Feminist Criticism In The Birthmark By Nathaniel Hawthorne

Decent Essays
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 …show more content…
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

Related Documents

  • Great Essays

    A humans’ desire to defy Mother Nature can sometimes cause a problem to another human if it cannot be controlled. In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story, “The Birthmark” illustrates a Man versus Nature theme as mans desire to fix what Mother Nature created leads him on a quest towards perfection. Humans are imperfect beings; therefore, they cannot be perfect despite their attempts through science. Furthermore, if one reaches perfection then they are no longer considered human. Thesis Statement: In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story, “The Birthmark,” the main character Aylmer pursuit for perfection conflicts directly with human mortality, ultimately resulting in the death of his wife, Georgiana.…

    • 1336 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Birthmark exhibits many examples of Romanticism in numerous ways. In particular, the characters depict the elements of Romanticism extremely well. Two aspects of Romanticism are the importance of imagination and strong emotions. In Birthmark, the wife displays these traits through her actions. The wife comes to imagine a future in which she does not have to have the “hideous” birthmark on her face anymore and submits herself to her husband’s experimentation.…

    • 769 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Brilliant Essays

    Georg-August-Universität Göttingen Seminar für Englische Philologie 5th Semester Gothic Fiction Instructor: Tina Helbig Gender Roles and Sexuality in Bram Stokers Dracula Sabine Auscher Registration Number: 21167607 Marktstraße 29 38640 Goslar E-Mail: sabine.auscher@stud.uni-goettingen.de Date of submission: 27th March 2015…

    • 5039 Words
    • 21 Pages
    Brilliant Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Of the three stories written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, I least enjoyed The Birthmark. This story is a dark romantic short-story that takes place in the main character’s laboratory, in the late 1700s. The reason that I enjoyed this story the least, is due to its -in my opinion- less meaningful and powerful overall message. That being said, I still thoroughly enjoyed The Birthmark, owing to the superb and powerful imagery employed by Hawthorne, in his writing. Vital to the plot of this story, is its time period.…

    • 1349 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Women In Frankenstein

    • 1280 Words
    • 6 Pages

    The Larger Role of Women in Frankenstein The role of women in society has always been thought of as objectified and inferior to men. The themes of women in Frankenstein are representative of norms that existed during the early 1800s, which is around the time Mary Shelley wrote the novel. Shelley's comprehensive and feminist viewpoints worked as a foundation for her career and her life as well. The representation of women in Frankenstein play a far more complex and contradictory role than her prior writing that advocated principle of cooperation and empathy.…

    • 1280 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In the society we live in women are powerless and objectified to male domination. This idea has been portrayed in, film, literature and history. This idea is shown in the novel The great gatsby written by F, Scotts Fitzgerald, The Handmaid’s Tale written by Margaret Atwood, Sins of the father written by Fleur Beale and The colour Purple Directed by Steven Spielberg. Through theses texts there is a successfully reflection of powerless women in different settings and the display of the idea that women are inferior to men.…

    • 1317 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    When Georgiana’s way of thinking was altered in regards to how she saw herself and that her imperfection was something to hate rather than love, she changed her perspective of what was important to her. She began to worry only about what people and Aylmer might think and no longer payed attention to what she truly cared about or how she truly felt. No one should have to feel insecure because of someone else’s opinions and we should be able to focus on the beauty…

    • 1268 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Gender Roles In Candide

    • 1622 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Voltaire’s Candide: Women’s Role in Society Women during the 1700s, the time period during which the novel is set, understood they had very little power; and it was only through men that they could exert any influence. Women at this time were seen as mere objects that acted as conciliation prizes for the gain of power and their sole use was for reproduction. Maintaining the duty of tiding the home and looking after the children, no outlet for an education or a chance to make a voice for themselves. Men acted as the leading voice in society, making all substantial decisions for women. The hierarchy of genders was ever so present and was based on the physical differences between men and women.…

    • 1622 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Weak, domestic, and familial are some of the words women in the nineteenth century were defined as. The societal expectations of wives during the nineteenth century included separate spheres, roles that they had at home, devotion they showed towards their husbands, and education they had. In the short story, “The Birthmark”, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, published in the nineteenth century gives an internal view of roles between women and men. Aylmer a men that craved science experiments, science being the main source for him, science being the one for him, he compared his love for science with the love of Georgiana, his wife. Georgiana a young woman, fancied by many men, and was very beautiful, but she had a charm on her left cheek that was seen…

    • 1283 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Nathaniel Hawthorne’s story “The Birth-Mark” is about an eccentric scientist named Aylmer who has a deep love for the subject, but his love for science comes in a close second compared to the love he has for his wife, the beautiful Georgiana. Aylmer acknowledges the many great aspects and attributes of his wife, even going as far as calling her “nearly perfect,” but he becomes incredibly distraught, almost obsessed, over the small, hand-shaped birthmark on Georgiana’s cheek. According to Aylmer, Georgiana will not “perfect” until the birthmark on her face is removed, which she resists at first, calling her birthmark a “charm,” but later she becomes just as distraught and annoyed with her birthmark, finally succumbing to her husband’s wish of…

    • 1074 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    No one is ‘perfect’. Perfection is a word we misuse to describe those who we think are above us in terms of power, beauty and much more. We often criticize those around us and ourselves due to our infinite imperfections while we should be focusing on other aspects of life. In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story “The Birthmark”, the primary focus is on human perfection as the protagonist tries to restructure the face of his wife, but it ultimately leads to her demise. This story is a mirror of life since it depicts that humans are flawed beings by our appearance or the way we are obsessed with finding flaws in others, and we should embrace others and our flaws.…

    • 1108 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Literary Analysis of “The Birth-Mark” by Nathaniel Hawthorne Nathaniel Hawthorne’s, “The Birth-Mark”, illustrates the characteristics of Romantic literature through allegory and symbolism. Romanticism is a type of literature or attitude that arose during the late 18th century and mid-19th century. Romanticism focused primarily on imagination, appreciation of nature and feelings and emotions over science. The purpose of this research is to explain how Nathaniel Hawthorne uses Romantic literature to warn his audience of the destructive potential of an obsession with science and the human desire for perfection and to explain what exactly motivated Aylmer in the first place. In “The Birth-Mark”, Aylmer, a newly wed, notices a small birthmark…

    • 1002 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Has the definition of feminism changed over the years, or has it become stagnant? Does the feminism people fight for today correlate with the feminism that Nathaniel Hawthorne witnessed? And finally, does his novel, The Scarlet Letter reflect feminist viewpoints in a positive manner, or masked misogyny? The general consensus is that The Scarlet Letter was written as a pro-feminist novel, seeing as Hester Prynne is considered one of the first feminist role models in American literature. Hester was outcasted in her Puritan community as an adulteress, tortured by her peers and adulterer, and seemingly confined by gender roles, but still prevailed in the end.…

    • 1122 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Sigmund Fred’s theories and beliefs about psychology are the fundamental elements of Psychoanalytic Criticism. One focus of the psychoanalytical approach to literature is "... the notion that human beings are motivated, even driven, by desires, fears, needs, and conflicts of which they are unaware..." (Tyson 14-15). Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story “The Birthmark”, represents such motivational desires and fears through its main character Aylmer, who develops a deadly relationship with his wife Georgianna and her existing birthmark.…

    • 1089 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    According to him, the story is thus a feminist critique of men who are “essentially responsible for the narrator’s physical confinement and subsequent mental demise” (Bak 40). He bases his interpretation of the text around the comparison of the narrator’s confinement in her room to being in a ‘Panopticon’ – a concept previously patterned by Jeremy Bentham in the 18th century and later discussed by Michel Foucault. The Panopticon is in essence a prison, where one is always aware of being constantly watched and this creates a deeply rooted paranoia. The narrator’s room indeed resembles a Panopticon; there are bars on the windows, rings in the walls to strap her down, the bed is nailed to the floor and ‘bulbous eyes’ are staring at her from the…

    • 1715 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays

Related Topics