cultivations on delusions. In addition, the name Aminadab is of a priest in Bible, and therefore his character symbolizes a man of religion, contrary to Georginas husband who symbolizes a man of science. In The Birth-mark, it is evident that men of religion are sububordinates to men of science. This is symbolized by the fact that Aminadab being the servant of Aylmer (Fetterley 25) In the last of the text, the laughter is an element of symbolism. It symbolizes religion being a triumph over science, in terms of Aylmers foolishness of attempting to be God. After becoming apparent that Georgina birthmark is fading from her cheek, Aylmer hears one gross and hoarse laughter, which he knows is his servants expression of content. Nothing is heard from Aylmer until the death of his wife, after which a gross and chuckling laughter was again heard (Doma 210). CONCLUSION In conclusion, The Birthmark, as written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, is a short story within several stories, which largely uses allegory as a derivation of various symbols. The book therefore has several elements of symbolism that include firstly, the birthmark on Georginas face. This symbolizes mortality, and the imperfection on Georgina as viewed by his husband, Aylmer. The birthmark, which was shaped like a hand, is an element of symbolism since it represents Gods control and triumph over human beings. In addition, Aylmers name and character is an element of symbolism, which symbolizes his zeal of being obsessed by science, while Aminadab name symbolizes his obsession with religion and being appreciative with human nature. The laughter at the end of the story by Aminadab symbolizes the triumph of religion over science, and the death of Georgina symbolizes the same. Finally, the boudoir, or Aylmers small heaven is also an element of symbolism, in that it represents the heaven concerning religion, since it was a place where Aylmer conducted all his experiments with the intention of correcting the imperfections of nature. Works cited Bird, Wright Sarah. Critical Companion to Nathaniel. New York: Facts on File Inc, 2007. Doma, Campbell. "Literary Movements". Puritanism in New England. England: Ohio University Press, 2012. Fetterley, Judith. Women Beware Science: "The Birthmark". Boston: G.K. Hall, 1991. Hawthorne, Nathaniel. Mosses from an Old Manse and Other Stories. London: Charles Keller, 1846. Robert, Heilman. "Hawthornes " The Birthmark": Science as Religion. New york: Norton & Company, 1987. Read More