More handpicked essays just for you.
Symbolism in the birthmark essay
The birthmark symbolism analysis essay
Symbolism essay "the birth-mark" by nathaniel hawthorne
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
“The Birth-mark” and “Ligeia” both reveal the destructive effects of obsession with perfection on the principal male and female characters. “The Birth-mark” is a story about a young woman, Georgiana, whose husband convinces her that the removal of her birthmark will make her perfect and pure. “Ligeia” is a story about another young woman, Rowena, who is driven to sickness and death because of her husband’s obsession with his former “perfect” wife and her inability to measure up. These separate husbands inadvertently kill their wives through their obsessions.
Hawthorne’s story describes the harmful effects of Aylmer’s obsession with the almost-perfection of his wife. Aylmer initially did not seem to notice or care about the small birthmark on Georgiana’s cheek. But soon after they marry, the birthmark haunts him, until he no longer cares about anything else. Alymer is not content with simply having his wife the way she is; she must be perfect. He relates this imperfection to sin; “it was the fatal flaw of humanity… the symbol of his wife’s liability to sin, sorrow, decay, and death” (Hawthorne, 633). Aylmer believes that if he can remove this imperfection, Georgiana will be a perfect, sinless human being. He thus begins experiments to eliminate the mark from his wife’s cheek. In light of the compliments of past suitors, Georgiana believes the birthmark is charming. However, she grows to hate it because her husband’s obvious revulsion for it, until she prefers death to its existence.
Poe’s story describes the harmful effects of the narrator’s obsession with the perfection of his deceased wife. The narrator is convinced that his first wife, Ligeia, was perfect. He worshiped her, seeing her as a source of true wisdom. Her eventual de...
... middle of paper ...
...bsession eventually leads to tragedy. The main male characters are obsessed with the idea of perfection, and seek to find it in their wives. But they fail to see their own imperfections, instead focusing on their wives’ imperfections. Their inability to accept this is the direct cause of their wives’ deaths. Hawthorne and Poe’s stories speak of a dark truth: man’s judgment of others’ imperfections and blindness to his own faults. These stories show the danger of obsession and the impossibility of perfection in this life.
Works Cited
Hawthorne, Nathaniel. "The Birth-mark." The Norton Anthology of American Literature. Ed. By Julia Reidhead. Shorter 7th edition. New York: W.W. Norton, 2008. 631-643. Print.
Poe, Edgar Allan. "Ligeia." The Norton Anthology of American Literature. Ed. By Julia Reidhead. Shorter 7th edition. New York: W.W. Norton, 2008. 679-688. Print.
Hawthorne, Nathaniel. "The Birth-Mark." Reading Literature and Writing Argument. Ed. Missy James and Alan Merickel. Fourth ed. Boston: Longman, 2011. 527-38. Print.
Hawthorne. “The Birthmark.” The Norton Anthology of Short Fiction. R.V. Cassill, Richard Bausch. 7th ed. New York: W.W. Norton, 2006. 648-660.
...iteracy and the Death of the Narrative in Hawthorne's 'The Birthmark'." ATQ 9.4 (1995): 269-82.
“The Birth Mark” is a story of an elusive search for perfection when an alchemist named Aylmer who is committed to his work, and is married to a beautiful woman named Georgiana, attempts to remove his wife’s birthmark. Aylmer brings up the topic of her birthmark soon after their marriage and says that she would be perfect if it were removed. This statement completely destroys Georgiana’s self-image, and now believes that she is ugly since her husband believes the same. Georgiana is so devoted to her husband that she views herself utterly through his vision of
Hawthorne, Nathaniel.”The Birth-Mark.” The Norton Introduction to Literature. Ed. Kelly J. Mays. 11th ed. New York: Norton, 2013. 340-351. Print.
Hawthorne knew that all men are defective. Earth's Holocaust is his most striking statement of the theme, but every story and novel is based on that premise. Those who ignore human imperfection in their planning become, like Aylmer of The Birthmark, destroyers rather than creators. From his knowledge of universal depravity came and not as paradoxically as it may seem a humility and a sense of social solidarity too often lacking in our young critics of society. The society with which he was concerned was a wider society. As we have noted, his people are often ''saved'' through love for one other person. The heart is touched by love, bringing warmth, or ''reality." But the saved one does not then withdraw with his loved one in a society of the elect; he does not join a Brook Farm or a commune. He returns to the larger society, to what Lewis calls "the tribe." He is defective and incomplete-as it is defective and incomplete; he needs it as it needs him. Thus love unites Phoebe and Holgrave, but also serves the larger social purpose of uniting two warring families, displacing hate by love and "cleansing'' a cursed house. Love for Clifford brings Hepzibah out of destructive pride and isolation into intercourse with the world. Hester is saved at the end not by the "consecration of its own" she once thought blessed her union with Dimmesdale, not by escape into ...
Nathaniel Hawthorne was an American novelist and short story writer born in Salem, Massachusetts in 1804. Some of his most popular short stories include “The Birthmark,” “Rappaccini’s Daughter,” and “Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment.” “The Birthmark,” which was published in March of 1843, is a story about a beautiful girl named Georgiana who has a red birthmark on her cheek. She is described as flawless throughout the community, but the hand-shaped birthmark smears a sense of imperfection onto her otherwise perfect body. Throughout the story, her husband, Aylmer, attempts to remove the birthmark and control nature in the process. “Rappaccini’s Daughter” is centered around a young student named Giovanni who arrives in Padua to study medicine. He soon
medical practices are beneficial; they are done to cure people from illness and to save
with a mortal frame” (Hawthorne 354). By tracing the tipping scales of perfection vs. dissatisfaction, readers of “The Birthmark” witness the slow demise of Georgiana and Aylmer, and gain important insight into human nature.
After Georgina eventually passed, Aylmer was left to deal with what his obsession for perfection had brought upon his wife, who was thought to be the closest thing to perfection. Hawthorne uses many different literary devices throughout this story, with the most prevalent being his use of symbolism. of the book. Ed. Michael Meyer.
Lathrop, G. P., ed. "Hawthorne, Nathaniel." The Reader's Encyclopedia of American Literature. Binghamton, New York: Vail-Ballou, 1962. 439-40. Print.
“The Birthmark” is a short story written by author Nathaniel Hawthorne. This short story is filled with symbolism and destructive criticism. It follows the scientist Aylmer and his obsession of removing his wife Georgina’s birthmark. The crimson hand-shaped birthmark on the face of an otherwise perfect, beautiful woman contains deep meanings. Through the use of symbolism, Hawthorne demonstrates the issues and themes of the unattainability of perfection, science and nature, humanity’s flaws, and mortality.
Poe, Edgar Allan. The Collected Tales and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe. New York: The Modern Library 1992
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.
Nathaniel Hawthorne’s 1843 short story entitled “The Birth-Mark” is, at face value, a traditionally formatted Hawthorne story; it is a textbook example of his recurrent theme of the unpardonable sin as committed by the primary character, Aylmer, the repercussions of which result in the untimely death of his wife, Georgiana. However, there seems to be an underlying theme to the story that adds a layer to Hawthorne’s common theme of the unpardonable sin; when Aylmer attempts to reconcile his intellectual prowess with his love for his wife, his efforts turn into an obsession with perfecting his wife’s single physical flaw and her consequent death. This tragedy occurs within the confines of traditional gender