Fascination And Delicate Mortality In Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Birthmark
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Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Birthmark”, serves as an allegorical representation of how one’s fascination and delicate mortality can eventually take over ones idea of themselves. Hawthorne portrays this allegorical idea through the use of irony, ambiguity, and symbolism. “The Birthmark”, a crimson hand that marks the cheek of the wife Georgiana. This birthmark is the underlying symbol in the story. This birthmark is what Georgiana’s Husband claims as a weakness and tries to get rid of it, however, his drive to perfect his wife falls short when he essentially kills her while trying to tamper with life’s nicest natures. “Aylmer poor Aylmer, with a more than human tenderness, you have aimed loftily; you have done nobly. Do not repent that with so high and a pure a feeling, you have rejected the best the earth could offer. Aylmer dearest Aylmer, I am dying.” (Hawthorne 1033). The use of the word “poor” in this paragraph portrays the value Aylmer’s has towards his wife, and that is because he does not care for her. “Human tenderness” illustrates how Georgiana feels towards her husband;…show more content… “Do not repent that with so high and pure a feeling, you have rejected the best the earth could offer.” Georgiana is stating that she tried to give him everything she had, and it was not enough for him. He was blessed with “the best earth could offer”, natures purest beauty, and he let the want of perfection get in the way. The paragraph of the story as a whole, serves to illustrate that Aylmer’s pursuit to erase said birthmark resulted in the death of his wife. The dialogue of the story can represent to serve as either sarcastic and/or sincere depending on ones interpretation, and what Georgiana is saying could be viewed differently by differently people. The birthmark is what husband Aylmer could not see past; while most found this mark to be beautiful, he did