The Birthmark

“The Birthmark” was published during a time of change and innovation in British and American literature. While gothic fiction was still in existence in the 1840s, new elements characteristic of the genre now called “science fiction” or “speculative fiction” were creeping into literature during this age of scientific advancement. At this time, gothic horror’s concentration on omens and portents shifted to a focus on scientific discoveries and laboratory instruments. At its core, though, the questions that informed the plot lines and themes remained similar: What does it mean to be human? What are the limits of mankind’s power? As well, the authors of horror and science fiction share a fundamental interest in the same subject: someone (or something) usurping the act of creation from God and/or nature. “The Birthmark” is above all concerned with the evil humans can commit with creative power in the name of science. While science grants Aylmer access to this power, without a proper moral compass and a true knowledge of himself, he wields it selfishly and destructively. As such, “The Birthmark” has a strongly moralizing message against this type of behavior.

“The Birthmark” also represents an important work of dark Romanticism. A literary and artistic movement of the late 1700s and early 1800s, Romanticism reacted against the Age of Enlightenment, prioritizing the interior, emotional life over the rational workings of the mind and ideas that were scientifically provable. As well, the Romantics honored nature as the supreme force, believing that no matter how ambitious a person’s scientific pursuits might be, nature will always overcome. Gothic elements often overlap with Romantic elements; for example, when Aylmer’s ambition results in the death of his wife, the reader is able to understand that nature has punished him for toying with Georgiana’s natural and flawed beauty. Aylmer’s tampering with his wife’s physical appearance, the one bestowed upon her by nature, leads directly to the tragedy of her death. For the Romantics, Aylmer would have been better served in examining himself and the reasons for his needs and desires, rather than turning his attention outward to the exterior world. As a result, “The Birthmark” is a pastiche of genres: it can be read and interpreted as a work of gothic fiction, romance fiction, proto-science fiction, and moralizing tale, all at the same time.

Both Aylmer and his wife Georgiana experience deep emotion that typifies Romantic literature, but Hawthorne’s interpretation of their emotional lives is a departure from Romanticism in two important ways. Aylmer, is a doctor whose passion for and obsession with the scientific process and “natural philosophy” does not reflect his actual skill and talent for scientific work. Though Aylmer’s primary emotional attachment is to his work, he does marry; however, his marriage feels fulfilling to him only when he is able to involve his wife in his work. While Aylmer’s deep emotional attachment to his work makes a mockery of the emotional depth encouraged by the Romantics, Georgiana’s obsessive love for her husband warns readers about the dangers of such deep emotion.

Thanks to Georgiana’s love for her husband, she agrees to allow Aylmer to experiment on her in order to remove her birthmark, giving Aylmer the opportunity to meld his love of science and his wife. When the setting of the story shifts to his laboratory, the story employs more psychological elements and symbolism. This shift marks a typical feature of the genre, called a “tale,” which Hawthorne helped to codify. Resembling a parable or a sketch, the tale takes place in “a neutral territory, somewhere between the real world and fairy-land, where the Actual and the Imaginary may meet, and each imbue itself with the nature of the other.” (Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The Scarlet Letter. Florence, Italy: Giunti Editore S.p.A, 2001, page 38)

When Aylmer finally produces an elixir that will remove Georgiana’s birthmark, Aylmer and Georgiana share a kind of fevered religious ecstasy over her consumption of the potion. Georgiana has united with Aylmer in their hatred of her physical flaw, and only Aylmer’s servant, Aminadab, recognizes that Georgiana does not require improvement. Ironically, Aylmer dismisses Aminadab as an uncouth and beast-like individual, but Aminadab possesses more humanity than Aylmer. A personification of mankind’s physicality and connection to the earth, Aminadab will have the last laugh. While Aylmer and Georgiana “succeed” in elevating Georgiana’s physical beauty, they also eradicate her humanity and take her life in the process. Aylmer’s greatest success is also his greatest failure.