The Birth-Mark

The story I will be exploring thoroughly is “The Birth-Mark” by Hawthorne. I will be going over the absolute marvelous text itself, and will later write in response to the symbolism in the story. Let us start off with a major symbol in the story “The Birth-Mark”. The actual birthmark is a huge symbol, the birthmark represents nature itself. I come to recognize that the birthmark was, in fact, the major symbolism based on several factors. First, let's start at the beginning, the story…

The Dark Romantics shared the twisted and dark fantasies of the human mind, which "The Birth Mark" did. This quote brings a different approach to American Culture since, most of the time everyone has just been talking about the development of how people live and how they judge others based on race while, something like this quote portrays the insanity of the human mind, and how the human mind thinks. "The Birth Mark" is just one of many examples that advanced the cultures that some people had or…

He believes by removing the “mark”, Georgiana’s “sin”, he will conquer Nature. He tries several times to remove the birthmark. First, he uses a flower, but the flower dies. He then makes a metal plate of Georgiana’s face and the birthmark is on the metal plate, so he throws it in acid…

flaw that he could see, but after being married, he noticed this horrid mark that only nature could have made upon his once flawless wife. This birthmark is no longer any beauty and Aylmer feels it is natures defect that is upon his wife, he has a dream that this birthmark reaches to his poor wife’s heart and that it is a deeper issue than just beauty. “He dedicates himself to rooting out a birthmark that, he believes, is the mark of death”(Keetley, 4). The nature of her beauty is no longer…

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…

In “The Birth-Mark” by Nathaniel Hawthorne, the main character- Aylmer- attempts to remove his wife’s birth-mark through his scientific experiments. His wife, Georgiana first saw the birth-mark as beautiful, but Aylmer convinced his wife that it was horrid and must be immediately removed. Aylmer and the assistant working in his laboratory attempt to rid Georgiana of her birth-mark. Eventually, Aylmer’s work becomes a success as it rids Georgiana of her birth-mark, but she dies because of the…

Stories of Initiation are ones that show the progression of a character from one state of being to another. In the case of “the birth-mark” written by Nathaniel Hawthorne the character Georgiana experiences initiation as she transforms from a confident woman to a woman dependent on the approval of man to determine her self-worth. At the beginning of the story, Georgiana appreciates her birthmark claiming, “it has been so often called a charm, that I was simple enough to imagine it might be…

Both the stories “The Birth - Mark” by Nathaniel Hawthorne and “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Gilman explore the topic of the mind and how an obsession about something can lead to mental destruction. In the story “The Yellow Wallpaper,” written by Charlotte Gilman, Gilman shows how a woman who is said to be depressed is separated from her husband since he put her in a private room. On the other hand, in “The Birth - Mark,” written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, the author expresses the idea of…

singular mark on her face: a birthmark with the shape of a hand. As time goes on, he comes to resent the birthmark vehemently. He hates it so much, that his disgust towards it is now even shared by his wife, Georgiana. She is so completely overwhelmed with both her husband’s and her own hatred towards her appearance, that she eventually agrees to participate in an experiment in where Aylmer promises to rid her of this monstrosity. The experiment is successful in getting rid of the mark, but…

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…