Characters
Aylmer"The Immortal Essence"
(Hawthorne 431) "The irony of the story is that Aylmer, for all his intellectual and spiritual qualities, does not have wisdom...and therefore he will die without happiness." (Walsh 260)
While the entire focus of the story is on Georgiana's one physical flaw, it is Aylmer who seems to be irreparably flawed. An embodiment of the concept of "playing god" and a man obsessed with attaining divine perfection, he becomes unreasonably fixated on his wife's one apparent imperfection, going so far as unconsciously wanting to kill her just to dispose of it.
Aylmer has been characterized by critics both as a representation of the higher nature of man, the spirit and the divine, and as a representation of ironic imperfection. Hawthorne's narrator, otherwise having a voice of his own, describes him in a strangely reverential manner:"Aylmer's slender figure, and pale, intellectual face, were no less apt a type of the spiritual element" (424). In general, Aylmer and his servant Aminadab act as character foils to each other, with the former representing an ethereal spirituality and the latter embodying human nature and physicality. According to Conor Walsh, "Aylmer, unlike Aminadab, has lost sight of his earthiness...[and] for all his intellectual and spiritual qualities, does not have wisdom" (260). Aylmer has an obsession with perfection and is on a quest for his own divinity; therefore he fails to see that his wife's imperfection is what maintains her humanity, while her humanity is what keeps her alive. In the end, his fixation becomes her death. Liz Rosenberg theorizes that neither ethereal Aylmer, nor his "alter-ego" and "mirror image" earthly Aminadab are entirely evil, since "what is 'bad' in both is their lack of integration" (147). A balance between the spiritual and the material is not attained by either of them, and Aylmer, in particular, is tunnel-visioned on separating the spiritual from the base and obtaining divine perfection. This "fanaticism" for one extreme is what ultimately makes him a failure. "His most splendid successes were almost invariably failures." (Hawthorne 427)
Aylmer's attitude throughout the story is suggestive of a God complex. His quest in life has been to conquer nature, as seen by his experiment with Georgiana and his description of various potions and draughts he has made to beat mortality and imperfection into submission. Aylmer is "an idealist by nature" (Rosenberg 145), hence his relentless pursuit of perfection. However, his own perfection and godlike persona is jeopardized by his egotistical pride, and instead of being deified, "he becomes a Satanic symbol" (Van Winkle 133). His non-acceptance of his own humanity and hunger for an unreachable perfection makes failure inevitable, since his ideal is unattainable.
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Georgiana
"The Best the Earth Could Offer"
(Hawthorne 431) "Georgiana -- associated throughout the story with love, marriage, blood, and the heart." (Rosenberg 147)
One would think that in a story revolving around one woman's birthmark, more insight would be gained into the woman herself; however, that is not the case here. We seem to learn more about Aylmer and his compulsion to remove the birthmark than about Georgiana. From what is seen of her, it apparent that she is very sensitive and rather submissive. In the end, she allows herself to become a human sacrifice for her husband's cult-like practice of science.
As the bearer of the birthmark, Georgiana is the embodiment of human imperfection and mortality, at least in her physical form. Beyond the birthmark, she represents divine perfection, as Aylmer himself goes so far as to say, "There is no taint of imperfection on thy spirit" (430). In Georgiana, therefore, we have some semblance of balance between matter and spirit. Ironically, though, this very balance in her personality proves to be excessive and results in her inevitable demise. Caught at a strange emotional juncture, she can be neither simplistically happy like Aminadab, nor endlessly ambitious like her husband. "Were I weaker and blinder, it might be happiness. Were I stronger, it might be endured hopefully. But, being what I find myself, methinks I am of all mortals the most fit to die." (429)
While Aylmer's fundamental flaw is his excessive pursuit of the spirit and Aminadab is tainted by excessive humanity, Georgiana's ultimate fault is in her excessive emotionality (Rosenberg 147). She is too sensitive to her surroundings, especially to Aylmer's remarks, something that eventually proves fatal. Her distress at Aylmer's disdain of her birthmark is dramatic to the point of seeming unnatural. She goes from considering the mark somewhat charming to crying, fainting, and declaring that it will drive her to madness, based solely on her husband's opinion and attitude.
Rosenberg points out that while Georgiana may be emotional driven and plagued by an overly sensitive heart, she is also the only one seeing things clearly. She is the first one to realize that death is the only solution to the "problem" that is her imperfection; this is apparent from her increasingly morbid speeches as the treatment progresses. "Georgiana differs from Aylmer and Aminadab...in her clear-sightedness...It is Georgiana who proposes the operation, Georgiana who first observes its failure." (Rosenberg 147-8)
Whatever characteristics Georgiana may possess, there is little ambiguity as to what she ultimately is: a wife. At a most fundamental level, Georgiana's character is, in role, really little more than a wife. She embodies all the qualities of the traditional 19th century perfect wife; she is beautiful, compliant, and loving to the point of being worshipful. According to Rosenberg, "[Hawthorne's] women are not mothers but wives, not angels but household saints" (145). Georgiana is just such a saint. Her death is, basically, a martyrdom.
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Aminadab
"The Gross Fatality of Earth"
(Hawthorne 431) "He is basically a good, kind, albeit dumb and harmless figure." (Van Winkle 132)
The strange servant lurking in the background is easily the most peculiar character. We know very little about him, aside from scattered physical descriptions and his one, isolated real line in the entire story: "If she were my wife, I'd never part with that birthmark" (424). With this one odd line and many references to his bulky, "cloddish" frame, Aminadab acts as a character foil to the almost unearthly Aylmer.
His description in the story characterizes him as the earthen nature that counterbalances Aylmer's ethereal nature. While Aylmer is "the spiritual element," Aminadab has an "indescribable earthiness" that reveals "man's physical nature" (424). Aylmer refers to him as a "human machine," a "man of clay" (428), and an "earthly mass" (430), repeatedly highlighting the human baseness of Aminadab. His laugh is "a gross, hoarse chuckle" (430) and his speech involves "harsh, uncouth, misshapen tones" (426). Indeed, it is as if Aminadab is less of a character and more of a caricature of human brutishness. "He embodies man's physical nature in its lowest form." (Rosenberg 146) Much has been said about the name of Aminadab, which can be reversed to read "Bad anima." His name has been analyzed by some to interpret his character as somewhat evil (Van Winkle 132) and by others as noble (Walsh 260; Thompson 414), while yet others dismiss his character entirely. If "anima" is taken to mean "soul," then the name in reverse becomes "bad soul," a label that Van Winkle interprets as being directed more at Aylmer than at Aminadab himself. According to this interpretation, Aylmer is the evil one with a "bad soul" and Aminadab is the earthly vessel through which the evil of his soul is being channeled (Van Winkle 132). "Considering the degree of servitude by which that worthy is bound to the scientist, Aylmer virtually own Aminadab, hence closing the gap between the spiritual (Aylmer's own evil soul) and the physical (Aminadab himself)." (Van Winkle 132)
If we are to take Aminadab as a noble character, however, there is still much supporting evidence. Conor Walsh notes that Aminadab means "my nation is noble" in Hebrew (258), and suggests that while Aylmer lacks the wisdom to accept his humanity, Aminadab is able to do so. While Aylmer fancies himself to be God, his servant "recognizes his origins and his requisite humility in the face of God's will" (Walsh 260). This renders Aminadab wiser and nobler than Aylmer, and sheds light on his earlier quoted comment about Georgiana's birthmark: it is not the utterance of an "easily satisfied" brute, but actually "a remark rooted in compassion" (Thompson 415). |