Marks of the Past, Still Present Today
“The Birthmark” by Nathaniel Hawthorne and “Desirée’s Baby” by Kate Chopin are two short stories that explore flaws in society by exposing aggressive husbands and victimized wives. “The Birthmark” tells the story of a man, Aylmer, who marries a beautiful, nearly perfect wife, Georgiana, who possesses a birthmark on her left cheek, a personal and unique feature she once adored. Aylmer confesses to wishing the birthmark away because he believes it taints her perfection. This desire eventually drives Aylmer to concoct elixirs and potions to remove the mark, but ingesting one of his concoctions causes Georgiana’s death. “Desirée’s Baby” relays the tale of an abandoned orphan, Desirée, who grows to be beautiful.…show more content… Throughout “The Birthmark,” Hawthorne alludes to a flower. This imagery serves as a metaphor for tampering with Georgiana’s mark using science and alchemy. While experimenting in the lab, minutes before Aylmer gives Georgiana the potion, he attempts to prove its effectiveness, “the flower will wither in a few moments and leave nothing save its brown seed vessels; but thence may be perpetuated a race as ephemeral as itself (Hawthorne 11)”. This seems ideal, it seems as though the liquid would instantly cure the flower, then may reproduce a population of flowers. However, the use of the word ‘ephemeral’ reinforces the concept of the newly perfected flower dying quickly and foreshadows the danger of meddling with nature. “Desirée’s Baby” focuses on the life cycle, when Madame Valmonde visits Desirée and her baby, she is shocked by the baby’s appearance: “That is not the baby!... the child has grown and changed… (Chopin 2)”. Birth and death are two facts of life, but growth and change are complexities that Armand denies. When it becomes obvious that the baby is not white, Madame Valmonde’s tone of surprise reflects the mindset of the time. Armond’s harsh rejection of the baby essentially and cruelly denies it life; skin color cannot be changed and the child is utterly innocent. Ironically, the baby is black due to a gene on Armand’s side, later discovered by Madame Valmonde. Akin to the concept of ‘the hand of God’ in “The Birthmark,” there is a common thread of God’s presence in “Desirée’s Baby.” Armand perceived that “Almighty God had dealt cruelly and unjustly with him; and felt somehow, that he was paying Him back in kind when he stabbed thus into his wife’s soul” (Chopin 4). Imagery of stabbing the soul conveys a desire to internally destroy. Armand knows that his rejection of Desirée would cause her eternal suffering, and that is his
