There are many similarities between Nathaniel Hawthorne's story 'The Birthmark' and Mary Shelley's 'Frankenstein'. They both feature pure, vivacious women, mad scientists, and strange assistants. I have been trying to find out if Hawthorne actually read 'Frankenstein' and perhaps modeled his story after it, but I could come up with nothing to confirm this idea. I think probably so, simply because of the number of similarities.
However, Aminadab, Aylmer's assistant, was an original creation. I came to this conclusion because, after much research, I found out that in Shelley's novel, Victor Frankenstein doesn't actually have an assistant. The well-known helpers that we as an American public have become familiar with were only popularized in the movies. Which is a shame, as that was the most important similarity I noticed in the reading.
In 'The Birthmark', Aminadab, Aylmer's "under-worker" seems to represent man's physical nature. A weird man endowed with "vast strength" and "indescribable earthiness," he understands how Aylmer's attacks on Georgiana's body spell doom. He remarks, "If she were my wife, I'd never part with that birth-mark". Aminadab understands early on that the attempted removal of the mark will probably kill Georgiana, yet in the end when she does die, he laughs.
In the popular movie versions of 'Frankenstein' we have been exposed to many different assistants, such as Fritz and Igor. All of them possessed some of the strength and earthiness Hawthorne describes in 'The Birthmark'. Some were funny, some were scary, but I have had to expound on my original theory. Perhaps the "under-worker" most people are familiar with today came from a compilation of the two stories. For sure, the basic plot of 'Frankenstein' has evolved today to be synonymous with the mad scientist and his strange assistant. The story just isn't the same without that character. My personal favorite is Igor from 'Young Frankenstein' (See clip below). So I guess I have Nathaniel Hawthorne to thank for bringing a classic character to life. Way to go, Hawthorne!
