A New Historicist Approach to Hawthorne’s View of Science in “The Birthmark”

Abstract

“The Birthmark” is a short science fiction created by Nathaniel Hawthorne in 1843. The story tells of an eighteenth-century scientist who attempts to remove his wife’s birthmark yet takes her life in the end. This paper will use Louis Montrose’s theory of Historicity of Texts and the Textuality of History to disclose the dialogic relationship between “The Birthmark” and its historical context and Hawthorne’s view of science. This paper firstly discusses the historical background of the industrial age reflected in the story and then analyzes Hawthorne’s interpretation of the industrial revolution through the alienation of man. It later explores the American Transnationalism’s influence on the creation of the text and finally examines the importance of Neo-Humanism shown in Hawthorne’s work. This paper aims to prove that “The Birthmark” is the production of its distinctive historical contexts, and it exerts a crucial influence on the historical context. Furthermore, the Neo-Humanism implied by Hawthorne in “The Birthmark”, the embodiment of both science and humanity, sheds light on the development of modern society.