Disorders in Hawethornes The Birthmark Essay - 1019 Words

In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s story â€Å"The Birthmark† you find a couple fairly prevalent disorders. Although psychology was as of yet not existence, Hawthorne describes them quite well. Alymer suffered from an obsessive-compulsive personality disorder, while his actions caused Georgiana to develop a body dysmorphic disorder. Both of which attributed to the eventual demise of Georgiana. nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;Alymer is an older scientist who marries a beautiful woman much younger then himself. Even though Alymer finds his young bride beautiful, he still says that she is â€Å"marked.† Upon Georgiana’s left cheek is a birthmark. The birthmark is small, red, and in the shape of a hand. Alymer believes that this mark takes away from her beauty;†¦show more content†¦That could be attributed to Hawthorne’s background, and the era in which this story was written. Other qualities which he exhibits are perfectionism, excessive devotion to work, and miserliness toward others. nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;Alymer first shows his perfectionism when he tells Georgiana that she quot;came so nearly perfect,† and calls the birthmark, a â€Å"visible mark of earthly imperfection.† (Hawthorne 306) He wishes to have the perfect wife. And Georgiana is young and beautiful. But she has her birthmark which disturbs Alymer greatly. After giving the liquid to his wife, Alymer exclaims, â€Å"[ . . . ] You are perfect!† (Hawthorne 316) Another sign that he was a perfectionist was the fact he kept such a detailed record of his work over the years. It is not the fact that the books themselves exist, but that Alymer was not truly satisfied with his work: â€Å"[. . .] she could not [help] but observe that his most splendid successes were almost invariably failures, if compared with the ideal at which he aimed. His brightest diamonds were the merest pebbles, [ . . . ].† (Hawthorne 313) nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;The second attribute of obsessive-compulsive personality disorder that Alymer displays is excessive working. Since he is such a perfectionist in his science, it’s obvious that he spends the majority of his time in his lab. This doesn’t leave much time for a social life. Because Alymer is preoccupied with work, this causes him to be miserly toward