2020年2月13日木曜日

The Birthmark by Nathaniel Hawthorne

   This is  an allegory of human folly. It  suggests man should not pursue perfectness. 
   Aylmer, a proud scientist, tries to remove his wife's birthmark on  her cheek. The operation is  perfect and it completely disappears to his ecstasy, but he loses his wife's life in return for the success. To try to attain perfectness is, in Hawthones' view, blasphemous.
   Hawthorne's way of writig is too elaborate, too minute, too philosophical, and too wordy. The description of Aylmer's scentific experiments is imaginary and does not sound real. He uses 1000 unnecessary words to say one thing which can be expressed in five words. Enough is enough.
One Japanese old saying tells the key point of the story: Tsuno wo tamete ushi wo korosu, meaning: Trying to make the the bull's horns straight , you kill the bull.

   


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