The Birthmark Mind Map

"The Birth-Mark" is a horror short story by American author Nathaniel Hawthorne. 'The Birthmark' is allegorical: it is about the hazards of pursuing perfection, particularly human perfection, in all forms, because doing so risks destroying what makes us 'human' in the first place. Aylmer is a brilliant and recognized scientist and philosopher who drops his focus from his career and experiments to marry the beautiful Georgiana. Aylmer becomes unnaturally obsessed with the birthmark on Georgiana's cheek. One night, he dreams of cutting the birthmark out of his wife's cheek (removing it like scraping the skin from an apple) then, realizing that the birthmark is deeper, continuing all the way to her heart. He does not remember this dream until Georgiana asks about what his sleep-talking meant. When Aylmer remembers details of his dream; Georgiana declares that she would rather risk her life having the birthmark removed from her cheek than to continue to endure Aylmer's horror and distress that comes upon him when he sees her. Georgina's birthmark is a 'flaw' that distinguishes her not only as a human, but also as the woman Aylmer married. The birthmark does not become a problem for Aylmer until after he marries her, which is an intentional choice on Hawthorne's part. The birthmark also symbolizes Aylmer's ambition to employ scientific methods.

Edited at 2022-08-23 08:39:51