In this way, “The Birthmark” is a parable; it uses a very specific situation with very specific characters to make a much broader moral point.

Dark Romanticism is a literary subgenre of Romanticism, reflecting popular fascination with the irrational, the demonic and the grotesque. Often conflated with Gothicism, it has shadowed the euphoric Romantic movement ever since its 18th-century beginnings.

Aminadab. Aylmer’s assistant. A hulking, strong, grubby man, Aminadab is an able helper but simultaneously disgusted by Aylmer’s desire to erase Georgiana’s birthmark. Because Aminadab represents the physical side of existence, his disgust is a strong indictment of Aylmer.

The action takes place in the late 1700s at an unidentified location in Britain. Aylmer: Scientist recognized throughout Europe for his breakthrough achievements. He marries an extraordinarily beautiful woman whose only flaw is a tiny birthmark on her cheek.

In addition to being a critical plot device, Georgiana’s hand-shaped, pink birthmark is the story’s most thematically rich symbol. Because the birthmark is Georgiana’s singular physical blemish, Aylmer considers it a “sole token of human imperfection” (Hawthorne 165).

Although every other man she has encountered has swooned over her beauty and many would risk death for the privilege of touching her birthmark, Georgiana cares only about Aylmer’s opinion of her. Because he is horrified by her appearance, she discards years of praise and becomes disgusted with herself.

1. Why did Aylmer marry Georgiana if he hated the birthmark so much? His real motives were to rid Georgiana of her imperfections to make her perfect, given that the birthmark represented human imperfection. The obvious would be to make the birthmark that he dislikes greatly on his wife’s face disappear.

Although she is very beautiful and much admired by men, she has a small, reddish, hand-shaped birthmark on her left cheek. Ultimately, she dies when the birthmark disappears because it was the only imperfect part of her, and thus her only link to the mortal world.

Aylmer reasons that the birthmark is Nature’s way of showing Georgiana’s mortality and necessary humanity. He wants to remove the mark, then, not because he doesn’t like the way she looks, but because of what the symbol represents to him (see “Symbols, Imagery, Allegory”).

Why was Aylmer so disturbed by the birthmark, when others considered it a “charm”? He was so disturbed by the birthmark because he wanted his wife to be perfect, and that birthmark ruined her perfection (from the point of view of Aylmer).