The story The Birthmark is about Aylmer who is a scientist and philosopher. He is married to Georgiana. One day Aylmer asks her is she had ever thought about removing the birthmark that is on her face. At first Georgiana thinks he is joking, but when she realizes that he is serious, she tells him that she and many others see her birthmark as a blessing and charm. He says that it takes away from her face, which is almost perfect except for the birthmark. The birthmark is a small hand-shaped red mark that disappears when she blushes. Women seem to think like Aylmer that the mark ruins her looks. Many men find the mark attractive and want to kiss it. However, for Aylmer that birthmark becomes an obsession. He cannot accept that his wife has a small blemish on her otherwise perfect visage. After Georgiana hears Aylmer talking in his sleep referring to a dream he was having, where he was trying …show more content…
He also tells her about his experiments with alchemy, a fast acting poison, which Georgiana finds disgusting, but Aylmer says is a good thing, a potion to give eternal life. Georgiana realizes that he has been drugging her as she has been waking up amidst bizarre events such as figures that are made up of spirit. At one point he tries to create an image of her face on a metal plate. The plate however grows a hand and he destroys it. She begins reading his journals and realizes that his experiments tend to fail more than they succeed. He finds out and gets angry, but she is able to calm him. A few hours later when she goes to his laboratory to see him, he accuses her of getting in his business and insists that she leaves. In order to appease him she tells him that she will drink whatever he asks her to. She then reflects on how noble it is of Aylmer to refuse to love her with a flaw, instead insisting that she becomes his idealized image of her. He gives her a potion, which she drinks and it removes her birthmark, but she
Tally found the leather satchel Croy intended to hand her and inspected its contents. She found a letter, addressed to herself, and two small white pills. In the letter, Tally is the author and gives herself consent to take the pills to transform her back into an “Ugly”. She understands the risks of the antidote and she and Zane both swallow a pill at the same time “Special Circumstances” arrives at the scene.
In short, Alymer tries to play God by ridding Georgiana of her original sin, and make a perfect being. But no mortal can be perfect, and no mortal can not have original sin. Thus when the experiment works, Georgiana achieves perfection and can no longer be a mortal, thus she dies.
Alymer contrasts Georgiana's beauty by sense and soul with her "liability to sin"; he juxtaposes her perfection with "this one defect", the birth-mark. In reality, birth-marks and "sorrow, decay" and a "liability to sin" are faults which render us life-like. Alymer cannot accept human faults - for him, people are either the "highest" or the "lowest" - there is nothing in-between. A good example for the harsh contrasts is Alymer himself and his assistent, Aminadab. Alymer is said to represent the purely "spiritual" part, whereas Aminadab is solely "physical."
The attempted removal of Georgiana’s birthmark by Aylmer signifies a desire to conquer nature and reveals a hidden quality within Aylmer. The first instance in which the reader sees Aylmer trying to conquer or control nature is subtle, it is near the beginning of the story and the narrator says “[Aylmer] persuaded a beautiful woman to become his wife” (211). The common belief is that love occurs naturally and cannot be forced. It seems as though the narrator chooses to state that Aylmer persuaded his wife, rather than fell in love with her, in order to indicate early on in the text Aylmer’s tendencies toward manipulating nature. Later in the
In the short story The Birth-mark, Aylmer: scientist, philosopher and perfectionist, is married to Georgiana, a woman of unthinkable beauty and possibly the closest woman to ever reach perfection. However, the tiny hand shaped mark that lay on the surface of her cheek aggravates Aylmer and he thinks day and night of how he may get rid of it in order to help Georgiana reach the perfection that he longs for. The actions that he proceeds to take, prove that he is indeed the villain and the one to blame for Georgiana’s death. He does so by tearing her down with crude words, making Georgiana feel insecure and self-conscious about her outward appearance as well as keeping his failed experiments a secret to her.
I have already administered agents powerful enough to do aught except to change your entire physical system. Only one thing remains to be tried. If that fail us we are ruined.” (Hawthorne 322). Even though Aylmer told Georgiana this, she still accepts to go through with the operation.
Aylmer gives it to his wife to drink. Shortly after she drinks it, she falls asleep. The birthmark fades almost completely off of her face. Sadly, Georgiana wakes up, she tells Aylmer that she is dyin...
& nbsp; The Mark of Ugliness In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Birthmark, there is indeed a representation of Although the other underlying personality is not represented within himself, it is rather portrayed through his assistant Aminadab. Since Aylmer is lacking so much within himself, he is unable to appreciate his wife even though she was dying. Basically, if Aylmer had the sensibility of Aminadab, he could have realized how beautiful she was even with her birthmark. During
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
Out of love for her husband, Georgina agrees to go on with the experiment. Aylmer shows her that the elixir will cure her of her imperfection by putting it on a plant that was covered in spots and before their eyes, the spots on the plant disappeared. Right away, Aylmer gave his wife the elixir and, like magic, the birthmark disappeared. As the two were looking at what the elixir did to Georgina, they neglected to see the plant dying. Before they knew it, Georgina started to slowly die right in front of her husband’s eyes.
The birthmark present on Georgiana’s face symbolizes many different things, such as the idea of unattainable perfection of nature even while knowing the inevitable consequences it holds. The main character Aylmer is obsessed with removing
Our society has many ways of manifesting its obsession with physical perfection. In our society people go to extreme lengths to achieve perfection. The 'Birthmark';, written more than a century ago, is an early version of our modern obsession with physical perfection.
Though she consents to having her birthmark removed, Georgiana’s initial reaction to Aylmer’s shock at her facial defect is to redden “with momentary anger” before dissolving into tears (645); though her secondary reaction fits into the stereotypical female response to a physical critique, the fact that her initial reaction is anger implies that she is more than merely a docile housewife. However, her actions still reflect those of a docile housewife; when he confines her to a dimly lit apartment, she acquiesces solemnly and quietly spends her days doing as Aylmer
Every man before has always complimented Georgiana on her sweet imperfection. People would tell her all the time that true beauty was in that little blemish. Aylmer, being the man of Science wanted to change what nature had created. Typically, we all know better than to go against Nature, but not Aylmer. Georgiana finally agreed to let her husband remove the birthmark due to a frightening dream Aylmer had encountered. Aylmer started working on a potion to remove Georgiana 's birthmark. As soon as Georgiana sipped the potion, she suddenly falls into a deep coma-like state. The birthmark magically disappears from Georgina 's face. However, as the birthmark fades away, so does Georgina 's life. Hawthorne uses Georgiana 's character to symbolize beauty in this story. Georgiana is already made perfect in the eyes of Nature and all other men, expect Aylmer. Aylmer, representing Science, tries to change Georgiana 's beauty that Nature has created. Aylmer was successful in removing the birthmark, but unsuccessful in keeping Georgiana alive. Aylmer was too intertwined in Science to realize that Georgiana was perfectly made by Nature. Nature paid Aylmer back for trying to correct Georgiana 's face by taking the life of his beloved
She had ironically died of a fever "the only warmth, I believe, that ever came to that woman's body" (14). Now alone because his daughter is away at a nunnery, he's found someone that can add a little life to his elite, high class existence; a little someone, we learn, that has a past that doesn't quite fit in with the rest of his friends. The problems begin in Act One, the exposition, on the night before Aubery's wedding to an unknown individual. Aubery has drinks and dinner with his three closest friends, Cayley Drummel, a bachelor, Doctor Gordon Jayne, and Frank Misquith, Q.C., M.P.