Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “the Birth Mark” and Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart.” Both have many connecting elements, especially the theme of “Strength as their own destruction.” In both stories the protagonist has an obsession that leads to their demise. They both take pride in things that cause fatalities in their lives. And last, they both take these two reasons as justification for playing God. I believe that the characters have a considerable amount of pride in their abilities that they are one way or another blinded from the realization of how they are actually hurting themselves.
In Hawthorne’s The Birthmark, we see Aylmer’s pride in his knowledge. He professes complete confidence in his own abilities as a scientist. Several evidences …show more content…
645) In this sentence from the story, Hawthorne lets us know that the attention to his wife that Aylmer might express is merely because of scientific interest. Aylmer takes notice to defect a “crimson hand on his wife’s cheek,” and asks her if she’s considered removing it. When she realized her husband’s seriousness of the subject she becomes increasingly insecure and asks him to remove the “dreadful hand.” The story describes Aylmer becoming extremely obsessed with the birthmark. It’s as if his brilliant mind had been overpowered and now has no sense of decency because of this subject. So much is this obsession, that it feeds this desire to exercise a godlike control over life. He decides to remove this birthmark mark with his wife’s blessing “I feel myself fully competent to render this dear cheek as faultless as its fellow, when I shall have corrected what Nature left imperfect, in her fairest work! Even Pygmalion when his sculptured woman assumed life, felt not greater ecstasy than mine will be.” (Pg. 648) Aylmer does not believe in God or the natural laws he created, which is obvious by …show more content…
From the beginning of the story he is defending himself against madness in terms of a heightened sensory capacity. He describes that a disease is the cause of his new found unique hearing. In his first line: “Nervous, I had been and am; but why will you say that I am mad? The disease had sharpened my senses --not destroyed --not dulled them,” (Pg.715) he is already establishing himself as some superior with this strength. The disease that has taken over gives him this fixation on the old man’s evil eye. "The eye of a vulture — a pale blue eye, with a film over it." Without any real motivation, other than his psychotic obsession, he decides to take the old man 's life. Forming a God like complex, he said “I made up my mind to take the life of the old man, and thus rid myself of the eye forever.” He tries to prove his sanity by showing how "wisely" and with extreme precision, and dissimulation he executed his wish. “You should have seen how wisely I proceeded—with what caution—with what foresight—with what dissimulation I went to work!” Every night at twelve o 'clock, he would slowly open the door, "oh so gently," and after an hour he would quietly peek his head through the door. He continues to defend his saneness by describing his acts and stating "Would a madman have been as wise as this?" he asks, in a hopeful way. Delusional, the narrator reaffirms his wit and his sensitive hearing as
In Hawthorne’s The Birthmark, we see Aylmer’s pride in his knowledge. He professes complete confidence in his own abilities as a scientist. Several evidences …show more content…
645) In this sentence from the story, Hawthorne lets us know that the attention to his wife that Aylmer might express is merely because of scientific interest. Aylmer takes notice to defect a “crimson hand on his wife’s cheek,” and asks her if she’s considered removing it. When she realized her husband’s seriousness of the subject she becomes increasingly insecure and asks him to remove the “dreadful hand.” The story describes Aylmer becoming extremely obsessed with the birthmark. It’s as if his brilliant mind had been overpowered and now has no sense of decency because of this subject. So much is this obsession, that it feeds this desire to exercise a godlike control over life. He decides to remove this birthmark mark with his wife’s blessing “I feel myself fully competent to render this dear cheek as faultless as its fellow, when I shall have corrected what Nature left imperfect, in her fairest work! Even Pygmalion when his sculptured woman assumed life, felt not greater ecstasy than mine will be.” (Pg. 648) Aylmer does not believe in God or the natural laws he created, which is obvious by …show more content…
From the beginning of the story he is defending himself against madness in terms of a heightened sensory capacity. He describes that a disease is the cause of his new found unique hearing. In his first line: “Nervous, I had been and am; but why will you say that I am mad? The disease had sharpened my senses --not destroyed --not dulled them,” (Pg.715) he is already establishing himself as some superior with this strength. The disease that has taken over gives him this fixation on the old man’s evil eye. "The eye of a vulture — a pale blue eye, with a film over it." Without any real motivation, other than his psychotic obsession, he decides to take the old man 's life. Forming a God like complex, he said “I made up my mind to take the life of the old man, and thus rid myself of the eye forever.” He tries to prove his sanity by showing how "wisely" and with extreme precision, and dissimulation he executed his wish. “You should have seen how wisely I proceeded—with what caution—with what foresight—with what dissimulation I went to work!” Every night at twelve o 'clock, he would slowly open the door, "oh so gently," and after an hour he would quietly peek his head through the door. He continues to defend his saneness by describing his acts and stating "Would a madman have been as wise as this?" he asks, in a hopeful way. Delusional, the narrator reaffirms his wit and his sensitive hearing as