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Nathaniel Hawthorne and Edgar Allen Poe Formal Summary
Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The Birthmark (Psychological Thriller): A Dark Romantic Story on Obsession with Human Perfection From the Renowned American Author of” The Scarlet Letter,” The House with the Seven Gables” &” Twice-Told Tales”(Including Biography). e-art now, 2015. http://fountainheadpress.com/expandingthearc/assets/hawthornebirthmark.pdf
In a book titled “The Birth – Mark” (Psychological thriller, 2015), Nathaniel Hawthorne analyzes spiritual desires together with human imperfection. Aylmer, a proficient scientist studying natural philosophy, marries a wife by the name of Georgiana. Unlike other women, his beautiful wife has a birthmark on her left cheek, whose drawing resembles a human hand (Hawthorne 11). This birthmark disturbs Aylmer’s mind because he viewed it as a mark that showed visible imperfections. He considered his wife’s birthmark as a connection to sin and sorrow. Aylmer was a spiritual man controlled by his superficial believes. On the contrary, his wife loves this unique birthmark and never thinks of removing it. Therefore, her husband’s concerns anger her leading to her sadness. The author uses Georgiana’s birthmark to represent the imperfections of human beings.
The author dictates that, over time, Aylmer’s obsession with his wife’s obsession increases, which builds on Georgiana’s worries. One night, she overheard her husband talking in a dream where he said, “It is in her heart now so we must have it out.” The following day, he asked him about that dream where Aylmer told him that he had removed that birthmark using a blade, and he had to cut deeper to remover her heart out too (Hawthorne 41). This is the only way Aylmer thought would remove her wife’s impurities and cleanse her soul. Due to increased worry, the author states that Georgiana agrees to release the birthmark without knowing its implications. Afterward, Aylmer took his wife to a laboratory with an apartment where he would conduct some experiments. Aminadab, Aylmer’s assistant, appeared and gave him his opinion on leaving alone the birthmark (Hawthorne 17). Aylmer told Georgiana that if she touches a flower, it will die. While conducting this procedure, Aylmer gave his wife some drugs that led to her fainting.
Further, Aylmer showed her some poison that he would use to remove the poison while stating that this would get deeper, thus cleaning all the imperfections. Aylmer is blinded by the desire for a good future without flaws. Georgiana reads a book that Aylmer wrote on procedures for conducting this experiment, which angers him after finding out. However, Georgiana whispered to Aylmer, “It has led me to worship you more than ever.”As the experiments fail to work, Aylmer is angered by this, which led to his wife, agreeing willingly to go through this treatment (Hawthorne 49). Georgiana is driven by love and trust in her husband, regardless of his religious illusions. The birthmark starts controlling them, thus making them mad. Aylmer gave her a drug, which she took willingly. After seeing this, Aminadab coughs at a distance; Georgiana becomes restless due to these drugs. Aylmer sees his wives birthmark fading away only to realize that she is dying (49). Georgiana tells her husband not to repent but said that his feelings had made him reject the best he would have ever got. Aminadab would be heard laughing at a distance. Aylmer’s desire for a perfect future made him lose his irreplaceable imperfect wife.
Poe, E. A. (2006). The fall of the house of Usher: and other tales. Penguin. https://www.freeclassicebooks.com/Edgar%20Poe/The%20Fall%20of%20the%20House%20of%20Usher.pdf
The tale ‘The Fall of the House of Usher’ possesses the typical features of a Gothic story, the presence of a haunted house, mysterious illness, a dual personality, and a scary landscape. The easily identifiable mysterious elements in the tale make the terror in the story vague. The time and place where the events in the story happened cannot be easily identified (Poe 27). A barren landscape and inclement weather are some of the traditional gothic elements used by the author of the story. The author uses an emotional tone to express guilt, fear, and doom. The narrator reveals himself in a strange haunted house in a state of confusion; he is all by himself. The narrator knows very little of his boyhood best friend Roderick, like the basic fact that he has a twin sister (27). Although Poe has given a precise unfolding of the Gothic tale, he disrupts this standard form with a sudden, unexplainable plan and full of unexpected account of events. In the narrative, the author displays themes of terror, death, and the human mind’s fragility.
Destruction of the human body is symbolized by the presence of a mysterious and capacious house. Poe initiates by creating a horrifying mood, and immediately we are entrapped; we feel confined within the boundaries of the House of Usher (Poe 31). There is a raging storm on the outside, and inside the castle, there are strange rooms where windows suddenly burst open, candles blow off, moaning and creaking sounds take over, and a living corpse of Lady Madeline is seen. These are the trappings meant to create a gothic mood (Poe 43). In this tale, a sensation of claustrophobia is created by the author. Until he collapses The House of Usher, the narrator cannot escape Roderick’s attraction. Its structure restricts the character’s movements and actions. Therefore, it inherits its mastermind’s monstrous character to control the inhabitant’s fate (43). By doubling the structural House of Usher with the blood family of Usher, the narrator creates a state of confusion between the living and animated things.
Characters are spread metaphorically by the confined and cramped setting of the burial tomb. Due to the likeness of the twins, their development cannot be as those of free individuals. Owing to her similarity to her twin brother Roderick, Madeline is buried even before her death occurs. She felt as if her brother’s coffin carried her own identity. Like any other woman in the 19th-century literature, Madeline undergoes a typical woman (Poe 57). As Roderick possesses intellectual powers, her sister invests her identity in her physical appearance. Additionally, Madeline is a powerful character in the tale, seen as superhuman at some point when she storms out of her tomb. Some scholars have argued Madeline’s existence but, instead, term her as a figment shared between Roderick and the narrator (Poe 71). But Madeline has proved herself to be the center of the tale. She suppresses Roderick by disrupting him from thinking as an independent individual and completes the provocation where she kills him as the story ends.
This literature review entails numerous illusions, including “Mad Trist” and “The Haunted Palace” poems. These poems predict the unfolding of the tale “The Fall of the House of Usher.” The sad sensation brought about by the scary landscape around Usher’s castle is compared to the illness caused by the opiate addiction withdrawal symptoms. An “irreclaimable eater of opium” is how the narrator describes Roderick Usher’s appearance. In his narrative, Poe displays the supernatural to be evil and also associates it with insanity.
Works Cited
Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The Birthmark (Psychological Thriller): A Dark Romantic Story on Obsession with Human Perfection From the Renowned American Author of” The Scarlet Letter”,” The House with the Seven Gables,” &” Twice-Told Tales”(Including Biography). e-art now, 2015. http://fountainheadpress.com/expandingthearc/assets/hawthornebirthmark.pdf
Poe, E. A. (2006). The fall of the house of Usher: and other tales. Penguin. https://www.freeclassicebooks.com/Edgar%20Poe/The%20Fall%20of%20the%20House%20of%20Usher.pdf