“The Birthmark” – The ThemeIn Nathaniel Hawthorne's story, “The Birthmark”, the dominant theme is love that conquers oneself, although the theme of alienation resulting from evil within humanity. This essay aims to explore, exemplify and develop this topic. Hyatt Wagoner in “Nathaniel Hawthorne” states: Alienation is perhaps the theme he deals with most forcefully. “Insulation,” he sometimes called it, which suggests not just insulation but imperviousness. It is the opposite of that “osmosis of being” that Warren wrote about, that ability to respond and relate to others and the world. . . . it places us outside the “magic circle” or “magnetic chain” of humanity, where there is neither love nor reality (54). The theme of Wagoner's alienation plays a role in the tale, but the dominant theme is that of love conquering itself as exemplified in Georgiana's growing love for Aylmer. His love transforms his very soul. “Everything he has to say is tied, ultimately, to 'that inner sphere'” (McPherson 68-69). “When he desired to build the kingdom of God, he looked for the model, not in history nor in the fortunes of those around him, but in his own heart (Erskine 180). In the opening paragraph of “The Birthmark” the narrator introduces Aylmer as a scientist who “had made the experience of a spiritual affinity more attractive than any chemical affinity.” Hawthorne's description of the scientist's love for Georgiana is apt, because love is just that: spiritual. And the theme of this story is spiritual. Over the course of the story Aylmer declines spiritually, while Georgiana advances spiritually. Even after Aylmer “persuaded a being… middle of paper… John. "Nathaniel Hawthorne." In leading American novelists. New York: Books For Libraries Press, 1968. Hawthorne, Nathaniel. “The Birthmark” Electronic Text Center, University of Virginia Library http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/etcbin/toccer-new2?id=HawBirt.sgm&images=images/modeng&data=/texts/english/modeng/ parsed&tag=public&part= 1&division=div1McPherson, Hugo. “Hawthorne's Use of Mythology.” In Readings on Nathaniel Hawthorne, edited by Clarice Swisher. San Diego, CA: Greenhaven Press, 1996.Wagoner, Hyatt. "Nathaniel Hawthorne." In Six Nineteenth-Century American Novelists, edited by Richard Foster. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1968.Williams, Stanley T. "The Puritan Mind of Hawthorne." In Readings on Nathaniel Hawthorne, edited by Clarice Swisher. San Diego, CA: Greenhaven Press, 1996.