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  • Essay / The Symbolism of the Birthmark - 865

    Nathaniel Hawthorne describes Aminadab: "With his great strength, his shaggy hair, his smoky appearance and the indescribable earthiness which encrusted him, he seemed to represent the physical nature of man” (Hawthorne 337 ). This statement foreshadows what is bound to happen. Amindab was behind Aylmer the whole time during his experiments. However, Amindab once murmured, “If she were my wife, I would never part with this birthmark” (Hawthorne 337). So Amindab didn't agree with what Aylmer was doing, but he continued anyway. In all this history, Aminadab has been a matter of voiceless nature. Aminadab's one sentence in this story shows that he thought what Aylmer was doing was really wrong. Hawthorne even goes to the trouble of describing Aminadab to us as a “physical nature of man.” Hawthorne's statement allows us to interpret the Aminadab as the force of Nature. At the end of the story, Hawthorne recounts a slight laugh coming from Aminadab just before Georgiana dies. Aminadab's laughter symbolizes that Nature has won the battle against Science. The battle between Nature and Science took away poor Georgiana and her infinite beauty, and ultimately ended with her