Well, Hawthorne didn't have a wife with a birthmark that
he tried to remove, in the process killing her! Rather, to answer this question I think
you need to look at how Hawthorne's life impacted his fiction generally, and especially
the themes of this work. It appears that one approach to viewing the birthmark is to
regard it as a symbol of sin, and the way that all of us, no matter how "perfect," have
some stain of sin on our lives. This is what Aylmer finds so hard to accept, leading him
to trying every recourse to removing the birthmark. However, it is highly significant
that when he succeeds, Georgiana fades just as her mark fades, indicating that
sinfulness and its stain on our lives is an essential part of the human condition, and
that without it we are not equipped or able to live on
earth.
Hawthorne's own life seemed to have been
overshadowed by this truth. Although he had every reason for happiness - he was
described as "unusually handsome," had a loving wife and was famous for his work, he
became increasingly dissatisfied, remote and disappointing to his friends. It appears
that the themes that he wrote about were based on similar discoveries about his own soul
and being which he found difficult to accept, just like Aylmer in "The Birthmark," and
these discoveries prevented him from enjoying what could have been a pleasurable
life.
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