The_Birthmark

The Birthmark Individualism In the story “The Birthmark” by Nathaniel Hawthorne there is an underlying theme of individualism. The character Aylmer is a scientific person. The fact that the whole story is about removing a physical flaw from Georgiana’s face when she is obviously beautiful demonstrates the degree of individualism between men and women. Men’s lives are public and open to society and the lives of women are private. As the story progresses Aylmer sees the birth mark as progressively more repugnant when he originally found Georgiana beautiful. Aylmer only sees Georgiana’s superficial beauty and no longer sees her for her inner beauty, the beauty of nature. Aylmer is a man, who in his time had a public life. The lives of women were seen differently than the lives of men. Women’s lives tend to be more private. The theme of individualism as is portrayed in “The Birthmark” is much different than today’s. Hawthorne is setting out to warn people that the rules of individualism can be harmful if used irresponsibly. Because Aylmer’s public life is to be seen by all, he is ashamed of the birthmark on his wife’s face. By wanting to remove Georgina’s birthmark he was attempting to redeem hawthorne, aylmer, individualism, public, life, lives, georgiana, private, birthmark, 1963, man, says, nature, human, women, people, even, between, society, own, much, men, however, come, case, work, until, theme, tells, story, self, sees, science, results