It’s interesting that Hawthorne chose to write this
short story surrounding a birthmark. Of all the things he could choose from, he
chose a birthmark. It is something that is uniquely tied to one individual, and
a mark that separates us from others. Just the title The Birthmark makes me think of my brother’s birthmark. Why not my
own? Well his birthmark is way cooler to be quite honest the sclera (the white
part) on his eyes are blue. In our family it’s genetic, something Grandma has
and was passed along to my brother, and sadly skipped over me.
I could honestly keep talking about how cool my
brother’s eyes are, but I’ll spare you and go to the text. Unlike my brother,
Georgiana’s birthmark is on her cheek and in the shape of a small red hand
(Which is kind of cool, but not as
cool as my brother’s). As I read through Hawthorne's story I felt that this red handed birthmark was a sign of
death. Hawthorne writes, “it [the birthmark] was the fatal flaw of humanity”
(86). One potential flaw of humanity that comes straight to my mind is the fact
that eventually humans die. Maybe that’s a little dark, but Alymer clearly sees
this birthmark as a sign of imperfection.
Alymer even has a gruesome dream where he tries to
remove Georgiana’s birthmark. “But the deeper went the knife, the deeper sank
the hand, until at length its tiny grasp appeared to have caught hold of
Georgiana’s heart” (Hawthorne 87). The heart is what keeps our blood pumping
and vital to life. Alymer is killing her in his dream as he tries to remove
this imperfection from her body. It doesn’t seem like a great solution though
if Georgiana’s birthmark symbolizes mortality. You can’t necessarily fix one’s mortality.
Maybe Hawthorne isn’t trying to illustrate the idea of fixing death, but rather
that it’s just a cycle of life. The birthmark then becomes a mark of death.
Death happens to everyone, no one can escape it. Even at the end of the text
Georgiana while she loses the small red hand that held her cheek she still
dies.
“The fatal hand had grappled with the mystery of
life, and was the bond by which an angelic spirit kept itself in union with a
mortal frame” (Hawthorne 99). I feel that the mortal frame is of course
Georgiana, and the fatal hand is the symbol of death. When Hawthorne says
“grappled with the mystery of life” (99) is he talking about how life can be a
trial and death inescapable? What is the mystery of life? Life itself? I feel
as if I have witnessed an exchange where in order to remove her birthmark,
Georgiana had to lose her life. Which seems like a totally unfair exchange, but
life isn’t always fair.
To end on a different note here’s a picture of my
brother when he was maybe five years old. It’s the coolest birthmark that I
know of, and now something that will remind me of this short story. Just don’t
tell my brother.
 |
| My brother's cool birthmark. Personal photograph by author. |
You asked if Hawthorne is talking about how life can be a trial and death inescapable. And I think yes, he is talking about that. The interesting part about this story is how Alymer strives for perfection and it ends in death. I believe that yes, this story is about how death is inescapable, but also that perfection will never be attained by any human being. And though the medicine that Alymer created essentially worked, it killed his wife. So it's almost like Alymer didn't believe that his medicine would kill; it's almost like he thought that he he achieved perfection he would also achieve mortality.
ReplyDelete