Cautionary Tales Revealed in \"The

Cautionary Tales Revealed in "The Birthmark" and Frankenstein

Nathaniel Hawthorne and Mary Shelley offer cautionary tales regarding the desire for knowledge and power in "The Birthmark" and Frankenstein. Victor and Aylmer are similar in that they believe that possess, or can possess, powers or knowledge that will allow them to affect nature. In both cases, each man believes that he can change something inherent about human nature. Aylmer believes he can change an aspect of human biology by erasing his wife's birthmark. Victor believes that he can change how man is made and Aylmer believes that he can change a particular process of nature. Thee men a re victims of their own thirst for knowledge or power. In both cases, this is achieved through an experiment that is not without risks. Their biggest problem stems from the fact that they are reasonably intelligent but this goes to far when they believe that they have powers beyond their reach. Their thirst destroys their logic; they are obsessed men intent on at least trying their experiment regardless of the consequences. Both men are similar in that they suffer great losses due to their experiments. Aylmer looses his wife and Frankenstein looses everyone he loves. Both authors demonstrate the dangers associated with the thirst for power and knowledge and the desire to transcend the limits of humanity.

There is not doubt that both men are smart. Victor and Aylmer are scientists and they have devoted a great deal of their lives to their work. We are told that Aylmer is a man of "science, an eminent proficient in every branch of natural philosophy" (Hawthorne 600). Aylmer spends an inordinate amount of time in his laboratory, dedicating himself "unreservedly to scientific studies ever to be weaned from them by any second passion" (600). While Aylmer loves his wife, it seems he loves science more. Erich Rupprecht suggests that Aylmer is more in love with science than he is with his wife. He believes Aylmer's selfishness is a "coldhearted quest for ultimate answers" (Rupprecht) and, unfortunately, "absolute truths ends in the destruction of what he should have loved most" (Rupprecht). Victor is also a man of science as well and he is actually smart enough to pull off his experiment. He can be commended for his accomplishment, but his behavior after making the creature is deplorable. Both men want to solve a mystery. Alchemy involves the theory of transmutation, which goes along with the mystical qualities that were being tossed around during this time. With the idea that this could even be remotely possible explains how each man allows himself to become consumed with the experiments. It was the dream of possibility and the probability that they might actually be successful that corrupted them. They lost sight of their own humanity, which lead to their ultimate failure.

Both men thirst for more and their desire corrupts them. Aylmer wants the power to be able to change his wife's condition. His quest is pitiful because he ruins his wife's self-confidence for his own gain. In order to get her to go along with his experiment, he questions her beauty. Aylmer is so consumed with his goal that he cannot accept the truth of his circumstance. His fervor is dangerous because he does not slow down long enough to look at the fact. He is oblivious to his past failures and what this might mean to his present endeavor. We know that when Georgiana reads his notes, she is exposed to a dark and disturbing aspect of his work. She reads that Aylmer admits the challenge of attempting to discover the ways of nature. He writes, "our great creative Mother, while she amuses us with apparently working in the broadest sunshine, is yet severely careful to keep her own secret, and, in spite of her pretended openness, show us nothing but results" (Hawthorne 604). This statement shows us that Aylmer is aware of the probability of his success; however, this does not stop him. He does not care because he is greedy. Victor is the same way. He wants the knowledge of how nature works. He is curious and this eventually gets the best of him. He says, "I would sacrifice my fortune, my existence, my every hope, to the furtherance of my enterprise. One man's life or death was but a small price to pay for the acquirement of the knowledge which I sought" (Shelley 13). Victor realizes the folly of his ways but it is too late to salvage anything that he has lost. Dorothy and Thomas Hoobler agrees with this assumption, noting that the irony of the story is that, "at the culmination of his research, the moment of his triumph, all Victor's pleasure in life ends" (Hoobler 159). Both men are consumed and actually believe that they possess some of the characteristics of God.

Both men suffer from their selfish desires. Aylmer wants so desperately to change Georgiana's appearance, that he kills her. The sad aspect of this story is the fact that she let him talk her into the entire thing. She let him believe that she was not pretty enough and that she needed to be prettier. She also let her husband think that he could do it. In other words, she believed in him and was willing to risk her life on his guess. Even worse, Aylmer believes in himself enough to risk her life as well. He is full of enough foolishness to say, "Unless all my science have deceived me, it cannot fail" (Hawthorne 611). His failure is the equivalent of murder. Victor loses everyone he loves because of his over-confidence. Once the monster is alive, Victor has no control over him or his emotions and never considers that the creature might seek revenge when it is too late to do anything about it. He realizes his folly and admits that his efforts pushed him "lower in the dirt" (Shelley 194) and he tells Walton, "Seek happiness in tranquility and avoid ambition, even if it be only the apparently innocent one of distinguishing yourself in science and discoveries" (200). Neither Aylmer not Victor gets what they thought they would when all is said and done. Hawthorne and Shelley use the destructive results of these men to warn us about the dangers involved with a desire that has gone out of control.