The Analysis of Birthmark.doc

The Analysis of “The Birthmark” “ The Birthmark” is a short story from Mosses from an Old Manse. This short text owns Hawthornes typical writing style. For instance, it has only several characters, rich symbolic meanings, the theme of evil and so on. I would try to analyze this text from the following three parts, the traits of characters, the theme, and the symbolic meanings of the birthmark.In “The Birthmark”, the hero Aylmer who is pretty obsessive with science leads to the death of his wife, Georgiana. Although the background of the story is set in the latter part of 18th century, I think what Aylmer represents is those people in 19th century when American industry developed quickly and people worshiped the power of science and technology. Meanwhile, Aylmer is also stubborn and has a strong desire of controlling his wife. The woman character in this story, Georgiana, is a beautiful lady with small imperfection, who depends on Aylmer without her own thoughts. She is obedient to her husband, which also results to her tragedy. As we all know, most of Hawthornes novels deal with the evil. And the origin of evil is peoples soul. Evil is also the centre of “The Birthmark”. We could see the evil clearly from Aylmer, who uses science inappropriately and sacrifices his pretty wife without hesitation in order to prove his scientific hypothesis. Meanwhile, in the process of describing the failure and cruel experiment of Aylmer, we could also see that the negative attitude of Hawthorne to science. Apart from that, it is easy to find that there is a struggle between the spirit and the body. In the text, the author repeatedly refers to this. For example, when introducing the assistant, Aminadab, it writes “he seemed to represent mans physical figure; while Aylmers slender figure, were no less apt a type of the spiritual element”. And at the end of the story, the author writes “ thus ever does the gross fatality of earth exult in its invariable triumph over the immortal essence”. What Hawthorne wants to express is that if you try to destroy a persons flesh endowed by God, you are killing her. Unclasping the firm gripe of that little hand is a dehumanizing process, which is doomed to fail. No matter how intellect you are, there is no way to ruin the precious body. After analyzing the theme, Id like to elucidate the symbolic meanings of the birthmark, the main line of this story. Professor Chang Yaoxin once said in his book A Brief History of American Literature “ Hawthornes eyes were symbolic eyes; his mind worked with the help of signs and symbols. Reading his novels without noticing this feature of his art would be an incomplete experience.” The short story Birthmark completely proves this point. Hawthornes tales are often capable of more than one interpretation, so is “Birthmark”. In the text, Hawthorne has explained it from different aspects. Some Georgianas lovers said that some fairy at her birth hour had laid her tiny hand upon the infants cheek, which added charm to her beauty. Some fastidious persons affirmed that the bloody hand destroyed Georginas beauty. While Aylmer regarded it as the symbol of his wifes liability to sin, sorrow, decay and death. In my opinion, the birthmark represents evil. Evil seems to be mans birthmark. Different from Georgiana, most of peoples evils hind in their hearts. Besides that, there is also another explanation. The birthmark also represents the sentiment and nature of human beings in that it would change colors with the change of Georgianas emotion, turning red or white. For Georgianas other lovers, the mark seems so charming. However, for Aylmer, it seems to be a ugly and scaring monster. This is because he lacks that kind of quality, that is sentiment, and instead he is a cold-blood and rational scientist. The process of taking away the mark is also a struggle between the sentiment and rationality. And in the end, the disappearance of this red mark also implies the vanishing of human beings sentiment. It is a confusing question that exists in Hawthorne generation.All in all, in terms of the themes, the characters, and the symbolic meanings, we can clearly see Hawthornes excellent writing techniques. His evil themes, complicated connotative meanings, detailed psychological description and depiction of dark scenes leave the readers ref