Religion and Science in the Birthmark Writing Assignment

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Religion and Science in the Birthmark
“The Birthmark” is a short story by Nathaniel Hawthorne. It was a story that was published in 1843 and has become one of the tantalizing pieces of literature studied today. During this period, the world was experiencing a lot of progress, especially in the realm of science. The story examines how the protagonist, Aylmer, is obsessed with achieving human perfection. Ideally, while there are many themes that seem to stem from the story, the text can also be read as a story of religion, as well as science. For this reason, it is essential to analyze how religion is explored as a way of devotion and purification. In science, the text can be explored as a source of perfecting things and competing with nature.
Religion is explored in “The Birthmark” in the way both Aylmer and Georgina are devoted to the essence of removing the blemish. In most religions, the key to sustaining the faith or beliefs is to remain devoted. Immediately they are married, Aylmer can only see the imperfection on his wife’s cheek and begins a process of thinking, and obsessing on how to remove it. He tells his wife Georgina, “Have you ever considered that the mark upon your cheek might be removed” (Hawthorne)? On Georgina’s part, despite the fact that she was first unwilling to remove the birthmark, she becomes devoted to removing it in order to please her husband. Despite knowing the danger involved, she goes along with the plan to ensure her husband achieves the perfect being he desires. Her devoted to her husband is seen in the way she says, “I will drink whatever you make for me, even if it is a poison” (Hawthorne). They are both dedicated and devoted to get rid of the flaw that is coming in between their marriage and weighing them down.
Religion also manifest in the way that the removal of the birthmark becomes a sign of purification. Ideally, in Christian beliefs, taking of wine as a symbol of the blood of the savior is done as a way of purification from sin. In the last part of the story, Aylmer makes a liquid that he hopes would purify and remove the flaw from Georgina. To test the liquid, he places a drop in the soil of a pot with a dying flo...