The Gothic short story is a literary genre that although brief, is thought provoking. It is a genre characterized by several conventions including a simultaneous attraction, yet repulsion to a particular thing, the magnification of a given element as well as an archetypal setting such as an abandoned church or a monastery. In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story “The Birthmark”, Hawthorne uses several of these conventions and presents the reader with Aylmer, a man of science who forms an obsession with his wife Georgiana’s crimson coloured hand shaped birthmark, which he is determined to remove. He forms a conventional attraction, yet repulsion to the birthmark and its grotesquerie is conventionally magnified. The story’s unconventional contrast
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Initially, when asked by Aylmer whether she has ever thought of removing the birthmark, she replies that it “has so often been called a charm that [she] was simple enough to imagine it might be so.” (60) Her feelings towards the birthmark quickly change, since she is heavily influenced by her husband’s feelings towards it. Instead of regarding it as a charm, Georgiana now shudders at the thought of it and requests that the dreadful hand “either be removed” (63) or “take her wretched life!” (63) She is no longer hurt or angry that her husband suggested removing the birthmark in the first place, but reveres him and “loves him more profoundly than ever, but with a less entire dependence on his judgment that heretofore.” (69) Georgiana’s simultaneous attraction and repulsion to the birthmark is traditional of the Gothic, however it prevents her from realizing what is happening to her: she is …show more content…
There are two settings: the boudoir in which Aylmer places Georgiana in and his laboratory. The boudoir is seen as a feminine space that used to be part of his laboratory, but has been converted from “smoky, dingy and somber” (65) to “a series of beautiful apartments not unfit to be the secluded abode of a lovely woman.” (65). The laboratory is more of a masculine space that, by contrast has “a distilling apparatus in full operation” (69) and contains several “retorts, tubes, cylinders, crucibles and other apparatus of chemical research.” (70) Whereas the boudoir has a sweet smell of perfume, the laboratory contains gaseous odors, further heightening the contrast between the two settings. The contrast in settings thus illustrates the alienation that exists between Aylmer and Georgiana. Even though he does become attracted to the birthmark, he still desires his own space, to prevent him from becoming more repulsed by the birthmark and in order for him to focus solely on his
Initially, when asked by Aylmer whether she has ever thought of removing the birthmark, she replies that it “has so often been called a charm that [she] was simple enough to imagine it might be so.” (60) Her feelings towards the birthmark quickly change, since she is heavily influenced by her husband’s feelings towards it. Instead of regarding it as a charm, Georgiana now shudders at the thought of it and requests that the dreadful hand “either be removed” (63) or “take her wretched life!” (63) She is no longer hurt or angry that her husband suggested removing the birthmark in the first place, but reveres him and “loves him more profoundly than ever, but with a less entire dependence on his judgment that heretofore.” (69) Georgiana’s simultaneous attraction and repulsion to the birthmark is traditional of the Gothic, however it prevents her from realizing what is happening to her: she is …show more content…
There are two settings: the boudoir in which Aylmer places Georgiana in and his laboratory. The boudoir is seen as a feminine space that used to be part of his laboratory, but has been converted from “smoky, dingy and somber” (65) to “a series of beautiful apartments not unfit to be the secluded abode of a lovely woman.” (65). The laboratory is more of a masculine space that, by contrast has “a distilling apparatus in full operation” (69) and contains several “retorts, tubes, cylinders, crucibles and other apparatus of chemical research.” (70) Whereas the boudoir has a sweet smell of perfume, the laboratory contains gaseous odors, further heightening the contrast between the two settings. The contrast in settings thus illustrates the alienation that exists between Aylmer and Georgiana. Even though he does become attracted to the birthmark, he still desires his own space, to prevent him from becoming more repulsed by the birthmark and in order for him to focus solely on his