The Birthmark Summary & Analysis

In the late eighteenth century, a great scientist named Aylmer takes a break from his experiments to marry a beautiful woman named Georgiana. It is a time of many great scientific discoveries, and scientists feel that they’re uncovering all of nature’s mysteries and might soon even be able to create life. Aylmer has devoted his life to his scientific work, and would never leave the world of science. It seems that his love for Georgiana could only ever hope to rival his love of science if these two passions can somehow become connected.

One day soon after Aylmer and Georgiana are married, Aylmer asks his wife if she has ever considered trying to remove the birthmark on her cheek. Georgiana replies that she has not, and admits that she always thought it a “charm” of her appearance. Aylmer, however, tells her that he can’t stand the birthmark because it’s the only imperfect aspect of an otherwise perfect being. Hurt and angry, Georgiana questions why Aylmer agreed to marry her if he felt this way.

The narrator describes the birthmark, which is small, pink, hand-shaped, and located on Georgiana’s left cheek. It becomes less visible when she blushes, but is more visible when she is pale. Georgiana has had many suitors, and they have reacted to the birthmark in different ways. Some of them have yearned to kiss it. Some have speculated that the mark came from a fairy touching Georgiana at the moment of her birth and giving her those most alluring qualities that allowed her to attract so many men. Others have simply wished the birthmark wasn’t there, so a perfect being could exist in the world. Women were the only ones who ever tried to claim that the birthmark actually made Georgiana ugly.

If Georgiana weren’t so perfect in every other way, Aylmer wouldn’t be so bothered by the birthmark. But as time passes, he becomes more and more obsessed with it. He sees it as a manifestation of “the fatal flaw of humanity” that appears in all beings created by nature, marking them as destined for suffering and death. It constantly reminds him that death makes even the most perfect people, such as his wife, no better than the worst people. More personally, he thinks that it’s a symbol of the sins and moral faults that Georgiana possesses simply by virtue of being human.

Whenever the couple should be happy, Aylmer ends up talking about the birthmark, until it becomes the center of their marriage. Whether they’re waking in the morning or sitting around the fire at night, Aylmer always sees the birthmark and remembers that Georgiana is human rather than divine. Georgiana learns to shrink from her husband’s gaze, because he’s always looking at the birthmark with dislike.

One night, Georgiana brings up the birthmark herself for the first time, asking Aylmer if he recalls having a dream about it the night before. At first he doesn’t remember, although he admits that he was thinking about it when he went to sleep. Georgiana tells him that he spoke in his sleep of removing something from her heart. Aylmer finally remembers that he did, in fact, dream that he was trying to operate on the mark, but the further his knife went, the further the mark retreated, until he would have to carve it out of his wife’s heart to remove it.

Aylmer feels bad about the dream, but sometimes sleep brings to the surface feelings that people don’t want to acknowledge they’re experiencing when they’re awake. The dream makes him realize just how much he’s consumed by thoughts of the birthmark. Georgiana asks if it might be possible to remove it, acknowledging that the attempt could be dangerous. Aylmer admits he’s considered this possibility, and he thinks it could be done. Georgiana insists that he try, no matter how dangerous it might be, because the birthmark is ruining her life due to Aylmer’s disgust with it. Aylmer is elated at her willingness and is very confident that he can fix nature’s imperfection, partly because he’s already gotten pretty close to being able to create life through science. He compares his joy at removing the birthmark to that of Pygmalion when the woman he sculpted and fell in love with came to life.

The next day, Aylmer tells Georgiana his plan to bring her to his laboratory, where he can closely monitor her while he treats the birthmark. Over the course of his life, Aylmer has used his laboratory to successfully investigate numerous aspects of nature, including the sky, mines, volcanoes, and springs. He has also tried to discover how nature creates human life, presumably with the goal of creating it himself. However, he gave up on this attempt because nature makes it easy to mess things up, only rarely makes it possible to fix things, and definitely does not allow the creation of life from nothing. Still, to figure out how to remove the birthmark, Aylmer returns to his old pursuits concerning the chemical origins of life.

Aylmer brings Georgiana into his laboratory to begin the treatment. She feels nervous, and Aylmer tries to comfort her, but instead shudders involuntarily when he catches sight of the birthmark. Georgiana faints, and Aylmer calls for Aminadab, his assistant, to help him. Ignorant of all scientific principles, Aminadab is a physically strong, ugly but useful man. He has worked for Aylmer throughout his whole time as a scientist, but he doesn’t understand any of Aylmer’s work and just does what Aylmer tells him. He embodies the earthy, physical counterpart to Aylmer’s spiritual intelligence. Aylmer has Aminadab burn some incense to wake Georgiana from her faint. Seeing her, Aminadab mutters that he wouldn’t do anything to the birthmark if Georgiana were his wife.

Georgiana is awakened by the powerful fragrance in the beautiful room that her husband has prepared for her in his laboratory. Surrounded by curtains, it’s entirely cut off from the rest of the world, and Georgiana almost feels like she might be in an enchanted room in the sky. Aylmer does not allow sunlight into his laboratory because it would ruin his experiments, so he instead uses chemical lamps to light the room. He feels confident that he can keep Georgiana perfectly safe in his lab. When she wakes, it takes Georgiana a moment to remember where she is, and she automatically covers the birthmark with her hand. Aylmer reassures her that he now loves the birthmark because it will be so wonderful to get rid of it.

Georgiana pleads with Aylmer not to look at the birthmark. To cheer her up, he gives her a demonstration of his more elegant scientific abilities. First, Aylmer causes a number of optical illusions, making it look like he is summoning spirits. When Georgiana thinks she might want to see the outside world, he conjures up very realistic images of it within the room. Georgiana is enchanted.

Next, Aylmer presents Georgiana with a pot of dirt. As she watches, a plant sprouts and flowers. Aylmer tells her to pick it and smell its scent, because it will soon die and leave only its seeds to continue its existence on earth. Georgiana tries to pick the flower, but as soon as she touches it, the whole plant turns black and dies. Aylmer says this was the result of overstimulation.

To make up for the plant’s death, Aylmer creates a portrait of Georgiana by a scientific process similar to early photography. However, the image comes out blurry except for the shape of the birthmark, which dominates her cheek. Aylmer hastily destroys the image. He’s embarrassed by these failures.

In between his hours working on the treatment, Aylmer tells Georgiana about alchemy, the early branch of science that sought to turn various materials into gold. He believes this feat is possible, but also that anyone wise enough to achieve it would have too much moral sense to make use of it. Similarly, he thinks that he could create an elixir vitae (also known as an elixir of life—a liquid that would make the drinker immortal), but that to do so would violate nature and result in the drinker’s misery. Georgiana is shocked that he would even consider pursuing this kind of power, but Aylmer reassures her that he would never actually go after these discoveries. In fact, he’s only telling her about them to show that their current experiment with the birthmark is nothing in comparison.

Georgiana hears Aylmer talking to Aminadab in the inner room of the laboratory. When Aylmer emerges again, he directs Georgiana’s attention to his cabinet of scientific wonders, showing her a perfume powerful enough to spread over an entire country. She asks about a vial of beautiful golden liquid that she imagines could be the elixir of life. Aylmer tells her that it’s actually the most powerful poison in the world. He says he could use it to kill a king if he thought it the best course of action for the general populace. Georgiana is horrified, but Aylmer tells her that applied carefully, the poison can also work to remove skin blemishes. However, he won’t use it on his wife because her birthmark requires a solution that will go deeper than the skin.

Throughout their discussions, Aylmer has been asking Georgiana about her physical well-being, and she’s starting to think that he may have already begun treating her through the air or her food. She even thinks she might be feeling some sort of influence on her body that’s making her blood and heart feel odd. But the birthmark doesn’t look any different, and by now she hates it even more than Aylmer does.

While Aylmer works, Georgiana reads the books in his laboratory, which recount the achievements of famous scientists throughout history. These men were far ahead of their times and believed themselves to have gained power over nature and the spiritual world through their studies. They didn’t know where nature would set limits around the power of science. Georgiana is even more interested in Aylmer’s journal of his own experiments. It shows that he sees the physical aspects of science as always having spiritual implications. However, Georgiana discovers that he has failed to achieve most of what he aimed for, defeated by his own earthly imperfections, and the journal is in fact a sad record of human inadequacy. Even so, it makes Georgiana love and respect her husband more than ever.

Aylmer finds Georgiana reading his books and scolds her for it, saying that reading his journal almost makes him go crazy, but Georgiana assures Aylmer that it has only increased her admiration of him. He tells her to suspend judgment until after he has removed the birthmark, when he’ll actually deserve her praise. Aylmer then asks Georgiana to sing for him, which she does, and her singing makes him happy. When he returns to the inner room of his laboratory, Georgiana realizes she forgot to tell him about a strange feeling in the birthmark which has made her restless, so she follows him. She is fascinated by the sight of all the machines and instruments that her husband uses for his experiments, although they make the room far less pleasant than the one where she’s been staying. While he is cheerful enough when in Georgiana’s presence, she notices that here Aylmer is intense and worried as he keeps watch over Aminadab’s work.

When Aylmer catches sight of Georgiana, he gets angry and accuses her of not trusting him. He even suggests that the presence of the birthmark in the room will ruin his work. Georgiana replies that he has deceived her by pretending to be so confident in the treatment when he was actually very worried about it. She tells him that he must be honest with her, for she would do anything he asked of her, even drink poison. Aylmer is impressed, and reveals that he has already been treating the birthmark, but to no avail. There’s only one option left to try, and it could be dangerous. Georgiana retorts that the only danger lies in the continued presence of the birthmark, which would make both of them go mad.

Left alone again, Georgiana thinks about how amazing Aylmer is. She’s overwhelmed at his love and glad that he strives for perfection rather than being happy with something less than what he truly desires, because she thinks this makes his love pure and honest. All she wants is to be able to satisfy him for a single moment, since she knows that as soon as he’s satisfied, he’ll want something even better.

Aylmer enters carrying a glass of colorless liquid, anxious but claiming that the medicine is perfect. Georgiana says if she didn’t have him to think about, she’d probably rather die than live. She feels this way because she has enough moral sense to see her own faults, but not enough strength to fix them, so she simply goes on being unhappy with herself. Aylmer insists she will not die, and to demonstrate the effect of the liquid, he pours it into a plant with blemishes on its leaves, and the leaves become entirely green.

Georgiana says she didn’t need Aylmer to prove the liquid’s effect, because she trusts him completely. She drinks the liquid, pronouncing it delicious and saying that it satisfies a thirst she has felt for days. Then she falls asleep. Aylmer watches her anxiously, observing every little change in his wife and writing them all down in his journal. His entire self-worth is invested in the result of this experiment. Though he doesn’t know why, he kisses the birthmark, but still feels disgusted by it. Georgiana herself seems disturbed in her sleep by his kiss. The birthmark slowly begins to fade, but its disappearance is like “the stain of the rainbow fading out of the sky.” Aylmer is joyous with his success.

Aylmer pulls back a curtain, and sunlight falls on Georgiana’s cheek. He hears Aminadab laughing and congratulates him on their mutual success, saying that earth and heaven worked together to make it happen. Georgiana wakes and sees her reflection in a mirror. She seems glad that the birthmark is fading, but then she starts to look worried. She expresses her pity for Aylmer, and he doesn’t understand why, saying instead that she’s perfect now.

Georgiana tells Aylmer that he has done well to aim so high in his ambitions, even if in doing so he has “rejected the best the earth could offer.” She reveals that she is dying. The birthmark was the only thing keeping her divine spirit connected to a human body, and as the birthmark disappears entirely, her soul goes up to heaven. Aminadab laughs again—earth celebrating its victory over the spiritual. The narrator laments that mortality always triumphs on earth, and if Aylmer could only have taken a broader view of life and time, he wouldn’t have lost his chance at happiness. In fact, his union with Georgiana would even have joined him to a divine being. But he couldn’t appreciate what he had, and so he threw away his best chance at perfection.