“The Birth-Mark” by Nathaniel Hawthorne

Emphasized: Reason Individualism Scientific Method THE ENLIGHTENMENT Opposed: Tradition Faith Superstition

“The nineteenth-century emphasis on harmony between science and religion was in some ways a response to the Enlightenment. The most radical, anti-clerical phases of the intellectual movement to expand the influence of human reason never gained much of a foothold in America. More Americans sympathized with the Scottish Common Sense phase of the Enlightenment, which emphasized trust in the untutored natural ability of the human mind and heart to discover the true and the good, and which encouraged the moderate belief that science and urbanity could support the more humble drives for religion and morality”. PAUL JEROME CROCE

“The higher intellect, the imagination, the spirit, and even the heart, might all find their congenial aliment in pursuits which, as some of their ardent votaries believed, would ascend from step of powerful intelligence to another, until the philosopher should lay his hand on the secret of creative force, and perhaps make new worlds for himself. We know not whether Aylmer possessed this degree of faith in man’s ultimate control over nature. (418)” FROM “THE BIRTH-MARK”

“…Aylmer had long laid aside, in unwilling recognition of the truth, against which all seekers sooner or later stumble, that our great creative Mother, while she amuses us with apparently working in the broadest sunshine, is yet severely careful to keep her own secrets, and, in spite of her pretended openness, shows us nothing but results. She permits us, indeed, to mar, but seldom to mend, and, like a jealous parantee, on no account to make” (422). FROM “THE BIRTH-MARK”

“Hawthorne was not himself acquainted with active scientists and inventors and did not closely follow their work as it unfolded, and so his stories have only an indirect connection to the specific discoveries and advances of his day. His interest instead was scientific technique as a means of power, and what people might want to do with it”. FROM “NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE AND THE SPIRIT OF SCIENCE”

“Others among his tales reveal the sphere in which technology has no dominion, and how forgetful we are that it cannot help us there”. FROM “NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE AND THE SPIRIT OF SCIENCE”