The short story “The Birthmark” by Nathaniel Hawthorne was written in 1843 in the beginning of the largest feminist movement in the United States of America which occurred between the years 1840 and 1920 (National). During the 1830s and 1840s there were many women who spoke out about women’s rights. They argued for many changes with one of them being a social change in their duties to be subdominant to males. They tended to rally around prohibition by fighting for human rights as a whole (Women’s). This period of time in my opinion had a huge impact on what this story is truly about. By seeing how women were fighting for equality to men, Nathaniel Hawthorne presented Georgiana as a submissive character to her husband in this short story. In
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In this quote, Georgiana states that she would rather submit to her husband and get it removed than to continue to live with it. She has, at this point, become so obsessed with pleasing her husband that she is willing to do anything even if she dies while getting it removed. This quote and the others show that women during this time period and even today are expected to look a certain way whether it be the way they dress or even the way they present themselves every day. “Feminist criticism is concerned with "...the ways in which literature (and other cultural productions) reinforce or undermine the economic, political, social, and psychological oppression of women” (Brizee). With feminist criticism being described as such, it is feasible to attest for looking at this story from a feminist …show more content…
She argues that “The Birthmark” is a story about how to “murder your wife and get away with it.” She continues in later paragraphs by stating that “one cannot imagine this story in reverse” (Fetterley). One of the main issues with feminism as described briefly in the previous paragraph is the way a woman looks. In Fetterley’s book, she addresses her opinion on how “perfection for [Aylmer] is equivalent to perfection” (Fetterley). This shows her concern with how, during this period of time, men viewed women and their presentation. Fetterley continues on with the sentence: “What repels Aylmer is Georgiana’s sexuality; what is imperfect in her is the fact that she is female; and what perfection means is elimination.” From these quotes of Fetterley’s book, The Resisting Reader: A Feminist Approach to American Fiction, the reader is able to acknowledge, at least somewhat, that the feminist approach to this short story is a valid and acceptable point of view. Another critic, named Juliana Jiménez Jaramillo, wrote an article called A Feminist Reading of The Birthmark and Frankenstein. In the article she wrote, “Georgiana learns to hate herself under Aylmer’s male gaze and to feel disgusted by whatever he is disgusted by. She reveres her husband and abandons herself, and she pays for that idolization and passivity with her life” (Jaramillo). Juliana Jaramillo
In this quote, Georgiana states that she would rather submit to her husband and get it removed than to continue to live with it. She has, at this point, become so obsessed with pleasing her husband that she is willing to do anything even if she dies while getting it removed. This quote and the others show that women during this time period and even today are expected to look a certain way whether it be the way they dress or even the way they present themselves every day. “Feminist criticism is concerned with "...the ways in which literature (and other cultural productions) reinforce or undermine the economic, political, social, and psychological oppression of women” (Brizee). With feminist criticism being described as such, it is feasible to attest for looking at this story from a feminist …show more content…
She argues that “The Birthmark” is a story about how to “murder your wife and get away with it.” She continues in later paragraphs by stating that “one cannot imagine this story in reverse” (Fetterley). One of the main issues with feminism as described briefly in the previous paragraph is the way a woman looks. In Fetterley’s book, she addresses her opinion on how “perfection for [Aylmer] is equivalent to perfection” (Fetterley). This shows her concern with how, during this period of time, men viewed women and their presentation. Fetterley continues on with the sentence: “What repels Aylmer is Georgiana’s sexuality; what is imperfect in her is the fact that she is female; and what perfection means is elimination.” From these quotes of Fetterley’s book, The Resisting Reader: A Feminist Approach to American Fiction, the reader is able to acknowledge, at least somewhat, that the feminist approach to this short story is a valid and acceptable point of view. Another critic, named Juliana Jiménez Jaramillo, wrote an article called A Feminist Reading of The Birthmark and Frankenstein. In the article she wrote, “Georgiana learns to hate herself under Aylmer’s male gaze and to feel disgusted by whatever he is disgusted by. She reveres her husband and abandons herself, and she pays for that idolization and passivity with her life” (Jaramillo). Juliana Jaramillo