Matthew Baker

Approaches to Literature
Mrs. Thomas
11 February 2012
Did you see it coming?
A brilliant and dedicated scientist and a beautiful wife with a slight imperfection,
Nathaniel Hawthorn tells the fate of the scientists wife in his short storyThe Birthmark. From
the very beginning, the death of Aylmers wife, Georgiana, was evident. Everything from
Aylmers dream, to Georgianas faint at the laboratory, to Aylmers previous experiments hint the
tragic ending. Hawthorn used many different foreshadows to foretell the conclusion, making
Georgianas death no surprise at all.
Dream is first used to bespeak Georgianas death. When Aylmer first told Georgiana
about the birthmark, Georgian grew angry. Over time, Georgiana started to change her mind, and
Aylmers dream finally made her submitted to Aylmers experiment. Aylmer dreamed about the
operation of attempted removal of the birthmark, the deeper went the knife, the deeper sank the
hand, until at length its tiny grasp appeared to have caught hold of Georgianas hears; whence,
however, her husband was inexorably resolved to cut or wrench it away (13). Instead of cutting
away the birthmark, Aylmer cut Georgianas heart and killing her. The dream clearly hints the
attempt of removal of the birthmark will kill Georgiana.
After Georgiana agree to Aylmers operation, her reaction at the first sight of the
laboratory and most of Aylmers previous experiments he showed Georgiana portend the ending.
The moment Aylmer led Georgiana through the door step of the laboratory, Georgiana fainted.

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The faint symbolizes her death. As Georgiana woke up in Aylmers laboratory, Aylmer shows her
a perfect and lovely flower (15). Aylmer explain to her that the flower is perpetuated a race as
ephemeral as itself (15). At the moment she touched the flower, its leaves turned coal-black as
if by the agency of fire (15). The flower symbolizes Georgiana, and predicts her death.
Furthermore, Aylmers metal plate portrait and his poison show Aylmers failure and his
destruction. After the withering of the flower, Aylmer attempted to make a portrait of Georgiana
by striking a polished plate of metal with light. The metal plate blurred into the birthmark and
caused Aylmer to throw it in the acids. The failure of the portrait of Georgiana foreshadows the
failure of the removal of the birth mark, and the destruction of the portrait symbolisms the
destruction of Georgiana. Later, Aylmer started to show Georgiana around the lab, and they came
across the deadly poison that can make a person drop dead in the midst of a breath (17). The
poison furthermore shows the natural of destruction in Aylmers experiments. Georgiana even
asked if he intends to use it on her, and Aylmer responded with your case demands a remedy
that shall go deeper (17). The poison hints that the potion Georgiana drinks will kill her. In
addition, Hawthorne shows us that the experiment is going to fail in Aylmers journal. Although
Georgiana praised Aylmer even more, love him more profoundly than ever (18), she also
noticed that his most splendid successes were almost invariably failures (18). So most likely,
Aylmers next experiment is going to be a failure also.
Surprisingly, all this did not stop Georgiana from submitting to Aylmer, in fact, they made
her trust Aylmer more. Georgiana knew that she is probably going to die, yet she still quaffed
the potion Aylmer brought her. The ending was evident, Georgiana soon died with a content after
she drank the potion. Even Aylmers assistant knew it was going to happen and laughed at the
end.

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The use of foreshadowing gives the short story a feeling like I knew that was going to
happen, and makes the story more enjoyable. Hawthorn used many different events in the short
story to foreshadow the ending, like Aylmers dream and his experiments. As a result of this, the
ending was extremely predictable. In fact, the ending was so predictable and short it was almost
disappointing.