McCauley 1

Helda McCauley Eng Comp 2 Angela Jacobs April 1, 2014

The Obsessive-Compulsive disorder of The Birth-Mark The Birth-Mark written by Nathanial Hawthorne is about a man named Aylmer and his wife Georgiana. When they get married they are happy for a while until Aylmer starts to obese over the birth mark that she was born with on her face. He then decides he wants to remove the birth mark she finally agrees and he then does some many experiments on her that she ends up dying. The way that this story will be is by using a psychoanalytic approach. Due to the fact that the main character Aylmer has obsessive-compulsive disorder and cant stop thinking about the birth mark that his wife has on her face. Hawthorne describes the acts that Aylmer has as obsessive-compulsive symptoms in his neurotic life-style of since. By using a psycho-analytic approach the allegory and symbolism of The Birth-Mark reveals how it all relates to Aylmers obsessive-compulsive disorder. As the authors James Quinn and Ross Baldessarini have said in there article about the Birth-Mark Hawthorne has described his main character as having obsessive-compulsive neurotic disorder. Hawthorne captures the obsessive-compulsive neurotic disorder by showing the obsession that Aylmer has toward the birthmark. He also at the end shows us how happy Aylmer was when he finally was able to remove the birthmark which gave an amazing example of the neurotic side of the obsessive-compulsive disorder. James Quinn, Ross Baldessarini and

McCauley 2 Hawthorne both gave great points towards the symbolism and allegory of the birthmark and how it met everything to Aylmer for his obsession.