Nathaniel+Hawthorne

By: Nathaniel Hawthorne
Summary:
 * The Birthmark** is a short story by Nathaniel Hawthorne about a man, Alymer, who studies science and his wife, Georgiana. Upon Georgiana’s face was a small handprint, crimson in color. Other then this mark, this woman was perfect. After many nights of Alymer pondering the birthmark Georgiana brought up the subject. Alymer said he could remove it and she agreed. Alymer then began to lead Georgiana towards his laboratory when she fainted. When Georgiana awoke she found herself in a nicely embellished room where she was to stay and be observed by her husband. During this time Alymer showed her experiments and what not that he had been working on. Growing anxious and restless, Georgiana went into Alymer’s lab where she found him and his assistant intently watching a distiller. Alarmed, Alymer quickly led her back into her room and told her it would only be a little longer. At last, the elixir was finished and Alymer gave it to Georgiana who at first hesitantly took the liquid, gulped it down. Georgiana fell into a slumber and slowly the birthmark began to fade in color. At the end, Georgiana wakes up and informs her husband that she is dying. She tells him that it is because he could not accept the best nature could offer. With Georgiana’s last breath the remaining color of the birthmark disappeared.

Excerpts: “We know not whether Alymer possessed this degree of faith in man’s ultimate control over nature.” – Page 10 I chose this line because the main idea throughout this short story was Alymer’s desire to make his wife perfect. In other words he wanted to control what nature made and improve it. I think he did possess the faith in control because he went as far as putting his wife’s life at risk in order to be with someone perfect. “ The crimson hand expressed the ineludible gripe in which mortality clutches the highest and purest of earthly mold, degrading them into kindred with the lowest…” – Page 12 This sentence from the story shows how Alymer saw his wife. Even though she was gorgeous, beautiful, pretty, almost perfect, he saw her as ugly and hideous because of the birthmark on her cheek. I think that this is an important sentence because it tells why Alymer went through the trouble of trying to rid her face of the horrific mark. “Do not repent that, with so high and pure a feeling, you have rejected the best the earth could offer. Alymer, dearest Alymer, I am dying! “ – Page 23 This line comes from the end of the story after Georgiana has drunk the liquid and the red hand mark is slowly disappearing from her cheek. This line has mixed messages because she is telling him to not regret trying to make her perfect, but also says that she is dying because he was selfish and didn’t accept her the way she was.

Reflection: I thought this short story was a little hard to read because of the vocabulary that was used. Using context clues though, I was able to figure out what words meant and what was going on by just reading the story. My feelings on the story were mixed because at first I thought it was a pointless story, but thinking about it more I found the underlying message of accepting beauty the way it is given at birth because trying to change imperfections can lead to death. Reading this story and analyzing it gave me a new perspective on the way I view others and myself.