Solitude/Isolation in The Birthmark and in Hawthorne’s Life Essay

Solitude/Isolation in â€Å"The Birthmark† and in Hawthorne’s Life  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚        Ã‚   In the Nathaniel Hawthorne tale, â€Å"The Birthmark,† we see and feel the solitude/isolation of the scientist, Aylmer, in his laboratory; also of Georgiana in the totally separated lab apartment; also of Aminadab, who lives by himself in a room off of the laboratory. Are these examples of solitude not a reflection of the very life of the author?    According to A.N. Kaul in his Introduction to   Hawthorne – A Collection of Critical Essays, the themes of isolation and alienation were ones which Hawthorne was â€Å"deeply preoccupied with† in his writings (2). Hawthorne’s personal isolation from people from 1825 to 1837 was probably due to his lifelong shyness among people. This reluctance to freely socialize may have been a result of a foot injury: â€Å"an injury to his foot at the age of nine reduced his physical activity for almost two years† (Martin 16). Wagenknecht says in Nathaniel   Hawthorne – The Man, His Tales and Romances, that this accident â€Å"reduced him for over two years to a state of invalidism that probably contributed toward developing his taste for reading† (2). Or Nathaniel Hawthorne’s shyness was perhaps due to the death of his father when he was but four years old. Regarding the impact of this death upon Hawthorne, Edmund Fuller and B. Jo Kinnick in â €Å"Stories Derived from New England Living,† say:    When the news came of his father’s death, Hawthorne’s mother withdrew into her upstairs bedroom, coming out only rarely during the remaining forty years of her life. The boy and his two sisters lived in almost complete isolation from her and from each other (29).    The Norton Anthology: American Literature states that as a coll... ... Diego, CA: Greenhaven Press, 1996.    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=div1    James, Henry. Hawthorne. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1997.    Kaul, A.N. â€Å"Introduction.† In Hawthorne – A Collection of Critical Essays, edited by A.N. Kaul. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1966.    Martin, Terence. Nathaniel Hawthorne. New York: Twayne Publishers Inc., 1965.      Ã¢â‚¬Å"Nathaniel Hawthorne.† The Norton Anthology: American Literature, edited by Baym et al.   New York: W.W. Norton and Co., 1995.    Wagenknecht, Edward. Nathaniel Hawthorne – The Man, His Tales and Romances. New York: Continuum Publishing Co., 1989. Solitude/Isolation in The Birthmark and in Hawthorne’s Life Essay Solitude/Isolation in â€Å"The Birthmark† and in Hawthorne’s Life  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚        Ã‚   In the Nathaniel Hawthorne tale, â€Å"The Birthmark,† we see and feel the solitude/isolation of the scientist, Aylmer, in his laboratory; also of Georgiana in the totally separated lab apartment; also of Aminadab, who lives by himself in a room off of the laboratory. Are these examples of solitude not a reflection of the very life of the author?    According to A.N. Kaul in his Introduction to   Hawthorne – A Collection of Critical Essays, the themes of isolation and alienation were ones which Hawthorne was â€Å"deeply preoccupied with† in his writings (2). Hawthorne’s personal isolation from people from 1825 to 1837 was probably due to his lifelong shyness among people. This reluctance to freely socialize may have been a result of a foot injury: â€Å"an injury to his foot at the age of nine reduced his physical activity for almost two years† (Martin 16). Wagenknecht says in Nathaniel   Hawthorne – The Man, His Tales and Romances, that this accident â€Å"reduced him for over two years to a state of invalidism that probably contributed toward developing his taste for reading† (2). Or Nathaniel Hawthorne’s shyness was perhaps due to the death of his father when he was but four years old. Regarding the impact of this death upon Hawthorne, Edmund Fuller and B. Jo Kinnick in â €Å"Stories Derived from New England Living,† say:    When the news came of his father’s death, Hawthorne’s mother withdrew into her upstairs bedroom, coming out only rarely during the remaining forty years of her life. The boy and his two sisters lived in almost complete isolation from her and from each other (29).    The Norton Anthology: American Literature states that as a coll... ... Diego, CA: Greenhaven Press, 1996.    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=div1    James, Henry. Hawthorne. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1997.    Kaul, A.N. â€Å"Introduction.† In Hawthorne – A Collection of Critical Essays, edited by A.N. Kaul. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1966.    Martin, Terence. Nathaniel Hawthorne. New York: Twayne Publishers Inc., 1965.      Ã¢â‚¬Å"Nathaniel Hawthorne.† The Norton Anthology: American Literature, edited by Baym et al.   New York: W.W. Norton and Co., 1995.    Wagenknecht, Edward. Nathaniel Hawthorne – The Man, His Tales and Romances. New York: Continuum Publishing Co., 1989.