Hawthorne's "The Birthmark"

Hawthorne’s work “The Birthmark” deals with the necessity of accepting sin and imperfections as a part humanity and mortality. In the story, some view the birthmark as a thing of beauty, a “token of the magic endowments.” The birthmark can be interpreted as the gift of life and free will that God gave mankind, from which sin is produced. The birthmark can also be interpreted as original sin, which all humans are born with. The birthmark is red, which is associated with blood and sin, and can be contrasted with the whiteness or purity of the surrounding cheek.

To Aylmer, the birthmark on his wife’s cheek is representative of earthly imperfection and a symbol of “sin, sorrow, decay, and death.” Aylmer viewed earthly things as lowly, seen in the tone in which he addresses his assistant; Aylmer, therefore, is obsessed with removing the birthmark, this sign of earthly imperfection from his otherwise perfect wife. He wants to rid his wife of “sin, sorrow, decay and death,” all characteristics of being human, in order to achieve a perfect being. However, the birthmark, like sin, is not simply a superficial imperfection but is embedded deep within her. In Aylmer’s dream, he attempts to dig out the birthmark but the birthmark sinks deeper and deeper until it is in his wife’s heart. Aylmer fails to realize that human sin and imperfections are the very essence or fabric of humanity and mortality, “the bond by which an angelic spirit kept itself in union with a mortal frame.” As in Aylmer dream, separating human sin and achieving perfection is impossible; removing sin is like removing life and free will. Because Aylmer does not understand this, he attempts to remove the birthmark anyway; he succeeds but at the cost of his wife’s life.

The Birthmark goes further to point out that because humans are imperfect, and the things that humans create also lack perfection. Nature “permits us indeed, to mar, but seldom to mend, and, like a jealous patentee, on no account to make.” The narrator states that “We know not whether Aylmer possessed this degree of faith in man’s ultimate control over nature;” however, Aylmer seems to think that through science, he can correct an imperfection left by nature. Indeed, Georgiana describes that Aylmer can ‘spiritualized’ physical objects or seems to have control over the spiritual world. It is clear that Aylmer does not. Both of Aylmer attempts at creating beauty failed; the plant dies just as Georgiana tries to touch it, and the picture Aylmer makes on the metal plate is blurry.