The Death-Mark: Vanity In Marriage

The Death-Mark: Vanity in Marriage Marriage has always been a social staple that’s been ever-present in America before it was even colonized by Europeans. It has changed over time as cities expand and communities grow. Marriage during the Renaissance was definitely different from marriage during the Dark Romantic Period due to the changes not only in groups, but the changes in individuals thinking. During the Dark Romantic Period, an abundance of previous ideas were challenged, one of them is marriage due to advances in literature that questioned the social norms established by the early Puritan culture. One of the instances marriage was challenged during the Dark Romantic Period was in the novel, The Birth-Mark by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Hawthorne
For a self-reliant nation, we can’t help but feel the need to find our significant other and settle with them to form the perfect relationship. People are willing to give up almost all of their self-identity to intertwine lives with the one they love. This specific idea was present in the beginning of The Birth-Mark when a man of science left all of his equipment and experiments to wife the beautiful woman he fell in love with (Hawthorne 418). The people that compose the married couple are Aylmer, the husband, and Georgina, the wife; both of them fall under designated gender roles. For instance, Aylmer is a logical scientist who conducts experiments, a power hungry man, but also a loving household leader. We can detect that Aylmer is governed by logic, since he is a scientist at heart as we can observe
It has long been established that Science is a major influence on Aylmer; Science is what rules his universe. Science can be represented through Aylmer since it has always been his best defining factor. It was said “His love for his young wife might prove stronger, but it could only be by intertwining itself with his love of science, and uniting the strength of the latter to its own” (418). This signifies that without Science, Aylmer and the love between him and Georgina will cease to exist. Aylmer has been surrounded by Science all of his life that it’s almost impossible to detangle himself from it. This may be due to the settings of the time: post American Enlightenment. After this distinguished movement, people became more curious about the world around them, and they started to question everything logically. They started to challenge the rules of the church and the justification “because God made it so.” Because of this, man also started to challenge Nature. In the novel, Nature is presented as a cunning and powerful