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Literary analysis on the birthmark
Literary analysis on the birthmark
Conflict in the the birthmark
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In the stories “The Birthmark” by Nathaniel Hawthorne and “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, they are similar because they both deal with the wives being obsessed with something. Also in both stories their husbands are concerned and want to help them with their obsessions. The wife in “The Yellow Wallpaper” is obsessed with the wallpaper on the wall and sees it as another world. She believes that there is someone stuck behind the wall and is trying to get out. Tearing down the wall paper, she is trying to set them free. Later on in the story she then believes that she is the one trapped behind the wall paper. Not understanding her obsession with the wallpaper, her husband sees her being creepy and he faints. When her husband faints she gets scared because she no longer knows who he is. In “The Birthmark” the wife is obsessed with her birthmark and believes it means something. Her husband sees her birthmark as a burden to her and removes it himself. Liz Rosenberg talks about Aylmer by saying, “In Aylmer’s “delusion” he mistakes Georgiana’s physical imperfection for a spiritual one, and in trying to cure her of her human nature, he kills her” (146). In both stories the wives have their obsession that worries their husbands. The wives have their own way of keeping themselves entertained and happy. Never question someone and what he/she does because we are all unique and different in our own way.
Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote “The Birth-Mark” for newlyweds. It is a story based on women doing anything and everything just to satisfy their husbands and their needs. Liz Rosenberg writes, “‘The Birth-Mark’ is a love story like most of Hawthorne’s greatest fiction, concerned with the relation between men and women. The “love” i...
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...013. 655-666. Print.
Hawthorne, Nathaniel. “The Birth-Mark.” The Norton Introduction to Literature. Ed. Kelly J. Mays. 11th ed. New York: Norton, 2013. 340-351. Print.
Knight, Denise. “‘I Could Paint Still Life As Well As Any One Earth’: Charlotte Perkins Gilman and the World of Art.” Women’s Studies 35.5 (2006): 475-492. Academic Search Complete. Web. 17 Mar. 2014
Rosenberg, Liz. “‘The Best That Earth Could Offer’: ‘The Birth-Mark,’ A Newlywed’s Story.” Studies in Short Fiction 30.2 (1993): 145. Academic Search Complete. Web. 17 Mar. 2014
Scott, Heidi. “Crazed Nature: Ecology in the Yellow Wall-Paper.” Explicator 67.3 (2009): 198-203. Academic Search Complete. Web. 17 Mar. 2014.
Shakinovsky, Lynn. “The Return of the Repressed: Illiteracy and the Death of the Narrative in Hawthorne’s ‘The Birthmark’.” ATQ 9.4 (1995): 269. Academic Search Complete. Web. 17 Mar. 2014.
Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The Scarlet Letter. Enriched Classic ed. New York City: Simon & Schuster, 2004. Print.
In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story “The Birth-Mark,” Aylmer, a married scientist, believes himself to be above nature. Acting on these beliefs, he prepares
“The Birthmark” and “My Last Duchess” are two very different works, from two completely different genres. “The Birthmark” is a short story written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, and “My Last Duchess” is a poem written by Robert Browning. Although, these are two different genres, they have very similar themes and parallels. These works explore the problems with power and control in marriages at two different time periods and places and shows what it can drive a man to do. “The Birthmark” has a lot of symbolism, imagery and allegory. This story is about a pretty normal newlywed couple, Aylmer and Georgiana. “Such a union accordingly took place, and was attended with truly remarkable consequences and a deeply impressive moral. (2)” This quote is very interesting because the word “union” means many things. From one perspective it can mean the marriage between Aylmer and Georgiana, and on the other hand it could refer to the union of Aylmer’s love for Georgiana and science. Aylmer is thoroughly devoted to his career in science, and he was recently married to Georgiana so he is just getting to know what being married is like. The birthmark is the conflict in their marriage and in the story, Aylmer isn’t into Georgiana’s birthmark and he requests for her to allow him to remove it. He soon realizes that taking off the birthmark isn’t as simple as it seems because it is interwoven into Georgiana’s face. Georgiana then allows Aylmer to remove the birthmark, even though she knows he isn’t a successful scientist. The liquid that Aylmer has Georgiana drink slowly kills her, and Aylmer is shown to be a complete fool. The actual birthmark itself is the main symbol used throughout the story. “My Last Duchess” is a poem about a Duke who showing someone ...
...iteracy and the Death of the Narrative in Hawthorne's 'The Birthmark'." ATQ 9.4 (1995): 269-82.
Hawthorne, Nathaniel.”The Birth-Mark.” The Norton Introduction to Literature. Ed. Kelly J. Mays. 11th ed. New York: Norton, 2013. 340-351. Print.
Lang, H.J.. “How Ambiguous Is Hawthorne.” In Hawthorne – A Collection of Critical Essays, edited by A.N. Kaul. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1966.
The two motifs of morality and imperfection in “The Birthmark” direct the readers’ attention towards Hawthorne’s belief that one 's instinctive actions represent human nature in a more genuine way than actions influenced by religious laws. In the short story Georgiana’s blemish represents the actuality of human nature and not the false pretense of perfection that people thrive so hard to achieve. However, Georgiana herself represents the general population in society. Because Georgiana dies after the author portrays her as completely perfect, one can imply that perfection cannot be achieved and is only an idea fabricated by society’s leaders or governmental bodies. In “The Birthmark” the government is embodied within the character Aylmer, whom is married to Georgiana. Kary Meyers Skredsvig agrees that Aylmer exhibits characteristics similar to those of the government when she write, “Aylmer...is consistently associated throughout the story with the highest of intentions, standards and worth” (Skredsvig 99). The marriage between the two characters indicates the correlation between the government’s superior influence and human behavior. Even Georgiana expresses her inferiority to Aylmer when she describes her own level of intellect as “simple” (Hawthorne 1). Aylmer 's strong yearn to eliminate the blemish upon Georgiana’s face
To understand the message of “The Birthmark”, we must first understand the events and circumstances that took place in Hawthorn’s time period which most likely prompted him to write this short story. Nathaniel Hawthorn was a 19th century novelist who is perhaps best known for writing The Scarlet Letter. In Hawthorn’s time, a new belief system called positivism was on the rise. Positivism exalted science. This ne...
Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Birthmark”, is the story of a crazed scientist whose strive for perfection not only leads to the death of his beautiful wife, but the attempt of man to have power over nature. It follows the story of Aylmer and his obsession with removing the birthmark off his beautiful wife, Georgiana. “His unnatural fixation to his wife’s birthmark even consumes him in his sleep as he dreams of cutting it off much like scraping an apple off its skin.” (Snodgrass 29). This narrative explores the themes of perfection, and the conflict between science and the natural world.
Nathaniel Hawthorne’s, “The Birthmark” was on the darker side of the Romantic Movement, but it was still a love story. There was a love of science and obsessing over beauty and perfection. Aylmer love Georgiana and she loved him. She was willing to die for him, and he was willing to experiment on her, even if meant losing her. Hawthorne put himself into his work, expressing fears, and emotions that was hard to put into words. His surroundings impacted the outcome of his
“Nathaniel Hawthorne.” The Norton Anthology: American Literature, edited by Baym et al. New York: W.W. Norton and Co., 1995.
Lathrop, G. P., ed. "Hawthorne, Nathaniel." The Reader's Encyclopedia of American Literature. Binghamton, New York: Vail-Ballou, 1962. 439-40. Print.
In “The Yellow Wall-paper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, the unnamed female protagonist is going through a rough time in her life. (For now on, this paper will refer to this unnamed character as the “the narrator in ‘Wall-paper,’” short for “The Yellow Wall-paper. The narrator is confined to room to a room with strange wall-paper. This odd wall-paper seems to symbolize the complexity and confusion in her life. In “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin, the protagonist, Mrs. Mallard must also deal with conflict as she must deal with the death of her spouse. At first there is grief, but then there is the recognition that she will be free. The institute of marriage ties the two heroines of these two short stories together. Like typical young women of the late 19th century, they were married, and during the course of their lives, they were expected to stay married. Unlike today where divorce is commonplace, marriage was a very holy bond and divorce was taboo. This tight bond of marriage caused tension in these two characters.
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
Nathaniel Hawthorne did not do much explaining when it came to the characters involved in "The Birthmark". He did not portray the main characters: Aylmer, Georgiana, and Ambidab as human beings, but rather as symbols. While analyzing the story "The Birthmark", I have achieved some great insight of the author 's articulate writing style; especially, his style of making characters have symbolic meaning. In this story, Hawthorne uses his characters to symbolize specific things. In this ambiguous, short story, the three characters each symbolize Science, Beauty, and Nature. Each character represents an unusual force that has equally worked against each other.