Customer Reviews

The Birthmark

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"The Birthmark" is one of Nathaniel Hawthorne's best short stories. Hawthorne is not the easiest writer for current readers to get into; his style is somewhat antiquated, and he has a wealth of historical and literary references. However, the "The Birthmark" is so good that this is soon gotten over, and we are engrossed in the mesmerizing story. Like virtually everything he wrote, it is allegorical, though far less ambiguously than most of his work. Hawthorne's deep pessimism comes to the fore as he vividly reminds us of perfection's impossibility on the one hand and our apparent inability to realize this on the other. Skillfully playing on a myth at least as old as Pygmalion, he shows how we cannot be satisfied with the near-perfect and how we often ruin things by trying to make the final improvement without which we should have been easily satisfied. The story also paints a grim picture of love and human relations generally and chides us for focusing on the superficial and failing to properly prioritize. Hawthorne, along with disciple Melville, was distinctly ahead of his time in using heavy allegories, and this is one of his best. The story is worth buying alone but is widely anthologized, making a standalone hard to justify. However, the important thing is to read it in some form.

A tale of a brilliant doctor/scientist who is newly married to a woman who is perfect, almost. His quest to "cure" her of a birthmark leads to a predictable end, and is a forceful commentary on society and the concept of beauty being more than skin deep.

I would highly recommend this book, because I personally analyze it, and I know it has deep meanings that will change your perspective in life. I did it for a project so I had to deeply analyze it. The Birthmark examines the obsession of human perfection. Georgiana, the beautiful woman in the story has a single hand-shaped birthmark on her cheek. Men are invariably attracted to Georgiana, and many find the birthmark attractive. However, her husband Aylmer, a scientist, is revolted at the sight of the birthmark. Eventually Georgiana comes to share his obsession, and the couple decides to try to remove the birthmark. Aylmer takes Georgiana to his laboratory, where he is assisted by his assistant Aminadab.
However, the theme is a bit clichéd, but this story changes it up a bit and makes the theme more meaningful than other books do.