The Birthmark: Nathaniel Hawthorne Writing Assignment

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The Birthmark: Nathaniel Hawthorne
The Birthmark is a story by Nathaniel Hawthorne, an American writer, on obsessions with human perfection. After falling in love with Georgiana, Aylmer, a recognized and brilliant philosopher and scientist does not see the birthmark on her cheek until he gets married to her. After dreaming of scraping the birthmark from her face, the two agree to have it removed. However, after several experiments on Georgiana and taking advantage of her great trust on him, Aylmer encourages her to take a concoction, which not only leads to the complete fading of the birthmark but also her death. Based on the flow of events of the short story, it is arguable that one of the major themes is the conflict between religion and science. Even though God or religion is not mentioned in the story, it is evident that God reigns and His works cannot be overturned using scientific intervention.
As a story of religion, the experiences of Georgiana prove that her birthmark is a decision by God and no one can remove it. God sees Georgiana perfect as she is and this is the reason the attempts made by Aylmer to remove the birthmark even with his experience in science fails. This proves that Georgiana’s birthmark on the face is a mark formed when she was in the womb. This shows that it is not anybody’s creation, but that of God, thus shows the existence of a super being and hence the existence of religion. The birthmark is a completely natural occurrence to show that as an earthly being, Georgiana is an imperfect creation that cannot be compared to those in heaven. Even with the birthmark, God saw Georgiana fit to live as she is. As a result, nobody should see her as unfit to be God’s creation and trying to change her physical looks would mean challenging God, which is not allowed and thus cannot succeed.
On the other hand, as a well-recognized, respected, experienced, and brilliant scientist, Aylmer believes in his experiments to tamper with natural creations. The fact that Aylmer has been successful in changing the natural life cycle of plants “makes him believe that he would be successful in making “the Elixir of Immortality” as well as &...