The Birthmark
By Nathaniel Hawthorne
Ryan Kelly, Jonathan Gilmore and Marco Stallone
Brief Biography
 Nathaniel Hawthorne

-Born in Salem, Massachusetts on July 4th, 1804.

-Puritan, which influenced his writing career.

-Father was a sea captain, died when Nathaniel was
young.

-A leg injury made Hawthorne not able to be mobile.
Left him to do a lot of reading and thinking.

- Attended Bowdoin College from 1821 to 1825.

- Most of early stories published anonymously.

-Died on May 19, 1864.
Plot
The story starts off with a man named Aylmer that is a scientist and natural
philosopher who marries a woman named Georgiana. Aylmer's wife is beautiful, but
there is a birthmark on her cheek that is the shape of a hand. He one day asks her if she
would like to have it removed. Georgiana seems to be taken back by her husband ask
her if she would want to remove this mark that she has always had and some even
considered it to be a charm and even admirer it. Aylmer starts to become obsessed with
the birthmark. One night he has a dream about it, that he was cutting in to his wife skin
and kept cutting so deep that he cut her heart out. Georgiana seeing Aylmer's obsession
that he has on removing the mark she says that she is willing to risk her life to remove it.
They decide to remove the birthmark in Aylmer's laboratory. In the laboratory Aylmer
leaves Georgiana for a couple hour and she start read over his journals and reads one
about her own experiment and starts to cry. Aylmer brings her the potion and shows her
how it works on a flower taking away any blots that is on it. After Georgiana drinks the
potion she falls asleep and while she sleeps Aylmer studies everything about her.
Georgina wakes up from her sleep only to tell Aylmer that she is dying and that “you
have rejected the best that earth could offer”(Hawthorne 235).
Themes


Man vs. Nature (God)
 Man “would ascend from one step of powerful intelligence to another, until the
philosopher should lay his hand on the secret of creative force, and perhaps make
new worlds for himself.” Page 225
 Man is trying to obtain God like powers in their search for power over nature
 Humans attempt to obtain power over God can never be achieved.
 The plant
 Georgiana's portrait
 Georgiana's death
Humans are inherently imperfect, but this imperfection is what makes us perfect.
 In Aylmer's dream the Crimson Hand reached all the way down to Georgianna's
heart.
 Our imperfections are what make us unique (page 226)
 To rid our imperfections would be to get rid of our human nature
 Aylmer's sleep can be interpreted as a type of death
 Georgiana loved Aylmer more after reading his log of scientific failures.
 Can only love once we accept imperfection
Themes



Ultimate sacrifice out of love
 Georgiana died to make Aylmer happy
 She was aware of the risk but did it for Aylmer's sake
Our flaws, which are what makes us perfect, are what align us with God
 “The fatal Hand had grappled with the mystery of life, and was the bond by which an
angelic spirit kept itself in union with a mortal frame.” Page 235
 Georgiana was a perfect soul in a perfect body
 Removing the birthmark left only a perfect soul, accomplished only through
death
Pygmalion
 Perfect statue brought to life so sculptor can marry her
 Opposite of Aylmer
 Aylmer could not see her true perfection and decided to remove it making her
imperfect resulting in her death