Personal experiences shape much of who a person is and what he believes in. For example, a gruesome accident forces a man to fear driving; a blissful family vacation introduces a six year old to a love for the ocean. While education or stories help shape one's ideas, first hand experience is vital in convincing one of his beliefs and values. Therefore, naturally, writers often incorporate ideas and opinions based on their own lives into their works. However, as a result, a plethora of literature is found controversial. Specifically, in gothic times, writers were wrestling with the contentious concept of immortality. Society often questioned whether immortality was attainable or desirable. As a result of personal experience, Gothic writers including Nathaniel Hawthorne, Mary Shelley, Robert Louis Stevenson, and Oscar Wilde are moved to portray their respective negative views of humanity's quest for immortality in their literary works.
Renowned author Nathaniel Hawthorne demeans the notions of perfection and humans "acting with the Hand of God" in his short story "The Birth-mark". He achieves this by creating a story where a scientist, Aylmer, attempts to remove a hand-shaped birthmark from the near perfect face of his wife Georgiana, but fails when the removal results in her eventual death. However, Hawthorne was not born with such insight and wisdom. After enduring the death of his father, an injury forcing him to adopt reading, an education at Bowdoin, a reflective time at Brook Farm with famous literary friends, a marriage, and a daughter, Hawthorne became engulfed in "his consuming interest in the nation's history, particularly the Puritan past; his exploration of the psychological and emotional factors underlying human behavior; his eagerness to understand the power and politics of sexuality; his probing of sin, concealment, guilt, penance, and redemption; and his willingness to entertain and dramatize different points of view on social, political, cultural, and religious questions" (Gale Literary Databases).