Jennifer Roche

Dr. Deborah Lawrence

English 571: Nathaniel Hawthorne

13 December 2001

Tainted Women: Hawthorne’s Hester and Georgiana as Victims in a Male Society

            In many of his works, Nathaniel Hawthorne critiques social injustice done to women. One issue that surfaces in the novel The Scarlet Letter , and in his short story “ The Birthmark” is the persecution of women. In each of these cases, Hawthorne chooses a female protagonist whom he brands physically with a mark to remind the reader that she is the persecuted. In the 1843 short story “ The Birthmark” and his 1850 novel, The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne physically brands his female protagonists as a symbolic representation of their feminine flaws, which lead to their persecution, meanwhile, their male counterparts go unpunished by society, but not by the wrath of God.

           In order to understand the persecution of these women one must understand the cultural beliefs of the period. Hawthorne sets “ The Birthmark” in the late eighteenth century and The Scarlet Letter in the seventeenth century, a time during which women were often viewed as properties rather than people. Women were give little or no rights; and viewed like all other possessions as property of their husbands. According to Carol Berkin in her 1996 book, First Generations: Women in Colonial America, women possessed few rights in the church and even those few rights they possessed were ambiguously defined by the Puritans.

A constellation of social problems arose from Puritan theology.  The New England Puritans proclaimed the possibility of salvation equally for men and women, yet the radical implications of this theology—a critique of political and social inequality by either gender or class—were never acknowledged by Puritan religious or civic leaders. In fact, the Puritan colonies political participation was not expanded but restricted; to the criterion of property ownership, John Winthrop’s government added the requirement of full membership, rather than simple attendance, in the church. Yet women’s ‘sainthood’, as individual salvation was officially called, did not confer political rights. Second, women’s participation within the church was defined ambiguously. Women were enjoyed to silence, during all worship services, although the same Gospel of St. Paul that justified this restriction also encouraged women to read the Bible and to teach others its words. […] During the seventeenth century, women challenged Puritanism to challenge these issues, sometimes consciously and sometimes unintentionally, through their actions (37).

            The Puritan Church defined the roles of women, which often involved restricting the limited freedom women possessed. If the New England Puritans claimed the possibility of salvation for both men and women, then theologically men and women should be subjected to the same laws. However, the persecution and punishment for women was more severe. Women who challenged these roles often forced to leave the community. For example, Anne Hutchinson (1591-1643) openly challenged the authority of the Puritan Church and was excommunicated and banished from her community. “ In the meetings at her home, Anne Hutchinson challenged the authority of many of the colony’s ministers and questioned whether they were indeed saved,” (Treckel, 169). Hawthorne clearly admired strong women, even going so far as to use Anne Hutchinson as a model for Hester Prynne in his novel, The Scarlet Letter. In his article “ The Footsteps of Anne Hutchinson,” critic Michael J. Colacurcio states:

Like Ann Hutchinson, Hester Prynne is an extraordinary woman who falls afoul of a theocratic and male-dominated society; and the problems of which cause them to be singled out for exemplary punishment, both begin in a special sort of relationship with a pastor who is one of the acknowledged intellectual and spiritual leaders of that society (Beatty ed., 215).

Both Anne Hutchinson and Hester Prynne are punished harshly by the Puritans who deem them sinners; they are cast out of their communities. However, unlike Anne Hutchinson, the community forces Hester to were a badge of her shame as a constant reminder of the sin that she has brought on the community, herself, and her daughter, Pearl. “ Publicly branded as an adulteress, Hester, lives on the ‘outskirts’ of the Puritan settlement, indeed on the ‘frontier’ of civilization (87); thus liminally situated, Hester is represented as a spectral being, her insubstantial material presence figuring her exclusion from the ‘sphere of human charities’ and the social network of sympathetic vision centered in domesticity” (Merish, 174). The isolation Hester experiences from the Puritan community stem from the great sin that she has committed and the brand, which she now wears on her dress.

          From the beginning of the novel, Hawthorne makes his audience keenly aware of the injustice, by the Puritans, inflicted upon Hester and her infant. In chapter two of the novel, entitled “ The Marketplace”, Hawthorne gives specific examples of the cruel publicly enacted punishments the Puritan inflicted on sinners. Hawthorne’s setting, of the marketplace becomes the scene at which sinners are reprimanded.

But in that early severity of the Puritan character, an inference of this kind could not so subtly be drawn. It might be that a sluggish bond-servant, or an undutiful child, whom his parents had given over to civil authority, was to be corrected at the whipping-post. It might be, that an Antinomian, a Quaker, or other heterodox religionist, was to be scourged out of town, or an idle and vagrant Indian, whom the white man’s fire water had made riotous about the streets, was to be driven with stripes into the shadow of the forest. It might be, too, that a witch, like old Mistress Hibbens, the bitter-tempered widow of the magistrate, was to die upon the gallows. In either case, there was very much the same solemnity of demeanour on the part of the spectators; as befitted a people amongst whom religion and law were almost identical, and in whose character both were so thoroughly interfused, that the mildest and the severest acts of public discipline were alike and made venerable and aweful (Hawthorne, 36).

            Hawthorne draws his Puritan society from historical accounts of life in Puritan New England during the seventeenth century. In The Scarlet Letter , Hawthorne focuses on the punishment handed down to Hester Prynne for her sin of adultery. Like all great authors of historical fiction, Hawthorne did his homework, borrowing historical documents on the history of Salem. Phillip Young, in his book Hawthorne’s Secret: An Un-Told Tale , uncovers a scandal occurring among Hawthorne’s Puritan ancestors, in which the culprits were punished, in a manner like Hester Prynne.  In a book review featured in The New Republic , author Malcolm Cowley, describes the scandal upon which Hawthorne based his punishment of Hester Prynne.

It goes back to the years 1680 and 1681. Two sisters, Anstice and Margaret Manning, were convicted of ‘incestuous carriage with their brother Nicholas Manning who is fled or out of the way.’ They were sentenced ‘to be ‘whipt upon the Naked body at Ipswich, & that the next Lecture day at Salem then shall stand or sitt upon an high stoole during the whole time of the Exercise in the open middle ally of the meeting house with a paper upon each of their heads, written in Capital Letters This is for whorrish carriage with mt naturall Brother.”  A Massachusetts law passed a dozen year later would also have condemned them to wear “ a capital I, two inches long of a proportionable bigness, cut in a clothe of contrary color to their cloathes” (78).

            The sisters were condemned to the same punishment inflicted upon Hester Prynne by her Puritan community. Like Anistice and Margaret Manning, Hester must be reminded of her sin every day. One of the first punishments inflicted upon Hester Prynne, like Anistice and Margaret Manning, is the brand that she must wear on her dress. Hester must wear the scarlet letter, as a constant reminder to herself and the community of her great sin. Furthermore, like the Manning women, Hester must publicly stand before the town at noon every day; as a reminder to public of her character flaw. She must stand on the scaffold daily with her daughter, Pearl, in front of the community.

When the young woman — the mother of this child — stood fully revealed before the crowd, it seemed to be her first impulse to clasp the infant closely to her bosom; not so much by any impulse of motherly affection, as that she might thereby conceal a certain token, which was wrought or fastened into her dress. In a moment, however, wisely judging that one token of her shame would poorly serve to hide another, she took the baby on her arm, and with a burning blush, and yet a haughty smile, and a glance that would not be abashed, looked around at her townspeople and her neighbours. On the breast of her gown, in fine red cloth, surrounded with an elaborate embroidery and fantastic flourishes of gold thread, appeared the letter A. (In Ed. Beatty etc., 39)

            Hester’s ‘scarlet letter functions to remind her and those in her community of her sin, and to humiliate her for her lack in conscious. Her cheeks glow with a ‘burning blush’ showing that Hester feels embarrassed rather than ashamed for the crime of adultery. However, Hester cannot ignore the laws of her community and will suffer to wear the ‘A’ for the remainder of her days. A spectator in the crowd criticizes Hester’s pride at her needlework for the intricate detail, which she has given to her badge of shame. ‘She hath good skill at he needle, that’s certain,’ remarked one of the female spectators;’ but did ever a woman, before this brazen hussy, contrive such a way of showing it! Why, gossips, what is it but to laugh in the faces of our godly magistrates, and making a pride of what they, worthy gentlemen, meant for a punishment?’ (40). The town Gossips criticize the magistrates for their lax punishment of Hester Prynne. However, what options does Hester have other than to put on a brave face? The answer is none. She cannot run away from her crime, but must suffer the punishment deemed appropriate.

            However, Hester suffers under the heavy weight of the letter on her breast, but does not allow her pain to show. Hawthorne makes Hester’s suffering visible through her daily life, rather than having Hester tell the audience, herself that she is miserable. Hawthorne brings this injustice to the reader. According to the nineteenth-century critic, David Masson:

The misery of the woman is as present in every page as the heading in which the title symbolizes her punishment. Her terrors concerning her strange elvish child present retribution in a form which is new and natural:-- her slow and painful purification through repentance is crowned by no perfect happiness, such as awaits the decline of those who have no dark and bitter past to remember (634).

The scarlet letter reminds Hester Prynne of her sin, daily; she must constantly wear the badge, which marks her as a sinner. However, Hester’s strong character allows her to make it through her difficult punishment, whereas a lesser woman might have crumbled, or like Arthur Dimmsdale, the secret sinner who is forced to carry his burden alone, and suffers internally for his guilt. In contrast to Dimmsdale’s suffering, Hawthorne uses Hester’s suffering as a tool for personal growth. She suffers perhaps the most at the hands of Roger Chillingswoth (Prynne). When Hester first encounters her husband in the jail, where he has presented himself as a physician to minister aide to the prisoner and her infant. “ As he spoke, he lay his long forefinger on the scarlet letter, which forthwith seemed to scorch into Hester’s breast, as if it had been red hot,” (52). The suffering inflicted on Hester by Chillingsworth brings the young woman physical pain; rather than the mental anguish, which Dimmsdale suffers at the prodding of Chillingsworth and his own cowardice. Hester’s scarlet letter becomes the source of her torment, not only by Chillingsworth, but even by her own daughter, Pearl.

            Pearl becomes a constant reminder to Hester of her sin, not only in her existence but also in her actions. The child also becomes a badge of her mother’s sin. Pearl possesses an unearthly quality, which perplexes and bewilders Hester, and therefore the child becomes a reminder, like the ‘A’, of Hester’s sin. Pearl, like Hester’s badge of shame, possesses the same unearthly qualities.

Man had marked this woman’s sin by a scarlet letter, which had such a potent and disastrous efficacy that no human sympathy could reach her, save it were sinful like herself. God, as a direct consequence of the sin which man thus punished, had given her a lovely child, whose place was on that same dishonored bosom, to connect her parent forever with the race and descent of mortals, and to finally a blessed soul in Heaven (62).

            Pearl, like Hester’s letter, is beautiful and possesses unnatural qualities. In fact, like the scarlet letter itself, Hawthorne marks Pearl with the same scarlet coloration as the letter, thus making Pearl the embodiment of the scarlet letter. “ Throughout all, however, there was a trait of passion, a certain depth of hue, which she never lost; and if, in nay of her changes, she had grown fainter or paler she would have ceased to be herself; — it would no longer have been Pearl” (62). Pearl is marked by the scarlet hue of her skin, the same way in which Hester is ‘marked’ by the scarlet letter.

            Pearl embodies the qualities of the ‘scarlet letter’. According to nineteenth-century critic George Ripley, “ Pearl, a creation of a different order, but of no less originality and power, gleams in a fairy brightness through the sombre scenes of the narrative, surpassing in artistic harmony, and in mystic, thrilling grace, the similar productions of Goethe and Scott” (2).  It was her mother’s passion, which brought Pearl into the world. Pearl, therefore, becomes the personification of the scarlet letter. The child, like the letter, torments Hester. Daily, Pearl reminds Hester of the great sin she has committed. “ Pearl was a born outcast of the infantile world. An imp of evil, emblem and product of sin, she had no right to be among christened infants” (65). The child symbolizes Hester’s sin, in the same way that the ‘A’ does which marks her breast. And, like the letter, Pearl comes to recognize the power which the letter has over her mother’s life.

            Pearl recognizes the power that the letter has over her mother at a very young age. “ But that first object of which Pearl became aware was — shall we say it? — the scarlet letter on Hester’s bosom!” Even in he childhood, Pearl connects with the power the letter has over her mother, and she exhibits the same characteristics. She desires to physically connect to the mark, which bears the story of her existence.“ One day, as her mother stood over the cradle, the infant’s eyes had been caught by the glimmering of the gold embroidery about the letter; and putting up her little hand, she grasp at it, smiling, not doubtfully, but with a decided gleam that gave her face the look of a much older child ” (67). Pearl’s inevitable connection to her mother’s symbol of sin occurs very early in the child’s life. She recognizes the extraordinary hold that this token has over her mother’s life, and the extent to which it rules her own life.

            Pearl resents the isolation she has felt as a result of her mother’s sin, and therefore resolves to remind Hester daily, what her sin has cost the child. And while her actions seem innocent at first, Pearl clearly resents the control Hester’s ‘scarlet’ letter has ad over both of their lives. “ In the afternoon of a certain summer’s day, after Pearl grew big enough to run about, she amused herself with gathering handfuls of wild-flowers, and flinging them, one by one at her mother’s bosom; dancing up and down, like a little elf, whenever she hit the scarlet letter” (68). Pearl delights in tormenting her mother at the cost of the brand she wears on her breast.

            In chapter ten of the novel, “ Hester and Pearl”, Pearl probes further into the meaning of the token her mother wears. When Pearl and Hester are down by the seaside, Pearl chooses to fashion her own letter out of seaweed.

Her final employment was to gather sea-weed, of various kinds, and make herself a scarf, or a mantle, and a head-dress, and thus assume the aspect of a little mermaid. She inherited her mother’s gift for devising drapery and costume. As the last touch on her mermaid’s garb, Pearl took some eel grass, and imitated as best she could, on her own bosom, the decoration with which she was so familiar on her mother’s. A letter — the letter A, — but freshly green, instead of scarlet! The child bent her chin upon her breast, and contemplated this device with strange interest; even as if the one only thing for which she had been sent into this world was to make out its hidden import (121).

            Pearl cannot comprehend the strange power, which this token has over her mother, and yet she chooses to emulate her mother to add to her anguish. In her childish play, Pearl cannot comprehend the effect, which her actions have on Hester. And yet, Pearl also recognizes that the letter controls certain aspects of her own life as well. By fashioning her own ‘A’, Pearl establishes a connection with the natural world, rather than the world of the Puritans, in which her mother lives.

            Both Hester and Pearl bear a mark which brand them members of a society, outside that which they live. Like, Hester and Pearl, Hawthorne further examines the effect a physical brand has on other women. In his short story, “ The Birth Mark”, Hawthorne inflicts a physical brand on his heroine, Georgianna. It is this birthmark, like Hester’s ‘A’, which causes Georgianna great personal affliction at the hands of some one she loves.

Like The Scarlet Letter, the subject of “ The Birth-Mark” (1843) focuses on the physical brand, which the female protagonist, Georgianna bears on her cheek. Georgianna’s birthmark represents her one physical flaw. Where Hester Prynne’s one flaw was her lust, Georgianna’s ‘flaw’ is her physical imperfection, perceivable only by her husband. And like The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne’s short story also has roots in history. According to Alfred S. Reid in his article, “ Hawthorne’s Humanism: ‘The Birthmark and Sir Kenelm Digby’, in many cases Hawthorne drew story ideas from historical events. Allegedly, Digby killed his wife under similar circumstances to which Aylmer kills Georgiana. “ The most intriguing incident in Digby’s life coincides with the central incident in “ The Birthmark”. Like Hawthorne’s Aylmer, who accidentally killed his wife under similar circumstances” (337). Clearly, Hawthorne took great care to make sure his facts were accurate.

In each of these stories, Hawthorne draws his examples from historical situations. However, where The Scarlet Letter  focuses specifically on the punishment of an individual for a crime, “ The Birthmark” focuses on scientific elements and occurrences in history. Unlike, The Scarlet Letter, the focus of “ The Birthmark” is specifically the ‘flaw’ on the cheek of Georgianna. However, unlike, Hester’s mark, Georgiana’s birthmark becomes the focal point of the narrative.  According to author Allison Easton in her 1996 book, The Making of the Hawthorne Subject:

The tale takes the symbol itself as its subject: Aylmer failed to treat the birthmark as a sufficient symbolic expression of a nonphysical part of the human subject. Further making for a more achieved tale. Georgiana is a more fully realized character, no mere ‘ideal of gentle womanhood’ (10:270). She does submit her will and her body to her husband, but only out of despairing desire for a love conditional on her physical perfection (143).

            While both The Scarlet Letter and “ The Birth Mark” examine persecution as a result of a brand on the female characters, “ The Birth Mark” focuses specifically on the ‘mark’ itself. The symbol of the birthmark on his wife’s cheek serves as a mark of her physical imperfection.  Alymer becomes obsessed with the removal of his wife’s birthmark, in the same way that Chillingsworth becomes obsessed with exposing the identity of Pearl’s father. Again, the female falls victim to the male Puritan obsession.

            However, while Georgianna’s birthmark represents only a problem to her husband Aylmer, Georgianna willingly submits to her husband’s desires regarding her physical appearance. According to Cindy Weinstein, “ In this story a husband sacrifices his wife’s life for the sake of erasing a birth-mark, which he feels to be the only thing standing between her and perfection” (46). Like Hester’s scarlet “A”, Georgianna’s birthmark flaws her ideal of Puritan femininity. Georgianna no longer represents the “ideal, stainless” Puritan.

            However, from the beginning of the story, the first ‘stain’ Hawthorne addresses is not the birthmark, on Georgianna’s cheek, instead it is Aylmer’s stain that Hawthorne’ first chooses to show. Aylmer fails to realize his own imperfections, which is why Hawthorne points them out so clearly to us. “ He had left the care of his laboratory to an assistant, cleared his fine countenance from the furnace smoke, washed the stain of acid from his fingers, and persuaded a beautiful woman to become his wife” (203). From the beginning of the story, Hawthorne makes readers keenly aware that Aylmer’s ‘stain’, while it can be washed away is any even greater ‘stain’ on his soul rather than Georgianna’s birth-mark, or even Hester Prynne’s ‘scarlet letter’. But from the moment their marriage begins, Aylmer becomes obsessed, like Chillingworth at the cause and removal of his wife’s ‘stain’.

To explain this conversation, it must be mentioned, that in the center of Georgianna’s left cheek there was a singular mark, deeply interwoven, as it were, with the texture and substance of her face. In the usual state of her complexion — a healthy though delicate  bloom — the mark wore a tint of deeper crimson, which imperfectly defined its shape amid the surrounding rosiness. When she blushed, it gradually became more distinct, and finally vanished amid the triumphant rush of blood that bathed the whole cheek with its brilliant glow. But, if any shifting motion caused her to turn pale, there was the mark again, a crimson stain upon the snow, in what Aylmer sometimes deemed an almost fearful distinctness. Its shape bore not a little similarity to the human hand, though of the smallest pygmy size (204). 

The birthmark changes with Georgianna’s emotional states, just as Hester’s scarlet letter was brought about by an extreme act of passion. Georgiannna’s birthmark flushes crimson, each time she blushes or pales when she faints. When she experiences an extreme emotion, Georgianna’s birth-mark changes. While Hester’s scarlet letter does not change, it too, is a reminder of all of the passionate and extreme emotions she feels which must be suppressed by the Puritan society. 

However, Georgianna’s birthmark evokes awe and wonderment in other men. In fact, she tells Aylmer that other men have considered the birthmark a charm. These other men have told his wife that they heighten and enhance her beauty. Georgianna’s brand evokes lust and wonderment in men other than her husband. “ Georgianna’s lovers were wont to say that some fairy at her birth hour had laid her tiny hand upon the infant’s cheek, and left this impress there in token of the magic endowments that were to give her such a sway over all hearts” (204). The source of Aylmer’s anguish evokes lust in other men, the same sin, which caused Hester Prynne so much heartache. 

            And while Georgianna never indulges in an act of adultery with other men in the story, the birthmark, perhaps evokes fears in Aylmer that his wife will one day be unfaithful to him, like Hester was to Roger. As a result, Aylmer persecutes his wife with his gazes and his insinuations regarding his wife’s physical flaw. “ Masculine observes, if the mark did not heighten their admiration, contended themselves with wising it away, that the world might possess one living specimen of ideal loveliness without the semblance of a flaw. After his marriage — for he thought little or nothing of the matter before — Aylmer discovered this was the case with himself” (205). Before his marriage to Georgianna, Aylmer saw nothing but her physical perfection. However, after they have been married for sometime, Aylmer cannot help but notice this time imperfection in his once perfect wife. Therefore, this tiny imperfection becomes, the scarlet letter, an imperfection meant to be corrected. Therefore, Aylmer sets out to alleviate the cause of his own torment. “ In each of these stories [“ The Birthmark” and “ Rappacini’s Daughter”] it is a lovely woman whose physical body bears the intolerable flaw…” (Cassill 1). Both Hester and Georgianna physically bear a mark of imperfection, which lead to their expulsion from society.

            And while Cassill’s remarks do not specifically apply to The Scarlet Letter, so to does Hester’s mark represent a physical flaw. Hester’s flaw, the sin of adultery, is presented in a more specific context than the meaning behind Georgianna’s birthmark. Georgianna’s imperfection produces a similar effect to Hester’s ‘scarlet’ letter, causing her to be shunned by the society of her marital life. Aylmer fails to see anything beyond the brand of imperfection on his wife’s face.

With the morning twilight, Aylmer opened his eyes upon his wife’s face and recognized the symbol of imperfection; and when they sat together at the evening hearth, his eyes wandered stealthily to her cheek, and beheld, flickering with the blaze of the wood fire, the spectral hand that wrote morality where he would fain have worshipped. Georgianna soon learned to shudder at his gaze (206).

            Much in the same way the townsfolk view Hester Prynne, Georgianna becomes an object to be stared at. The fatal mark of these two women causes them great personal discomfort in the places, where they are supposed to feel the most secure. In the same way, Hester Prynne no longer fits in amongst the townspeople, Georgianna becomes persecuted in her own home and by her husband no less. Gerogianna suffers at the hands of her husband, not so much by physical anguish, she suffers from mental anguish similar to the pain experienced by Hester Prynne. Each time Aylmer looks at his wife, Georgianna cannot help but think of her husband’s fixation with the birthmark.

            Aylmer views Geogianna’s birth mark as a stain on her character, that she is perhaps no longer pure. Like Hester Prynne’s “A”, the birthmark on Georgiana’s face arouses suspicion in Aylmer. As stated earlier, Georgianna informs her husband that her previous male lovers saw the birthmark as a charm, the gift of fairies. However, what Aylmer refuses to acknowledge are his own stains, which can be washed away only to resurface again later. According to author Cindy Weinstein:

We first encounter Aylmer departing from one physical space to another; he is leaving his laboratory for the charms of a domestic life with Georgiana. In order to accomplish this transition, he has ‘cleared his fine countenance from the furnace-smoke [and] washed the acids from his fingers”. Offering himself as a blank slate to Georgiana, however, does not guarantee that she will respond in kind, and in the fact he finds upon Georgiana’s countenance precisely those stains (in the shape of fingers that go into forming the hand of the birthmark) that he has washed from his own body (47). 

            Aylmer washes his stain away vainly thinking that the same action will provide him with the alleviation of ‘that odious hand’ which marks his wife’s ‘fine countenance’, He believes that if he can remove his own stain, that he will be able to purify his wife’s stain as well. Furthermore, as a man of science like Chillingworth, Aylmer believes that there must be some scientific or reasonable way to find and eliminate the problem. And because, Aylmer can wash away his own stains, scientifically he feels that he can do the same for his wife. However, like Chillingworth, Aylmer mistrusts his wife in his laboratory and ushers her away to another room. ‘Why do you come hither? Have you no trust in your husband?’ cried he, impetuously. ‘Would you throw the blight of that fatal birthmark over my labors? It is not well done. Go, prying woman, go! (216). Aylmer mistrusts his wife, in the same way in which Chillingworth mistrusts Hester Prynne. Both men become suspicious of their wives, who have the fatal mark. Aylmer mistrusts Georgiana around his scientific devices and in his laboratory, perhaps because he believes that the birthmark is more than simply a superficial mark. Cindy Weinstein states:

When he first discovers her presence, ‘he rushed towards her, and seized her arm with a grip that left the print of his fingers upon it’ (p.51). This passage suggests Aylmer’s desire to erase Georgiana’s finger-like birthmark becomes more and more compulsive, he cannot help but inscribe even more fingers upon Georgiana’s body and his own, such as when he tells Georgiana that her ‘Crimson Hand’ had ‘taken a pretty firm hold of [his] fancy (49).

Aylmer believes that his wife’s birthmark possesses a control over his wife that  he can never have. When Aylmer grips his wife’s arm, leaving the imprints of his fingers on his wife, he is in fact staining her. Instead, Aylmer controls his wife, in this instance. Like the physical grip Alymer has on his wife in this instance, Aylmer believes that this birthmark has a grip on his wife that he is unable to comprehend. 

            Aylmer believes that the birthmark possesses some amount of control over his wife.  And Georgianna, not wishing to disappoint her husband, submits to his insane demands. It is only after Georgianna has seen the potion work, will she consent to drink the potion offered to her by her husband. When Aylmer tests the potion on a plant, the plant miraculously revives; Georgianna finally consents to drink the potion.

On the window seat there stood a geranium diseased with yellow blotches, which had over spread all its leaves. Aylmer poured a small quantity of the liquid upon the soil in which it grew. In a little time, when the roots had taken up the moisture, the unsightly blotches began to be extinguished in a living vendure.” (Hawthorne, in Blackmur ed. 217). 

            Georgianna maintains her skepticism, even though she still allows Aylmer to attempt a removal of the birthmark. However, she believes that Aylmer desires her perfection. Georgianna fails to realize, however, that Aylmer’s concerns lie more with knowing that he is a successful scientist rather than his wife’s own feelings. Aylmer’s obsession with ‘cleansing’ the blemish on his wife’s face parallels Chillingsworth’s desire to uncover his wife’s lecherous partner. Both men pry into the lives of these women in order to uncover a secret, which perplexes and eventually destroys them. The branded women learn to cope with their marks, which inevitably destroy the men.

            While Geogiana does die by her husband’s hand, Aylmer suffers greater guilt and remorse at having caused the death of Georgiana. As Georgiana lays dying, she confesses that to remove the birth-mark will mean her death, and that Aylmer will be the cause not only of her demise, but his own as well. In her own words, Georgiana forgives her husband for his relentless persecution leading up to her demise.

“ My poor Aylmer,” she repeated, with a more than human tenderness, “you have aimed loftily; you have done nobly. Do not repent that with so high and pure a feeling, you have rejected the best the earth could offer. Aylmer, dearest Aylmer, I am dying!”

Alas! It was true! The fatal hand had grappled with the mystery of life, and was the bond by which an angelic spirit kept itself in union with a mortal frame. As the last crimson tint of the birthmark — that sole token of human imperfection — faded from her cheek, the parting breath of the now perfect woman passed into the atmosphere, and her soul, lingering a moment near her husband, took its heavenward flight (Blackmur ed., 220).

            In her own words, Georgiana forgives Aylmer for the pain he has inflicted upon her as a result of this flaw in her physical appearance. “ At this moment of frightful joy the dying Georgiana wakes to console him from the plain of superior compassion” (Cassil). Georgiana forgives Aylmer, like Hester Prynne forgives Arthur Dimmsdale, for leading them to their down fall. And even though Georgiana dies at the end of the story readers are led to believe that Georgiana’s death will make her husband a better man, the way in which Dimmsdale will find salvation in his death. Therefore, even though Georgiana dies and Hester Prynne has been left alone and abandoned their flaws, have been remedied. This adds insult to injury, women, like Christ were able to forgive their persecutors; where as the men were unable to forgive the flaw, and either died alone or were left to suffer the result of the cruelty they inflicted upon others.