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the birthmark symbolism
the birthmark symbolism
symbolism in birthmark
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During one’s life, he or she will experience many symbols that must be deciphered and analyzed on some level. Take the Christian cross for example: the cross is viewed as a symbol of the Christian faith by being a reminder that Jesus died on it to pay for the sins of believers. However, if one looks deeper, there are many other representations of this symbol as well. Symbols are unique in that they are meant to be analyzed and made into whatever one wants to believe. Nathaniel Hawthorne utilizes symbols of this nature throughout many of his works. Throughout Hawthorne’s works The Minister’s Black Veil, The Birthmark, and The Scarlet Letter, many different symbols are explored, including the ways in which the act of sin is portrayed through the characters' outward appearances.
Hawthorne published his short story The Birthmark in 1843, exploring the symbolism behind Georgiana’s birthmark. The time period in this work is referred to as he Concord Period; in this movement, scientific and artistic angles are explored (Easton 131). In the story, Aylmer is married to Georgiana, who would have been a prize wife to any other man. Hawthorne explains Georgiana’s birthmark in the beginning by saying, “To explain this conversation it must be mentioned that in the centre of Georgiana's left cheek there was a singular mark, deeply interwoven, as it were, with the texture and substance of her face” (Hawthorne ) ; Aylmer views the birthmark as an imperfection. Many of the women also saw the birthmark as a disgrace, stating that “…the Bloody Hand, as they chose to call it, quite destroyed the effect of Georgiana’s beauty, and rendered her countenance hideous” (Hawthorne 632). Aylmer’s scientific mindset makes him believe that he can rid her o...
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...e for the world to know – however, the revelation of sin is inevitable
Works Cited
Easton, Alison. The Making of Hawthorne Subject. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1996.
Eisinger, Chester E. "Pearl and the Puritan Heritage ." Scharnhorst, Gary. The Critical Response to Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlett Letter. West Port: Greenwood Press, 1992. 158-166.
Hawthorne, Nathaniel. "The Birthmark." Ed. Baym, Nina. The Norton Anthology of American Literature. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2008. 631-643.
Hawthorne, Nathaniel. "The Minister's Black Veil." Ed. Baym, Nina. The Norton Anthology of American Literature. New York: W.W.Norton & Company, Inc., 2008. 622-631.
Nathaniel Hawthorne. The Scarlett Letter. Boston: TICKNOR, REED & FIELDS, 1850.
Stewart, Randall. Nathaniel Hawthorne: A Biography . New Haven: Yale Universtity Press, 1948.
In the novel The Scarlet Letter and the short story “The Minister’s Black Veil”, Nathaniel Hawthorne incorporates romantic elements, such as beauty, truth, innocence, and sin, in his criticism of Puritan societies. In both texts, Hawthorne argues that all people, even those in strictly religious societies with corrupted standards, are capable of sin. Hawthorne uses symbolism and light and dark imagery to convey his argument.
Lathrop, G. P., ed. "Hawthorne, Nathaniel." The Reader's Encyclopedia of American Literature. Binghamton, New York: Vail-Ballou, 1962. 439-40. Print.
In the short story, “The Birthmark” Nathaniel Hawthorne uses the characters, foreshadowing, symbolism, and other rhetorical devices to alert people of the consequences of man having the power to control and alter nature. Additionally, through his skillful usage of diction, Hawthorne warns of the effects of seeking perfection through science. In “The Birthmark”, Aylmer, a man devoted entirely to science, marries Georgiana, a beautiful young woman with a single imperfection. Georgiana’s imperfection bears the resemblance of a tiny crimson hand and is visible on her left cheek. The birthmark 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.” He succeeds in removing the birthmark; however, he unfortunately causes his wife’s death in the process. Through “The Birthmark”, Hawthorne suggests that nothing paradisiacal can exist on this earth, and that being imperfect is just part of being human.
The short story “The minister's black veil” by Nathaniel Hawthorne is about a minister whose wears a black veil as a symbol of how mankind in his/her nature is a sinner and whose faith is blinded as a black veil covers your eyes. The book more talks about how the minister is seen by the town after covering his face. “The birthmark” is another book by Nathaniel Hawthorne it talks about a married couple, the husband who is a man of science and the wife who is a woman of nature.The book describes the husband's search for perfection of his wife and the fight between nature and science. Both of Hawthorne’s book contain a description of nature guilt and sins.
This short story reflects the Puritans’ lifestyle in the early colonial stage by using the black veil of Reverend Hooper to guide people through the sinful and struggling life of the Puritans. “The Minister’s Black Veil” is only one of the great stories written by Nathanial Hawthorne, and there are more Romanticism books like The Scarlet Letter and The House of the Seven Gables, and they also talk about the changes and struggles of human
Hawthorne. “The Birthmark.” The Norton Anthology of Short Fiction. R.V. Cassill, Richard Bausch. 7th ed. New York: W.W. Norton, 2006. 648-660.
Howard, Jeffrey. "Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Birth-mark." Explicator 70.2 (2012): 133-136. Academic Search Complete. Web. 31 Jan. 2016.
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
“Nathaniel Hawthorne.” The Norton Anthology: American Literature, edited by Baym et al. New York: W.W. Norton and Co., 1995.
Hawthorne, Nathaniel. “The Scarlet Letter”. American Literature: Volume One. Ed. William E. Cain. New York: Pearson, 2004. 809-813. Print
Throughout his novel, The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne reveals character through the use of imagery and metaphor.
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’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 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.
Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The Scarlet Letter. American Literature. Vol. 1. New York: Penguin Academics, 2004. 592-778. Print.