Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Birthmark” can be read allegorically as a condemnation of the nefarious effects of the patriarchy on young women, represented here by Aylmer and his beautiful wife Georgiana. Georgiana has a birthmark on her check, and because she is other wise “so perfect, [Aylmer] found this one defect grow more and more intolerable, with every moment of their united lives” (pg. 419). Immediately the reader realizes that Aylmer does not see his wife as a human being to be loved unconditionally; instead, he has chosen to not only objectify her but to instill in her his own increasingly low opinion regarding her looks, to the point where Georgiana herself tells him to “Either remove this dreadful Hand, or take [her] wretched life…
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Irving starts out by saying of Ichabod Crane that “he would have passed a pleasant life of it, in despite of the Devil and all his works, if his path had not been crossed by a being that causes more perplexity to mortal man, than ghosts, goblins, and the whole race of witches put together, and was—a woman” (pg. 46). This blatant misogyny notwithstanding, even if it was written in jest, Irving’s protagonist Ichabod is throughout the text given demonstrably feminine traits to a degree where Irving could only be hoping for laughs. The reader first learns that Ichabod is a schoolteacher, a profession that does not require hardiness or brawn to any degree, as well as a “travelling gazette” of gossip who likes to “sing psalm tunes” (pg. 45) and “to pass long winter evenings with the old Dutch wives, as they sat spinning by the fire” (pg. 46); he exists mainly in the sphere of women because he identifies with the stereotypically delicate and refined sentiments that Irving portrays women as having. Ichabod is constantly emasculated for a humorous effect, whereas Katrina’s other suitor, Brom Bones, with his swagger and his “favorite steed Daredevil” (pg. 53) largely embodies classically masculine traits. Brom is rewarded for his manliness throughout the story with Katrina, who is the most prominent female character and who simultaneously fails …show more content…
43). Ichabod is not nearly as entrenched in nature as the inhabitants of Sleepy Hollow are; Brom, for example, is often compared to animals throughout the story, which portrays him in a much more favorable light than Ichabod is presented in. The reader can assume that the town of Sleepy Hollow represents America as it once was, a land where Dutch farmers could live richly off of the land but also a daunting and enigmatic place. The inhabitants of Sleepy Hollow are honest, hardworking people, and it is Ichabod whose bad intentions lead him to ruin. There is conflict between cosmopolitan people and “country” people throughout this story, and Ichabod’s cruelty to his schoolchildren and general uselessness and selfishness could be Irving’s critique of the quickly mobilizing American people. Ichabod Crane’s physical features themselves could be representative the what Irving saw as the awkwardness and potential spiraling failure of early America; Irving describes him as altogether unsightly, “his whole frame most loosely hung together” (pg. 43), much like the country itself is loosely existing politically and socially because of its relative newness. Furthermore, Ichabod is
Irving starts out by saying of Ichabod Crane that “he would have passed a pleasant life of it, in despite of the Devil and all his works, if his path had not been crossed by a being that causes more perplexity to mortal man, than ghosts, goblins, and the whole race of witches put together, and was—a woman” (pg. 46). This blatant misogyny notwithstanding, even if it was written in jest, Irving’s protagonist Ichabod is throughout the text given demonstrably feminine traits to a degree where Irving could only be hoping for laughs. The reader first learns that Ichabod is a schoolteacher, a profession that does not require hardiness or brawn to any degree, as well as a “travelling gazette” of gossip who likes to “sing psalm tunes” (pg. 45) and “to pass long winter evenings with the old Dutch wives, as they sat spinning by the fire” (pg. 46); he exists mainly in the sphere of women because he identifies with the stereotypically delicate and refined sentiments that Irving portrays women as having. Ichabod is constantly emasculated for a humorous effect, whereas Katrina’s other suitor, Brom Bones, with his swagger and his “favorite steed Daredevil” (pg. 53) largely embodies classically masculine traits. Brom is rewarded for his manliness throughout the story with Katrina, who is the most prominent female character and who simultaneously fails …show more content…
43). Ichabod is not nearly as entrenched in nature as the inhabitants of Sleepy Hollow are; Brom, for example, is often compared to animals throughout the story, which portrays him in a much more favorable light than Ichabod is presented in. The reader can assume that the town of Sleepy Hollow represents America as it once was, a land where Dutch farmers could live richly off of the land but also a daunting and enigmatic place. The inhabitants of Sleepy Hollow are honest, hardworking people, and it is Ichabod whose bad intentions lead him to ruin. There is conflict between cosmopolitan people and “country” people throughout this story, and Ichabod’s cruelty to his schoolchildren and general uselessness and selfishness could be Irving’s critique of the quickly mobilizing American people. Ichabod Crane’s physical features themselves could be representative the what Irving saw as the awkwardness and potential spiraling failure of early America; Irving describes him as altogether unsightly, “his whole frame most loosely hung together” (pg. 43), much like the country itself is loosely existing politically and socially because of its relative newness. Furthermore, Ichabod is