Mosses from an Old Manse

The Fault Within “The Birthmark,” a short story by Nathaniel Hawthorne, it is stated that imperfection is, “…liability to sin, sorrow, death, and decay…” (Hawthorne 2). The short story is about a scientist, Aylmer, who strives to make his wife, Georgiana, perfect by performing scientific experiments to remove her one imperfection, a birthmark. The result is kind of like taking a picture; it is a perfect representation of a moment in time, but all the life is gone. Georgiana dies as a result of…

Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story “The Birthmark” portrays this foolishly driven desire in creating a flawless being by illustrating the battle between a man’s love for science verses his love for women. Hawthorne’s choice of language conveys the barriers that lie between morality and sin that are recognized by challenging nature and scientific triumph. Early in the short story, Georgiana and her birthmark are introduced as “a single mark, deeply interwoven, as it were, with the texture and…

reason I choose this piece of work by Hawthorne, because after reading the story and understanding what was going on, it had some flaws that I personally can relate too, but don’t like it all. I feel that judging someone that you like isn’t right at all from whatever the problem is. Just a brief overview of The Birthmark, Aylmer has a huge issue with his newly wife birthmark on her face. The story of The Birthmark starts off by making me wonder what the main problem is. I thought The…

In the short story, “The Birth-Mark” written by Nathaniel Hawthorne the character’s obsession with outward beauty and perfection ended tragically. The desire to change their outward appearance is very similar to society’s today. Man is constantly challenging the bounds and realms of science to improve the quality of life. In the story,” The Birth-Mark”, Aylmer the mad scientist, attempts to fix what nature deformed through science. Aylmer’s god like complex, challenges the limits of science to…

The birthmark is a symbol of how mankind’s flaws and imperfections are what make us mortal. The birthmark is Georgiana’s only flaw and was “deeply interwoven” (399) in her skin. Her birthmark shows that no man is perfect, and flaws separate people from the divine. Aylmer’s servant almost seemed to know that Georgiana would die if her scar were to be removed when he said, “if she were my wife, I’d never part with that birthmark” (402). When Alymer and Georgiana begin planning the removal of the…

This near perfect woman from Nature has him increasingly focusing on the removal of this birthmark. It is shocking to him that it is part of the most perfect woman. Aylmer feels betrayed by his own true love, Nature, for not giving him the perfect woman. He needs to change this…

nothing is perfect in life, neither Georgiana was. From Aylmer views, Georgiana was so perfect morally and spiritually. However, Aylmer was unhappy with a little imperfection on Georgiana’s face, which makes him obsessed by such powers that he wanted to experiment on his wife with the idea of make her even more perfect than she already was. In the story, Hawthorne describes Georgiana as everything Aylmer wants. “You came so nearly perfect from the hand of Nature” (Hawthorne 1), Aylmer said. He…

"The Birth-Mark" by Nathaniel Hawthorne, emphasizes how important standards are throughout his writing by focusing on beauty standards, psychological abuse and sacrifice. Hawthorne begins his short story by addressing the fact that Georgina has a birthmark and reveals that the main character and alchemist, Aylmer, with the help of his assistant, Aminidab, can remove it by making a potion to make his wife's imperfection disappear. Reaching out to Georgina about the birthmark and adding that he…

of nature. Combined together in a relationship they both are a great match and could have potentially been the symbol of happiness. However, it was not was possible they cannot due to one major thing that keeps getting in the way. It is the formed from Aylmer's ambition and devotion to science and Georgiana equal ambition and devotion to Aylmer.…

with his mother and sister for the next 12 years. When he started writing, he added the w to his name to distance himself from his Salem ancestors. He started keeping notebooks and began perfecting his writing craft. He published his first novel in 1828, Fanshaw: A Tale. This novel was short and poorly written. He was dissatisfied with the novel and in attempt to stop anyone from reading it, he tried to buy all the copies. For the next 25 years, he did not publish any Novels, but continued…