The Birthmark Essay: The Theme -- Birthmark Essays

The Birthmark The Theme In Nathaniel Hawthornes tale, The Birthmark, the dominant theme is love conquering self, though there is in any case present the theme of alienation resulting from the evil within mankind. This essay intends to explore, exemplify and develop this topic. Hyatt Waggoner in Nathaniel Hawthorne states Alienation is perhaps the theme he handles with superlative power. Insulation, he sometimes called it which suggests not only isolation just now imperviousness. It is the opposite of that osmosis of being that Warren has written of, that ability to respond and relate to others and the world. . . . it puts one extracurricular the magic circle or the magnetic chain of humanity, where there is neither love nor reality (54). Waggoners theme of alienation does play a part in the tale, but the theme which dominates is that of love conquering self as exemplified in Georgianas growing love for Aylmer. Her love transforms her very soul. Everything he has to say i s related, finally, to that inward sphere (McPherson 68-69). When he desired to build the kingdom of God, he looked for the pattern of it, not in history nor in the fortunes of those about him, but in his own heart (Erskine 180). In the opening paragraph of The Birthmark the narrator introduces Aylmer as a scientist who had made experience of a spiritual phylogenetic relation more attractive than any chemical one. Hawthornes description of the scientists love for Georgiana is apt, for love is just that spiritual. And the theme of this tale is a spiritual one. with the course of the story Aylmer declines spiritually, while Georgiana advances spiritually. Even after Aylmer has persuaded a be... ...John. Nathaniel Hawthorne. In Leading American Novelists. New York Books For Libraries Press, 1968. Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The Birthmark Electronic Text Center, University of Virginia Library http//etext.lib.virginia.edu/etcbin/toccer-new2?id=HawBirt.sgm&images=images/modeng& data=/tex ts/english/modeng/parsed&tag=public&part=1&division=div1 McPherson, Hugo. Hawthornes Use of Mythology. In Readings on Nathaniel Hawthorne, edited by Clarice Swisher. San Diego, CA Greenhaven Press, 1996. Waggoner, Hyatt. Nathaniel Hawthorne. In half a dozen American Novelists of the Nineteenth Century, edited by Richard Foster. Minneapolis University of Minnesota Press, 1968. Williams, Stanley T. Hawthornes Puritan Mind. In Readings on Nathaniel Hawthorne, edited by Clarice Swisher. San Diego, CA Greenhaven Press, 1996.