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Throughout the history of humankind, the relationships between man and woman have been characterized by complexity and multifacetedness. In different periods of civilization development, the view on gender roles varied depending on the level of the patriarchisation of society, with the role of the woman eventually coming nearly to naught. In Puritanic America of the mid-nineteenth century, the so-called traditional values and norms underlying social life of the time devised a place for the woman which hardly let her be anything more than a hearth keeper, a quiet domestic creature that ensured proper housekeeping and served as an enclosure to her husband, who dominated the household as an almighty master to be admired, encouraged and obeyed without demur. No wonder such tendencies found their reflection in the literary fiction of the time; in the works, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, one may find explicit examples of female oppression and even abuse. Moreover, apart from domestic tyranny, the short stories “The Birth-Mark” and “Rappaccini’s Daughter” raise yet another gender issue: that of a female being a sacrifice to the scientific ambition of a man who views her as a mere step on his way to success and does not care that his experiments may lead to the woman’s suffering or even death.
In both short stories mentioned, the main female characters Georgiana and Beatrice fall victims to the men that possess full control of their life: Georgiana is convinced by her husband, a man of science, of the need for taking a potion that would remove a crimson birthmark from her face, the only flaw her beauty bears; the whole life of Beatrice is one big scientific experiment, as her famous pharmaceutical father raises her feeding her with poison so that eventually she becomes a deadly poison herself. It should not be overlooked, however, that not only Beatrice’s father but also the other two men involved with her, represent the oppressing power of males: professor Baglioni who invents an antidote in an obvious desire to excel his scientific rival without thinking of the possible consequences for the ‘test material’, for Beatrice; and young Giovanni, who in his love-fear relations with Beatrice reveals all the selfishness of the male nature blaming her for the discomfort and frustration her poisonous qualities brought on him.
In a certain way, the manner the women are treated in the two short stories discussed suggests certain threat men feel to their traditional masculinity and leadership role. Both Georgiana and Beatrice seem to be zealously protected and cared for: the first, by her husband; the second, by her father. Aylmer appears to take the deepest concern in his wife’s only external defect that, according to him, serves as a reminder of “his wife’s liability to sin, sorrow, decay, and death”. The birth-mark actually does not harm her but rather is troublesome to him and arouses his scientific curiosity as a challenge he desires to meet and complete for vain self-affirmation (Hawthorne, “The Birth-Mark”). In case of Beatrice, doctor Rappaccini takes refuge in his desire to protect his daughter from the dangers of the outer life, locking her up at home and introducing her to his science, and vice versa, implanting his poisonous findings into her, the “victim of his insane zeal for science”, making Beatrice virtually invulnerable — and completely lonely and unhappy at the same time (Hawthorne, “Rappaccini’s Daughter”).
Both women appear to be resigned and submissive to their dominating men’s will, yet one can observe a nuance that is crucial in judging their obedience. Georgiana continues with her husband’s dangerous experiment which, as she can feel, represents a life threat to her: “Danger is nothing to me; for life, while this hateful mark makes me the object of your horror and disgust, — life is a burden which I would fling down with joy” (Hawthorne, “The Birth-Mark”). Understanding the level of disgust Aylmer feels for her birth-mark, Georgiana selflessly lets her husband follow his ambition for she realizes that life would be unbearable should she refuse the experiment — standing her ground would mean a revolt against Aylmer’s authority and a threat to his mental comfort. Even on her deathbed does Georgiana refrain from reproaching her husband who has turned out to be her murder and the murderer of his own happiness:”…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” (Hawthorne, “The Birth-Mark”). The other victim of male arbitrariness, Beatrice, appears more outspoken, though still “feeble”, in face of her tragedy: “My father, […] wherefore didst thou inflict this miserable doom upon thy child?” (Hawthorne, “Rappaccini’s Daughter”). And in reply she gets an essence of the male view of women: “Dost thou deems it misery to be endowed with marvelous gifts against which no power nor strength could avail an enemy […]? Wouldst thou, then, have preferred the condition of a weak woman, exposed to all evil and capable of none?” (Hawthorne, “Rappaccini’s Daughter”). Thus becomes explicated the males’ utmost conviction of female worthlessness and defenselessness which can only be improved with the condescending assistance of their male benefactors.
In historical terms, one can not infrequently observe such attitude of condescending patronage in the relations between the colonizer and the colony, the British Empire and America in this case. The newcomers to the ‘savage continent’ in their war of aggression took refuge in the slogan of civilizing, educating, and developing the presumable wildland, the native population of which suffered from the unjustified cruelty of the self-asserting intruders. Therefore, in Hawthorne’s “The Birth-Mark” and “Rappaccini’s Daughter” one may read a message of the destructiveness of any foreign will arrogantly impose on self-sufficient life, however, yielding the latter may be.
Works Cited
Hawthorne, Nathaniel. “The Birthmark”. Web.
Hawthorne, Nathaniel. “Rappaccini’s Daughter”. Web.
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