In the short story “The Birthmark”, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, the protagonist Aylmer and his wife, Georgiana, have a solid, loving marriage. In the short story, Aylmer, the protagonist, is a scientist, married to Georgiana. Georgiana has a hand shaped birthmark on her left cheek, in which Aylmer wants to remove to perfect Georgiana’s beauty. Throughout the story, Aylmer and Georgiana’s marriage is portrayed as a solid, loving one. Aylmer thinks since she is already so close to perfection, with the help of science, what he loves most, he could make her perfect. Georgiana, his wife, shows her unconditional trust, in that she allows him to remove it. She even trusts him after she finds out he has never successfully finished any experiments. He Loves her to such a great extend that although he wants to remove this birthmark, to make her perfect, his top priority is making sure Georgiana is happy about how she looks. Aylmer and his wife, …show more content…
This is seen through Georgiana’s trust towards Aylmer. Georgiana trusts Aylmer, even in times were most would not trust. Georgiana's trust for Aylmer is illustrated many times, but it is most apparent when Georgiana finds Aylmer’s lab book. She sees that Aylmer has never successfully finished an experiment. This would have made most people, with their life on the line, scared and not want to trust the experimenter. Yet this makes Georgiana trust Aylmer even more. As Hawthorne writes, "’It is dangerous to read in a sorcerer's books,’ said he…’It has made me worship you more than ever,’ said she”. After Aylmer finds out that Georgiana read his lab book, Aylmer says, do not worry, those were just small experiments that do not matter. Georgiana answered by saying, Aylmer do not worry my trust is even greater than before. Through Georgiana's trust toward Aylmer, it is certain that Aylmer and Georgiana’s marriage is a solid, loving
There is a thin line between love and hate. Love is having a strong affection for another person, place, or thing and sometimes, it makes people do crazy things. Whether it is a woman chopping off hair due to a bad breakup or placing permanent tattoos on the body for commitment, one will go to major extremities to satisfy their passion for love. In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s story, “The Birthmark,¨ a psychotic scientist strives for perfection not only leading to the death of his beautiful wife, but overall attempting to have power and control over nature. Nathaniel Hawthorne utilizes symbolism and foreshadowing to display the thematic complexities of mortality and human imperfection that the birthmark personifies psychologically and symbolically in the
In the short story, “The Birthmark”, Nathaniel Hawthorne tells the story of Aylmer, a man devoted entirely to science, who marries Georgiana, a beautiful young woman with a single imperfection. Georgiana’s imperfection is merely a birthmark on her cheek that bears the resemblance of a tiny crimson hand. Still, this mark becomes the object of Aylmer’s obsession, and he resolves to use his scientific prowess to correct “what Nature left imperfect in her fairest work.” Aylmer succeeds in removing the birthmark; however, he unfortunately causes his wife’s death in the process. Through his skillful use of diction, foreshadowing, symbolism, irony, paradox, allusion, and antithesis, Hawthorne warns of the consequences of man having the desire and power to control and alter nature, and suggests that nothing paradisiacal can exist on this earth; that being imperfect is just part of being human.
Uttering heartless words to a partner about their flaws is a reflection of one’s insecurity in the relationship. The short story “The Birthmark” gives readers insight into Aylmer, a questionable scientist who fails at experiments, and his wife Georgiana, an obedient wife who fulfills her husband’s commands. Aylmer is insecure and as a result denigrates Georgiana about her birthmark to purposefully make her despise the mark. Georgiana never thought of her birthmark as a flaw because men were enchanted by her fairy-like miniature hand with a shade of crimson. However, Georgiana being the good wife that she is, agrees to become her husband’s experiment to get the birthmark removed in order to make Aylmer happy. In this story it is evident that
In every story, poem, play, and movie symbolism is present. Symbols help the reader understand the story and their characters. Often times the symbols bring a deeper meaning to a story or poem. In The Birthmark by Nathaniel Hawthorn there are many symbols that bring the reader to the deeper meaning of the story. This story is about a man and woman who get married. The woman is perfect except for the small birthmark on her cheek. Her husband tells her it is ugly causing her to feel ugly. She agrees to get it removed. The man is a scientist and makes an elixir to get rid of the birthmark. The serum kills the woman. The Birthmark has many symbols including, but not
Torvald and Alymer think they’re inlove with their wives but, they are not. Alymer and Torvald love their possessions, similar to loving a car. They love the feeling and the moments they get to spend on earth mesmerizing their beautiful uniqueness, but they do not care about the wellbeing of the other person. “Women define visibility as including communication, verbal and non-verbal, show the slipperiness of the slope, and raise question of consciousness.” (Deutsch, 1889) In both relationships there was a lack of communication, intimacy, and respect. Nora and Georgianna both wanted their loved ones to show concern for them even in rough circumstances, but both men failed either because of selfness or love of science. When Torvald received the IUE from Krogstat, his immediate response was “I’m saved!” Being selfish his first thoughts are of himself rather than, his kids, and Nora. Aylmer’s attention to his wife’s birthmark over time, drove Georgianna insane to the point where she would die trying to remove a little mark on her face. Alymer started to point out that she is no longer perfect because of the birthmark. After you marry someone you accept their flaws internally and externally, and both failed to do so therefore, they lost their wives.
################################# Part 3 ######################################## Nature doesn’t intend for things to be perfect, if it was the contrary we wouldn’t be considered humans. Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Birth-Mark portrays the story of a scientist, Aylmer, so self-absorbed, and supercilious in his own power of science that he would go so far as to remove the intentional “imperfect” birthmark that Nature has bestowed upon his wife’s face. “Cannot you remove this little, little mark… Is this beyond your power… Noblest, dearest, tenderest wife… doubt not my power” (216). Hawthorne uses the birthmark as a symbol to represent the imperfection that is within the human species, the mark also draws out the imperfection of those who have encountered it by displaying their tendencies to overlook the flawless beauty of Georgiana and focus solely on her birthmark, “Some fastidious persons… affirmed that the bloody hand… quite destroyed Georgiana’s beauty… Aylmer discovered that this was the case with himself” (214). Nature’s symbol is a paradigm of omnipotence. To simply put, Nature created the grand design of human life, and governs over our society but allows us as people to do as we please with our lives, so long as we do not alter with Nature’s creation, “…Our great creative Mother… She permits us, indeed to mar, but seldom to mend, and like a jealous patentee, on no account to make” (217). Despite Nature’s intention, being the pompous scientist that he is, Aylmer believes himself to be something more than a microcosm of Nature’s creation. In other words, because of his unparalleled ability in the subject science, like other...
medical practices are beneficial; they are done to cure people from illness and to save
Yet, Georgiana has a quality about her that her husband Aylmer can hardly stand. Despite her lovely pale face, a tiny
One of the main themes discussed in this story is perfection which was evident by Aylmer obsessing over making his wife perfect by removing the birthmark off
The advancement of industrialism, economic growth, science and medicine, and wars all donated to the contributions of many writers during the Romantic Movement. This is true of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s, short story, “The Birthmark”. The obsession with perfection is just as evident today; as it was back in the 18th and 19th centuries. The detrimental effects of amplifying science and romance are clearly defined between the relationships of Aylmer, his wife Georgiana, and Aminadab -his assistant in his lab. Romantic literature puts a higher significance on the value of intuition and imagination instead of fixating on objective reasoning.
The story’s tone is one of romantic controversy, a dilemma at a high level of existence. The scientist’s love for his craft competes very intensively with his newfound love for his wife. It is also very psychological, strictly dealing with the raw mind of its subjects as if the ominous narrator told the story from inside their mind, rather than observe it from the outside. He describes the processes that one may take to reach a certain degree of knowledge and to find the elixir of life, which is described in this story as the ultimate goal of the scientific community. Also, the narrator is very opinionated about events in the story.
The plot of the story begins in the late 1800s when Aylmer marries a spiritually and physically beautiful yet “flawed” woman named Georgiana who was born with a red birthmark in the shape of a hand on her left cheek. According to Aylmer, she is “nearly perfect from the hand of god” (Hawthorne 241) except for the hideous birthmark on the side of her face. Blinded by his arrogance and a lack of spiritually, Aylmer is obsessed with his wife’s physical appearance and is unable to understand the true meaning of beauty. Shortly after their marriage, Aylmer questions Georgiana about the appearance of the birthmark. He asks her if she has ever considered having it removed. At first, Georgiana admired the birthmark because townsmen referred to the birthmark as an enchanting “charm” that she could not part with. Once she sees how aylmer is disgusted by the sight of the birthmark and viewed it as a sole flaw of his “almost perfect” wife, Georgiana begins to dislike it even more than Aylmer. Aylmer then has a dream that prophesies what will happen if he proceeded to remove the birthmark. In the dream, he describes how he was trying to surgically remove the mark, but instead he found himself cutting deeper
Analysis of The Birthmark by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Although “The Birthmark” by Nathaniel Hawthorne was written in the mid-1800s, its themes and ideas are still a part of society today. The 19th century was a time of change, just like this, the millennium, was a time of great change. Hawthorne’s ideas about science, beauty, and life still play a major part in our lives, despite many improvements.
There are numerous instances of ambiguity in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Birthmark”; this essay hopes to explore critics’ comments on that problem within the tale, as well as to analyze it from this reader’s standpoint.
In today’s society, it seems that we cannot turn the television on or look in a