Take a Step Back By Taku Shiozaki

           After reading and discussing Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story, The Birthmark, I found a hidden nugget of truth, or life lesson in the irony of the story. In the story, a rational, ambitious, yet hubristic scientist tries to scientifically remove a small, crimson, handprint looking birthmark from his already drop dead gorgeous wife’s cheek. The ironic part is, when he finally accomplishes his goal of removing the birthmark his wife dies. It’s sad to think about, but the thing [his wife] he was working so hard to change, ended up being the victim of his own self-interest. The hidden nugget of truth I found from this story was to step back, let go of all self-preconceived notions, and truly understand, as well a accept people for who they really are.

I feel like too many people these days are trying to mold their significant others, friends, and family into something that they are not, which in the end causes more damage than good. I’ve personally been the offender and the victim of this, and usually the root of the problem comes from not being able to step back from my own self-interests and try to understand things from other peoples’ perspectives. I’ll also admit that I have thought that I am always right at times, and fail to try to actually listen to what other people are trying to tell me, but I also feel like that’s not just me. It’s almost a problem of pure self-misinterpretation, in the sense that we are so caught up in our own assumptions of things that we fail to stop and listen to the interpretations of those around us. I believe that in society, it is the idea of class roles that are setting people up to follow in the same footsteps as this scientist.

And yes, there are certain situations in which people actually do have to make changes in others, for example in sports or other professions where there are certain standards or guidelines, such as correcting one’s basketball stroke or baseball swing. Nonetheless, when a person of lower occupational status, such as a janitor, tries to tell a man of higher occupation, such as a lawyer or chairman of a corporation, that he is doing something wrong, or he should do x instead, the person of higher occupation will almost never heed to the lower’s advice. This idea of ignorant social class superiority even comes up in the short story itself.

From the scientist’s point of view, his wife is close to perfection, yet the one thing preventing her from being “perfect” is her birthmark. This birthmark is something that the scientist cannot bear to live with and must get rid of it. However, from the viewpoint of his lab servant (and probably any other guy that is attracted to women), the birthmark is seen as a magical mark of beauty, or in other words, something that only adds to her rare beauty. The servant even says, “If she were my wife, I’d never part with that birthmark” (Hawthorne 89). Later when the wife passes away after the removal, the servant gave a, “…gross, hoarse chuckle” (Hawthorne 98), almost indicating that he already knew that the scientist’s wife was going to die from the experiment.

This is where the irony of the story comes back into play. The scientist, or the person of higher social status, who is rational and very well educated, lacked the foresight that his servant (not as educated, lower social class) had the entire time. This just goes to show that one must not ignore others’ ideas and advice just because of one’s selfish preconceived social assumptions. One must take a step back and see everyone as equals and respectfully accept everyone’s ideas or advice as equal, and not just toss it aside like the scientist in this story regretfully did.