Nathaniel Hawthorne

In “The Birthmark,” Nathaniel Hawthorne represents Aylmer as an ambitious scientist, whose passion is reserved for the study of natural philosophy. The reader is given the impression that Aylmer spends most of his time in a lab. But one day, Aylmer marries young woman, named Georgiana, however, her appearance is not perfect as she has a birthmark on her face. The story immediately shifts to how Aylmer and feels about the birthmark. Aylmer is troubled with the physical and spiritual perfection…

The “Birthmark”, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, is an allegory, like many other short stories and novels Hawthorne has wrote. The short story’s allegorical meanings are acquired from Hawthorne’s use of symbolism. In the “Birthmark”, Hawthorne uses the characters, foreshadowing, and symbolism to display the message or theme of obsession with perfection and imperfection, confliction with science and nature, and dabbling with fate. According to the text, The Norton Introduction to Literature,…

Nathaniel Hawthorne was an American author whose works consisted of sin and punishment. He wrote both novels and short stories. Most of Hawthorne’s works were written in the Romantic era which gave him a deep curiosity for… “nature, beauty, romantic love, and… the supernatural” (Smith). Based on the reoccurring themes in Hawthorne’s works, readers can grasp that he was writing from a dark place. According to Margarita Georgieva, “Hawthorne’s writings offer a relatively dark view of human nature,…

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…

what "denotes the spatial and temporal location of a story" (Lynch, XIV). The setting of a story often refers to "more than the physical or geographical location where the events take place" (Lynch, XV). Specifically within The Birthmark by Nathaniel Hawthorne, he uses symbolism, allegory, and imagery, to prove the setting is crucial for the reader to fully understand the themes of perfection, control, and natural versus material within the story. We can see this analysed through the three main…

The Scarlet Letter was written by Nathaniel Hawthorne in 1850 and was set in a Puritan society in the colonial age. The story explores the ideas of truth, sin, guilt, hypocrisy, and social stigmatizing by interactions between Hester, her Scarlet Letter, Chillingworth, Dimmesdale, and the Puritan Society. Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote this due to his background history with his Puritan ancestors, financial problems, and disdain for Transcendentalism ideology. Nathaniel’s background as a Puritan…

Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Birthmark” displays the irrationality of attempting to form a flawless being, and by doing so, interfering upon the land of the divine. Hawthorne carries this message over the story of the scientist Aylmer and his elegant wife, Georgiana, who has a tiny, hand-shaped birthmark on her left cheek. Aylmer is fixated with this mark that retains his wife from being flawless and is determined to remove the mark by using his experiments. Throughout the telling of “The…

Nathaniel Hawthorne’s personal isolation originated in his early childhood and later developed the theme of his most renowned literary novel, The Scarlet Letter. In The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne emphasized the impact that societal isolation can have on individuals. Several of the victims inflicted with isolation throughout the novel were ultimately met with their inevitable downfalls. Hawthorn selected one particular character, Hester Prynne, to undergo a struggle comparable to…

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…

Nathaniel Hawthorne is among many other greater writes of his time such as Edgar Allan Poe, Joyce Carol Oates, and many others. He has wrote many different pieces, however his most famous one is The Scarlet Letter. The Scarlet Letter remains popular today, it is taught in several different schools across the United States. There are even movies, such as “Easy A: that use the concept of adultery and the scarlet letter, based off of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel, to make a comedy. However, today…