McCauley 1 Helda McCauley Eng Comp 2 Angela Jacobs April 14, 2014 The Obsessive-Compulsive disorder of The Birth-Mark

The Birth-Mark is a short story written by Nathanial Hawthorne, it is about a man name Aylmer and wife Georgina. The story starts out with everything being great until Aylmer starts to show disgust to a birthmark that his wife had on her face. Aylmer tells her that the birth mark is the size of a hand, when in reality the blemish could be covered up with two fingers. Later on we find out that Aylmer is a scientist that would like to remove the blemish from his wifes face no matter what. So he keeps on telling her awful things to the point that she says let attempt be made, at whatever risk and gives in to her husbands constant remarks about the birth mark that she was born with. Finally after everything that Aylmer, but his wife through and the experiments, he was able to remove the birth mark, but he ended up killing his poor wife, Georgina. In the story we notice that Aylmer got really obsessed with his wifes blemish to the point of her death and all he could truly think about was that he could remove it and would be rich. By using a psycho-analytic approach the allegory and symbolism of The Birth-Mark reveals how it all relates to Aylmers obsessive-compulsive disorder. In James Quinn and Ross Baldessarini The Birth-Mark: A Deathmark they state that Aylmer had an obsessive-compulsive neurotic disorder due to the fact that the people that have this disorder suffer an inhibit intolerable anxiety by focusing on an isolated and somewhat

McCauley 2 concrete representation so as to avoid a larger emotional conflict. In the story Aylmer did focus many of his thought and time on the birthmark that his wife had on her face. Many things could be said of what was the larger emotional conflict that Aylmer had in his life because we couldnt really see anything that was not the birthmark. But once you start to look closer at the end of the story, when he finally removes the mark, he says that he would be rich now and famous. Maybe thats why he was obsessed with the mark because he wanted to fill a void in his career that he couldnt do without a wow factor. The article also explains how the birth mark was a symbol to all this obsessive-compulsive neurotic behavior Aylmer was having and how that mark meant more than anyone could ever imagine. Aylmers experienced many changes in the story, especially about the way he could not stop talking about the blemish and why it should be removed, and thats why his wife decided to accept his proposal at the end. When you continue the article, it gives many more reasons why he had this disorder. For instance they also state that due to the disgust that Aylmer had for his wife, they probably never had an intimate relationship with her and instead of seeing her sexuality, all he could see was the birth mark and how disgusted he was by it. In another article that related to The Birth-mark: A Deathmark, would be the The Fatal Hand: A sign of Confusion in Hawthornes The BirthMark by Steven Youra. This article suggests that The Birth-Mark relates the case history of an obsessive personality-man who suffers from the self-created tyrannizing influence acquired by one idea over his mind and for whom a trifling matter soon becomes the central point of all, meaning that Aylmer suffers from his own personality matter and then transfers all of that own disgust of himself to the birth mark that his wife has on her face. This is why the birth mark symbolizes many things that Aylmer himself has wrong, so thats why he believes that by removing the blemish from his wifes face, he himself will feel better. Aylmer probably also

McCauley 3 feels like he will somehow fill the void that he has in his heart and mind. But at the end even with the mark removed and his wife dead, he still feels the same way. The allegory in this story is the love that Georgina feels for Aylmer and also the love that Aylmer as for science. This is so because Georgina as a newlywed and a first time wife loves her husband very much and would do anything to please him. While on the other hand Aylmer when he marries Georgina he takes into accounts the mark on her face then after that instead of just loving her all he can think about is the blemish on her face. The two of these loves end up colliding when Aylmer starts getting to the point of manipulating the women that cares for him deeply with the insults Ah, upon another face perhaps it might; but never on yours (Birth-Mark 291) in this sentence he states that the birthmark would great on anyone but not on her. He starts to treat her this way so he could please his first love which is science. Another allegorical reference in the story would be the way Aylmer always wants to be in control due to the fact that he is the man and he should be the protector, and the one that solves the problems in his relationship. So when he sees the birthmark on his wife Georginas face he presumes that he must solve the problem of the mark and remove it so he can feel manly. Thats when he starts to influence his wife with insults and harsh words but in his mind is a regular conversation between husband and wife. Then Aylmer finally convinces his wife to remove the mark on her face. Once Aylmer removes the mark he is ecstatic due to the fact that he finally fixed the problem of the birthmark and his wife will be perceived as beautiful. But once again he is left manly less because instead of fixing the problem he ends up killing his poor and innocent wife.

McCauley 4 In Conclusion, The Birth-Mark was a story that had many forms such as symbolism, allegory and many more. When you get into the story you can tell from the beginning that Aylmer has something wrong with him thats due to the obsession that he has over the birthmark that his wife on her face. You can tell because all he can think about is the blemish to the point that he starts insult and truly try to find ways to remove it. We start to notice his obsessivecompulsive neurotic disorder and how its an important part of the story.

McCauley 5 Work Cited Baldessarini, Ross, Quinn, James. The Birth-Mark: A Deathmark.Hartford Studies in Literature 13.2 (1981): 91-98.Literary Resources of Gale.Web.27 Mar.2014. Youra, Steven. The Fatal Hand: A Sign of Confusion in Hawthornes The Birth-Mark American Transcendental Quarterly 60 (June 1986):43-51.Literary Resources of Gale.Web.27 Mar.2014 Rosenberg, Liz. The Best That Earth Could Offer. The Birth-Mark, A Newlyweds Story. Studies in Short Fiction 30: 145 Academic Search Complete. Web. 27 Mar 2014 Hawthorne, Nathaniel.The Birth-Mark. The Norton introduction to Literature. JonesRichardson, Spencer. New York. Mays, Kelly.2012. 290-301.Print Howard, Jeffery. Nathaniel Hawthornes The Birth-Mark. The Explicator 70 (2012).Literary Resources. Web. 27 Mar.2014