‘The Birthmark’ as a Subversion of Human Intellect/Individualism In the light of ‘The American Scholar’

For Emerson Man is the center of the Universe. Everything that surrounds him exists for him to study, understand, modify and rule according to his visions of perfection. In the essay ‘The American Scholar’ he questions- ‘Is not, indeed, every man a student, and do not all things exist for the student’s behoof?’ In addition to that he asks- ‘Is not the true scholar the only master?’-  asserting that everything exists for Man and that he is the master of everything.
 Initially in the essay he describes Nature as something that is beyond the human capacity to comprehend and control. He says that it has no beginning, no end and is ‘so entire, so boundless’. He further says:‘Far too as her splendors shine, system upon system shooting like rays, upward, downward, without center, without circumference.’Then he says that ‘Nature hastens to render accounts of herself to the mind’. The sentence implies that the human mind has the potential to study and understand Nature despite its vastness and boundlessness. He explains that the human mind accumulates and organizes the facts it observes into categories. It then studies them in relation to each other and finds a single unifying principle underlying all of them. Once Man is in possession of this principle he can master and control everything. What Emerson is suggesting here is that Man can bring order and harmony to what is disconnected and chaotic. He says that the beauty of Nature is the beauty of the Human Mind and Nature’s law is that of the Human Mind. This implies that order and beauty are not what Nature has but what we give to it or what we make of it. He says that by studying Nature we know ourselves. In other words by studying Nature we become aware of our own power to master and control Nature. Emerson does not just stop with mastering and controlling nature. He says that Man can even recreate Nature and become the creator (‘...the natural philosophy that now is, is only the first groupings of its gigantic hand, he shall look forward to an ever expanding knowledge as to a becoming creator.’).
Hence in short The American Scholar is a man of Ambition; ambitious for power and supremacy. It is the emergence of this kind of scholar that the rest of the world is anxious about because power over Nature also gives power over men. Emerson himself states- ‘He who has mastered any law in his private thoughts, is master to that extent of all men whose language he speaks, and of all into whose language his own can be translated.’ Hawthorne’s short story ‘The Birthmark’ is an attempt to subvert this power. The text expresses the anxiety Men of Science aroused among the common public.Hawthorne in a way praises Men of Science and gives an indication of the power they hold but the very next instant he takes away his acknowledgement of their power and all the credit he gives them. He does this giving and taking away of praise throughout the text.He says – ‘...pursuits which, as some of their ardent votaries believed, would ascend from one step of powerful intelligence to another, until perhaps the philosopher should lay his hand on the secrete of creative forces and perhaps make new worlds for himself.’ He does not say that the pursuit of Science gives such a power. He only says that the ‘ardent votaries believed’ that they have such a power. Similarly when he mentions the Alchemists he says that they ‘perhaps imagined themselves to have acquired from the study of Nature a power above Nature, and from physics a sway over the spiritual world.’ Hawthorne is condescendingly hinting that they do not really have such a power, they only think they have.He praises Aylmer saying that even ‘the veriest clod of earth assumed a soul’ in his hand. The very next instant he says that ‘his most splendid successes were almost invariably failures’, that ‘his brightest diamonds were the merest pebbles compared to the inestimable gems which lay hidden beyond his reach’. Emerson depicts Nature as something that can be conquered despite its vastness and boundlessness. According to Hawthorne Nature is a thing that can never be fully understood and conquered despite the best of efforts. It is beyond Man’s grasp. He says- ‘our great creative Mother, while she amuses us with apparently working in the broad sunshine, is yet severely careful to keep her own secretes, and inspite of her pretended openness; shows us only results.’Georgiana after going through the records of his experiments, admires and worships him only for his high and noble ideals and visions and is not confident about his success (....reverenced Aylmer and loved him more profoundly than ever, but with a less entire dependence on his judgement than heretofore).Most of Aylmer’s inventions and creations are described as ephemeral and tenuous as the airy figures, bodiless ideas and forms of unsubstantial beauty with which he entertains Georgiana and the beautiful plant which burns and turns to ashes with a touch. They are also dangerous as the poison that looks as beautiful as the Elixir Vitae and the lotion that removes freckles but which can also take blood out of the cheek leaving it dead pale with a stronger profusion. Here science is presented as something that causes more harm than good.In this story Hawthorne is negating the scientist’s obsession with perfection, his high and noble standards and his attempts to achieve them. He is trying to undermine these attempts as vain and the results as unnatural and therefore undesirable.  For this reason he presents Aminadab in opposition to Aylmer.Aminadab is crude and simple as opposed to Aylmer- a man of intellectual brilliance. Aminadab remains as he is, as how Nature has destined him to be. He does not rise above his stature. He is a man who thrives on what Nature provides him. He remains content with it and is grateful towards Nature for it. This is why he says, ‘If she were my wife, I’d never part with that birthmark.’Aylmer does not remain as a part of Nature like Aminadab, being provided by it like other creatures in Nature. He stands apart from it and above it by moulding it according to his visions. But in pursuit of his ideals and visions of perfection he loses ‘the best the earth could offer’. After all his efforts he remains as a failure. In the end it is Aminadab who despite his lack of intellect stands triumphant. He (being a part of Nature) laughs celebrating the victory of Nature over Human Intellect. The end achieves the goal the text has set out to achieve. It has successfully subverted the power of Human Intellect, restoring Nature’s supremacy.

Hawthorne however does not advocate the cessation of all scientific progress. He suggests that Science must not hurry up and force facts out of Nature. They must wait for Nature to reveal herself. To find ‘a perfect future in the present’ is not a good idea. What is objectionable about science to Hawthorne is it being a medium of attaining Individual desire for power or for fulfilling Individual whims. Emerson views individual progress as a key to National progress. He urges the Individual to trust his own mind and follow his convictions (what may be for Hawthorne a whim) no matter what the popular opinion is. He says- ‘the deeper he dives into his privatest, secretest presentiment, to his wonder he finds, this is the most acceptable, most public and universally true.’                                                                       

A Summary of Carl Jung's book "The Four Archetypes"

Introduction

Would you ever dare to venture into a grave yard late in the night and spend the whole night there? A very bad idea isn’t it? We would rather choose a Mafia don’s hide out despite the possible danger of being shot dead if discovered, snooping around; but the grave yard with nothing but the dead securely confined with in the concrete tombs sounds much eerier. Why? Despite all the scientific and technological advancement, its razor sharp reasoning and logic.

 Now let’s put the question aside for a while. We are all familiar with Freud and his idea of the Unconscious – that part of mind the place for all repressed and forgotten content but all that is repressed and forgotten as per Freud is concerned only with one’s own life. In other words it is the Personal Unconscious but beneath this layer there is another layer that is universal - contains all the aspirations, beliefs and ideals we all mankind commonly share, that is Collective Conscious. It is inherited from our ancestors. We not only inherit the biological structure of our ancestors but also their experiences and beliefs that’s why we don’t venture into graveyards late in the night though our modern science has denied the existence of any such thing as the ghost.

Therefore a new born baby’s mind is not empty it comes into the world with all knowledge and psychic content of all the innumerable previous generations. This also explains why some people say they are remembering their past life. Unfortunately these people are either branded as lunatics or sages. What’s happening is the collective unconscious is brought into consciousness (This can also be the reason behind “Dejavu”). However the reasons that lead to this process are not clearly stated yet. Mental exercises like Meditation and Yoga can be the causes too.

The contents of this Collective Unconscious when brought into the consciousness and assume an image they are called Archetypes become embedded in Literature and Folk Lore. For example when we say holy the image that immediately strikes is an illuminating figure dressed in white, with wings and a hallow. When we say evil the image that comes into picture is a dark, hefty figure with protruding, sharp teeth, horns and bones hanging round its neck. The Archetypes though common to every one their functioning differs from each individual psyche.

The Archetypes

There are several Archetypes but in this book Carl Jung discussed four important Archetypes, they are:

·         The Great Mother

·         Rebirth Concept

·         Spirit

·         Trickster

The Great Mother

The picture of mother involuntarily evokes feelings of love, comfort, protection and support. Also anything that shelters and is fertile, fruitful and life giving are compared to mother. Like one’s own country, institution, rivers, land, trees and many other objects. However The Great Mother also has some negative qualities attached to her image, like impulsiveness, darkness and secrecy, ambiguity, fickle mindedness and malice. The demon and witch images (Bhadra Kali and Hecate) are also products of the Great Mother Archetype. The reasons for the positive qualities are obvious but those for the negative ones are complicated. One immediate reason is “The Mother Complex” 

The Mother Complex

Mother is the first person a child comes in contact with. Hence she has an immense influence on the psychological development of the child. Any flaws on her part or her own internal disturbances and conflicts lead different complexes in the child.

I.      Mother Complex in Son

Mother complex in the son is very complicated than that in the daughter because of the Anima projections, that is the feminine side of a man. Jung himself is not clear about this complex and calls for further research in this direction. Mother complex in son has the following phenomena.

    

Ø  Homosexuality

As said before Mother is first person a son comes in contact with. As an infant his contact with her is physical. He becomes aware of her feminity and responds to it by instinct. He develops an identity with mother. He takes her as an example and develops all the qualities she has. Thereby he attains a feminine character and literally feels he is a woman trapped in a man’s body. Naturally a woman should have sexual attraction towards men. Hence this man gets attracted to another man.

Ø  Donjuanism

Here the son tries to find his mother in every woman he finds but in vain. No one is match to her beauty, grace and virtue. We find this complex in Higgins, a character in Bernard Shaw’s play “Pygmalion” also in the protagonist of “Sons and Lovers”.

II.   Mother Complex in Daughter

Mother complex in daughter is simple compare to that in son. Here also if the Animus that is the masculine side of a woman interferes it becomes complicated.

Ø  Hypertrophy of Maternal Instincts

            Women with this complex do not have their own individuality. They themselves are secondary compared to their children even the husband is just a means for reproduction and another object of her care. A thought for self doesn’t even occur to them. It’s always the children, husband and household and her responsibility towards them but there is a secrete will for power behind this sacrifice and responsibility. Such women devour not only their personality but that of their children. They are not allowed to go out of her hold. Hence we have the images of Witch, Hecate and kali.                 

   

Ø  Overdevelopment of Eros

            Freud defined to Eros to be life instinct it can also mean the sexual instinct. Women with overdeveloped Eros naturally develop an incestuous attraction towards father and jealousy and hatred towards mother. Hatred towards mother results in resistance to anything mother like thereby they lack maternal instincts. Since such attraction towards father is not accepted in society as she grows older she gets attracted to married men only. Only married men because her vengeance for her mother can be gratified through the wife of the man she is attracted to, by wrecking that marriage. As soon as the marriage is wrecked her interest for the man evaporates due to lack of maternal instincts. If she has to continue relationship with the man she should have the nurturing and comforting womanly nature which she does not have. Hence she finds another prey and this goes on. Interestingly Jung says these women are designed by nature with a purpose. It’s good if a man is separated from a woman with Hypertrophy of Maternal Instincts since such women make him a mere tool for reproduction and confined with in the comforting hold of the wife. When separated from her he realizes his own personality and attains higher consciousness.

               

Ø  Identity with Mother

            Women who share a strong identity with the mother idealize her to an extent that they are helpless with out her. They are sensitive, delicate, innocent and confused and can never take any decisions by themselves. They are very suggestible and do not have a personality of their own. Even when married they try to find their mother in the husband. They make excellent wives for men who crave for authority and superiority.

Ø  Resistance to Mother

            These women are in outright opposition to anything that’s mother like. They marry but that’s only an escape from the mother. They are disinterested in sex and hate childbirth. Marital responsibilities are met with impatience. This may cause biological changes too like disturbed menstrual cycles and impotency. These women usually are intellectual and career oriented only to ridicule the educational and intellectual deficiencies in the mother. They are masculine by nature.

The Rebirth Concept

It is difficult to define rebirth precisely as it includes a wide horizon of meanings and concepts. It is beyond sense perception and is purely psychic. Jung enumerated five forms of rebirth they are:

·        Metempsychosis

            This means a transmigration of souls. Ones life is prolonged in time by passing through different bodily existences or in a different point of view it is a life sequence interrupted by different reincarnations.

·        Reincarnation

Here the human personality is regarded as continuous and accessible to memory, so that when one is incarnated or born, one is at least potentially able to remember that one has lived through previous existences and that these existences were one’s own, that is they had the same ego form as the present life.

·        Resurrection

This means re-establishment of human existence after death. Here there is a transformation of ones being. The change may either be essential that is the resurrected being is a different one or non essential that is only the general conditions of existence have changed, as when one finds in a different place or in a body which is differently constituted.

·        Rebirth (Renovation)

This is rebirth wit in the span of the individual life. It’s whose atmosphere suggests the idea of renovation, renewal or even improvement brought about by magical means. Rebirth may be renewal with out any change of being there is no change in its essential nature only its functions or parts of personality are subject to healing or strengthening. Another aspect of this fourth form of rebirth is essential transformation that is total rebirth. Here the renewal implies a change of his essential nature and may be called a transmutation.

·        Participation in the process of transformation

Here there is an indirect rebirth. It occurs by participating in a process of transformation that is taking place outside the individual. In other words one has to witness or take part in some rite of transformation, such as a mass. Through his presence at the rite the individual participates in a divine grace.  

The Psychology of Rebirth

Rebirth is actually a transformation in the psyche. These transformations may occur with in the individual due to reasons within him or as said before due to events happening outside him which inspire and influence him. Now we shall discuss about certain important subjective transformations. They are:

Ø  Diminution of  Personality

             This was called as “Loss of Soul” by people of stone ages and middle ages. Here the person becomes numb, depressed, mute and paralyzed. The consciousness loses its unity; the individual parts of the personality make themselves independent and thus escape from the control of the consciousness.  

         

Ø  Enlargement of Personality

            The personality is seldom what it is earlier. The events occurring outside influence the person and new vital contents enter the personality and get assimilated but here the transformation is not only due to external cause. The person must have the capacity to receive them. Something in him makes him receptive to them and allows him to take them.

       

Ø  Change of Internal Structure

           A part of the personality takes control of the ego consciousness. It can be The Persona, The Anima and Animus, The Inferior Function or The Shadow or an Ancestral soul.

·         When the “Persona”, that is the outward demeanor of the person, his way of dealing with the outside world takes hold of the ego consciousness. The person becomes what he appears to be and completely suppresses his original personality. Example a Police man will remain tough and ruthless as he is expected to he may forget the soft and jovial part of him.

·         When the “Anima and Animus” that is the female side of a man and a male side of a female respectively take possession the man or the woman possessed lose their original charm and value; they retain them only when turned away from the world; in an introverted state they serve as the bridges to unconscious.

·         The “inferior function” or the “shadow” is the dark side of a human personality. It is a window to the unconscious. A man possessed by it always makes an unfavorable impression on others and makes himself fall into troubles out of his own will.

·         Another form of possession is that by the “Ancestral soul”. It is the identification with a deceased ancestor. The ancestral elements of the collective conscious under certain condition come to the consciousness and the individual is thrust into the ancestral role.

Ø  Identification with group and cult hero

·         When we are in a group a kind of psychic transformation occurs with in us but such a transformation occurs on a lower level of consciousness. We all have an animal with in us (that is the psyche of our stone age ancestors were almost animals) that is base, instinctual, impulsive, emotional and uncontrollable. This animal comes out when we are in a group. We can see this phenomenon during riots and mass violence. This reason for this transformation is that here is no fear and no responsibility in a group besides being a part of the group immensely boosts our self esteem. For example as a citizen of “America”- the super power one may feel great but as an individual he is only Mr. So and So.

·         This mob spirit is again counteracted when there is a center of activity, such as a sermon or rite. Here the person responds to the central activity individually as per his own perception and mindset and at the same time get the satisfaction of being in a group.

·         This unity is personified by a leader or a cult hero. The feeling that we all are under that one single, visible entity strengthens this unity. 

·         If this transformation happens with in an individual alone it takes place on a higher level of consciousness. Such a transformation will bring out individuals like Vivekananda, Christ, Gandhi and other saints.  

Ø  Technical Transformation

      This process occurs due to mental exercises like Meditation and Yoga.         

Spirit

 The Meaning of Spirit

·         Spirit is the principle which stands in opposition to matter. An immaterial substance or form of existence which on the highest and the most universal level is called “God”. We imagine this immaterial substance as the vehicle of psychic phenomena or even of life itself.

·         Spirit is also regarded as a super natural or anti- natural phenomenon.

·         Spirit also means a sum total of all phenomena of rational thought, intellect, will, memory, imagination, creative power, aspirations motivated by ideals.  

 The Manifestation of Spirit

 

Ø  The Wise old Man

·         The Spirit is often symbolized by the figure of a wise old man. In folklore he comes into picture when ever there is a need for good advice, guidance, insight and enlightenment. He appears at the moment when the hero is desperate and confused not knowing what to do and gives a solution.

·         He is not only moral but tests the morality of others.

·         He sometimes appears as a dwarf and sometimes as a giant. This extremity of proportion is due to the spatial and temporal relations in the unconscious.

·         The wise old man as a dwarf or a lily put suggests the fact that “Great effects come from smallest causes”. This fact is the result of discovery of atoms which despite being minute have a devastating explosive force.

·         Sometimes he also plays a negative role as a wizard or a wicked king. This implies the dual nature of the spirit: Good and Evil.

Ø  The Spirit in Animal Form

The spirit in the animal form does not devalue it but on the contrary elevates it. The animal form suggests an extra human sphere that is on a plane beyond human consciousness: Demonically superhuman or bestially subhuman. The animals have not constrained their energy or the libido by the formation of ego consciousness. In this way they are much stronger and powerful to humans. In the genesis also we see that the emancipation of the ego conscious as a Luciferan act (the serpent tempts eve to eat the fruit of knowledge). In folklore we find animals talking expressing the intellect like that of human and even superior to that of a human. This is to suggest that the combination of animal energy and human intellect would be an excellent explanation of the powers of the spirit.

Trickster

We all are well aware of the Trickster-figure, the clown and the simpleton who is fooled often. He is fond of sly jokes and plays malicious pranks which reveal his low level of intelligence and fatuity. He can change his shape, has a dual nature: Half divine, half animal; and is also humorously called “The Ape of God”. He is exposed to all kinds of tortures. He himself declares that is soul is in the hell which shows his inner disturbances and conflicts. He in turn inflicts pain on others and becomes subject to their vengeance. His approximation to a savior is due to the mythological truth that the wounded wounder is the agent of healing. Even “Yahweh” in the Old Testament is a kind of trickster; his senseless orgies destruction, self imposed suffering, gradual development into a savior and his simultaneous humanization; this gradual transformation from meaningless to meaningful shows how Trickster is related to a Saint.

The Trickster is a personification of the primitive, barbarous and rudimentary stage of consciousness. He reflects our inferior character or the shadow. He is a collective shadow figure, a summation of all the inferior traits of character in individuals. Though we have crossed that stage of base consciousness and attained a higher consciousness through civilization, the Trickster figure is still alive in our art and literature. When a modern man looks back at the Trickster, he is only looking at his own lower inferior state of consciousness (“God looked down from above upon the times of ignorance-Acts 17:30, New Testament).

         

The Psychology of Art

“Human Is Made in the Image of God!” I used to correct people indignantly when they quoted the biblical statement. But on one occasion as I was going through a book of art, I came across the picture of Michael Angelo’s statue of David. It was as if I was bewitched. I saw nothing else, heard nothing else, thought about nothing else and remained seized in the clutches of aesthetic bliss. “Man is made in the image of god” I involuntarily gasped. Such was the stupefying power, strength, dignity and majesty of the male beauty, perfect and unparalleled, embraced by divinity.

What induces artists to set forth for stupendous and magnificent enterprises? What goes into the process of the creation of such master pieces? The study unravels certain complex and amusing functions of the human mind.

Swiss Psychologist Carl Jung noted that Psychology as a science of the processes of the psyche can be linked to aesthetics. A person’s predisposition to artistic creation can be categorized into the following hierarchy: capable, gifted, talented and genius. Artistic capability can create artistic values of social interest. An artistically gifted person creates works that have lasting value for a given society over a considerable period in its development. Talent produces artistic values of intransient national and sometimes universal human relevance. A genius creates the highest human values relevant for all times.

American psychologist Guilford listed six capabilities of artistic creativity. They are fluent thinking, analogies and juxtapositions, expressiveness, ability to switch from one class of objects to another, adaptation flexibility or originality and ability to lend desired outline to artistic form.

Artists are gifted with a sharp perception of life, ability to select objects for attention, ability to fix these impressions in memory and include them in the rich system of associations and links prompted by creative imagination.

Psychological Mechanisms of Artistic Creation

The first and foremost of these mechanisms is an innate sensitivity to surrounding phenomena and an ability to keep them in memory. The material retrieved from memory coupled with imaginations creates a work of art. Imagination is the rearrangement of perceptions and impressions.

Then comes the need for internal release, the confessional urges of the artist. Any work of art is primarily a vent to the inner feelings, thoughts and opinions of the artist.

An artistic creation is processed at three levels of the mind- the subconscious, unconscious and super conscious. The subconscious produces a vast number of variants for the solution of a problem, together with images and mental associations between phenomena. The intuitive aesthetic sense, a sense of harmony and beauty makes one select the most beautiful solutions and images from this vast number. This selected idea then rises to the conscious where it is checked out logically, clarified and processed by reason after which it goes to the super conscious where it is deepened and given a final theoretical or conceptual shape. Logic is the main criterion for what passes from conscious to super conscious.

This process resembles that of Natural selection. Nature produces many mutation variants of a given organism where upon natural selection identifies the more viable variants. The best adapted specimens survive, passing on their qualities to new generations through genes. The subconscious too produces a multitude of mutation variants of ideas and images. First the aesthetic sense then the rigorous logic selects ideas and images from that multitude. Only the most beautiful, harmonious, coherent, logically convincing and valid of them survive i.e. go on for further processing in the artists mind. The transition from one stage to another leads to tremendous creative increment. The process does not end here. The results found in the conscious and super conscious return to the subconscious and give rise to new ideas with much greater harmony and coherence.

Sigmund Freud propounded another theory of subconscious sexual element in artistic creation. The artist sublimates sexual energy in art. It is a kind of neurosis. In creative act the artist expels from consciousness socially unrealizable needs and thus resolves the conflict of real life.

The significance of subconscious is noted long back by ancient Greek philosophers (Plato especially). They treated this phenomenon as an ecstatic, god-inspired, Bacchic State etc… Homer considers it a light from above. Pinder calls a poet a prophet of the muses.

Though only secondary to subconscious the conscious element too is significant. It helps the artist analyze and asses his work critically and draws conclusions that would lead to further artist growth. It is particularly important in large scale works. Small scale works are done on a stroke of inspiration. A large scale work needs profound and serious pondering.

Tolstoy wrote about his “War and Peace” “You cannot imagine the difficulty for me of the preliminary work of deeply ploughing the field in which I am forced to sow. To think over and over what may happen to all the future people in my work, a very large one and to think over millions of possible combinations and select 1/1,000,000^th of them is terribly difficult.”

However it is inspiration that is the major driving force in creative process. Inspiration generates tremendous creative energy. It is not for nothing that Pegasus, the winged horse has been since ancient times the poetic symbol of inspiration.