The Birthmark

Nathaniel Hawthorne was a 19th-century New England writer best known for writing The Scarlet Letter. Many of his works reflect his somewhat Puritan background and are highly moralistic. Hawthorne often holds certain moral values up as exemplary and, at the same time, points out that man is failing miserably in attaining them. In fact, he's often cited as a key player in the "Dark Romanticism" genre, in which man's failures and flaws are examined and criticized. See "Genre" for more on this topic.

"The Birthmark," published in March of 1843 in a literary journal called The Pioneer, is one of Hawthorne's more famous short stories. It tells the story of a scientist who is obsessed with the removal of his wife's birthmark, believing it a sign of her human imperfection. The story raises some interesting questions about what it means to be human, the body vs. the soul, how much science can tell us about the world, how much of nature we can change through science, and perhaps more importantly, whether we should even try to "play God" in this way.

It's probable that "The Birthmark" was significantly influenced by Hawthorne's times. In the mid-1800s, science's star was rising and, most interestingly, seeping into the field of philosophy. A school of thought called Positivism sprang up, which pretty much glorified the scientific method and said the only way we could learn things was through scientific experimentation and careful observation. Out with lofty meta-physics; in with physical observation. Hawthorne's main character Aylmer, in one reading of "The Birthmark," epitomizes this point of view. Whether or not Hawthorne totally rejects Positivism is subject to debate, but he is certainly questioning the validity of such a limited approach to gaining knowledge about our world.