The Birth Mark Nathaniel Hawthorne Analysis

"The Birth-mark" is a fascinating short story written by Nathaniel Hawthorne which was first published in March of 1843 in one of the editions of the journal "The Pioneer". Appearing in the role of the narrator Hawthorne introduces Aylmer, a well qualified scientist, married to a young admirable woman Georgiana, who is almost perfect-looking except for a little red mark in the shape of a hand on her left cheek. Throughout the story Aylmer persuades his wife to remove that birthmark from her face in order to see her completely perfect. In this story Hawthorne portrays such ideas as natural unattainable perfection of humanity as a symbol mortality and the denial to see the beauty beyond imperfection.
In order to express his perception of mortality …show more content…
He uses very exquisite expressions in order to make the passage more exclusive and engaging for the reader. However, the whole message beyond those beautiful expression is that the red birthmark, in the shape of a hand, was a sign of inevitable pain and suffer, where human imperfection as a symbol of mortality dwells in the best and probably the closest shape to humanity and nature. In other words that Crimson Hand was one of the endowment of nature representing imperfection of Georgiana and bringing her together with other mortals, whose obvious boundaries lose their shape and beauty and repatriate to their origin- to nature.

As a narrator of the story Hawthorne not only conveys his ideas, his thoughts and conceptions but also gives his reader access to the main character's brain, in this case Aylmer's, in order to show the diverse approaches or perspectives of the same issue. According to Aylmer that tiny birthmark was proof that his wife was a human just like the others and therefore he was choosing to see it as an indication of his wife's apt to such natural and earthly feelings subjects as: grief and pain, guilt, disruption or …show more content…
Taking into account the author's descriptive language we can assume that he wanted to emphasize Aylmer's gloomy and dark character by using that arrogant word "sombre".

Hawthorne then continues portraying Aylmer's prone to perfection by comparing Georgina's beauty from both physical and inner perspective to his great disgust and hate towards the birth-mark. Notwithstanding the fact that Georgiana had a beautiful inner world and appealing facial features, Aylmer perception of the birthmark didn't allow him to see the beauty beyond it and fully admire her and appreciate her love.

This story not only discusses the question of imperfection and mortality, but also implies that the aspiration to control the imperfection and the great desire to aim the complete perfection is possible exceptionally in case one has an immense power to conquer the nature and obtain the ability of having control over humanity. Furthermore, Hawthorne, in this story proved that even if someone tries to compete with the nature or strives to change something that is part of it, ends up with causing an immediate

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