"The Birthmark" - The ThemeIn Nathaniel Hawthorne's tale, "The Birthmark", the dominant theme is love that is conquered, well that there is also present the theme of alienation resulting from evil. within humanity. This essay aims to explore, illustrate and expand on this topic. Hyatt Wagoner in “Nathaniel Hawthorne” says: Alienation is perhaps the theme he treats most powerfully. “Isolation,” he sometimes called it – suggesting not only isolation but impermeability. It is the opposite of this “osmosis of being” that Warren speaks of, this ability to react and establish relationships with others and the world. . . . it places us outside the “magic circle” or “magnetic chain” of humanity, where there is neither love nor reality (54). Wagoner's theme of alienation certainly plays a role in the story, but the dominant theme is that of love. self-conquest, as evidenced by Georgiana's growing love for Aylmer. His love transforms his soul. “Everything he has to say is ultimately related to ‘this inner sphere’” (McPherson 68-69). “When he desired to build the kingdom of God, he looked for its model, not in the history or fortunes of those around him, but in his own heart (Erskine 180). In the first 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 tale is spiritual. Over the course of the story, Aylmer declines spiritually, while Georgiana advances spiritually. Even after Aylmer had “persuaded a being...... middle of paper ......John. “Nathaniel Hawthorne.” In the principal American novelists. New York: Books For Libraries Press, 1968. Hawthorne, Nathaniel. “The Birthmark” E-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 Spirit of Hawthorne.” In Readings on Nathaniel Hawthorne, edited by Clarice Swisher. San Diego, CA: Greenhaven Press, 1996.