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 also invest the theme of alienation resulting from the evil within mankind. This es theorize intends to explore, exemplify and develop this topic. Hyatt Waggoner in Nathaniel Hawthorne states Alienation is perhaps the theme he handles with greatest power. Insulation, he sometimes called it which suggests not only isolation but 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 outside the trick circle or the magnetic chain of humanity, where there is neither love nor reality (54). Waggoners theme of alienation does play a embark on 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 is related, fin ally, 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 affinity to a greater extent 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. Through the tier 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=/texts/ side of m eat/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 Six 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.