Symbolism In The Birthmark

In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story “The Birthmark” delves into the lives of a man of science and a beautiful woman during the eighteenth century. Aylmer who is one of the main characters of the story dedicated his life to scientific studies where as his love for his wife Georgiana may only interweaving with his destiny. Shortly after their marriage a birthmark on Georgiana’s left cheek leaves her husband infatuated with eradicating it. Throughout the years before Georgiana had married her husband Aylmer, a birthmark on her left cheek that distinctively looked similar to a human hand was viewed as a charm to her beauty (Hawthorne 334). Georgiana herself never viewed her own birthmark as hideous but rather a compliment. Aylmer shockingly thought otherwise, depicting the mark as an imperfection to an almost perfect woman and communicates with his wife about the thought of possibly having it surgically removed from her face. Georgiana had never thought about removing her birthmark as she rather found it beautiful which evidently makes her rather upset that her husband does not see the same beauty as she does. As the days of their marriage roll through and their lives start to progress, Aylmer finds this one defect of her perfection to grow more and more intolerable with every moment of their united lives together (Hawthorne 334).
Aylmer also believes that his mark portrayed a symbol of his wife’s liability to sin, sorrow, decay, and death (Hawthorne 334). Just the slightest thought of the mark in Aylmer’s mind gave him fear …show more content…
While Aylmer’s obsession with removing it is far more concerning than Georgiana’s concern, she allows her husband to operate on her to attempt to remove the mark out of love for her husband and his happiness. If only Aylmer was sensible, maybe he would have a chance at true happiness rather than