Examples Of Gender Bias In The Birthmark

The “Birthmark” is a short fiction story written by Nathaniel Hawthorne in March 1846. The short story consisted of a man named Aylmer and a woman named Georgiana, they become connected by marriage. Georgiana had a distant birthmark on her left cheek. As time progressed the husband founded the birthmark as an imperfection and wanted to remove it. He was capable of removing it himself, for he was a mad scientist. He was so in despise with the mark. He slowly convinced Georgiana to let him remove the birthmark because she comes to believe it makes her was imperfect. He does the experiment on her, which was a liquid and removes the birthmark. She dies after the experiment finished. In this essay, I will be examining the gender bias founded when

analyzing the short story.
Although “The Birthmark” was written over 100 years ago, it still shows a part of the same society we have today.

Our society has many ways of manifesting its obsession with physical perfection involving science. In today's society, people go to extreme lengths to achieve what is not considered “perfection”. Even though the story was composed over a century ago, it is an early version of our modern obsession with physical perfection. When stated, “They sensible frame too, shall soon be perfect”(Hawthorne). The authors he letting us know how science will make Georgiana “perfect” and remove the mark. Society's obsession is very visible with physical perfection by having surgical procedures done on daily basis. These surgeries allow for almost any kind of cosmetic transformation. For example, a person can have anything from removing a birthmark to getting breast implants to having a tummy tuck done on their body. These procedures enable society to achieve what is considered 'perfection' much like Georgiana in the

“Birthmark”.
The gender roles in the story are very obvious. Men, such as Aylmer, are thought of as superior compared to women, which in this case is represented by Georgiana. In the story, Aylmer is described as a “man of science, an eminent proficient in every branch of natural philosophy” (Hawthorne). The character is made to sound very knowledgeable. While on the other hand Georgina is just considered “a beautiful woman” (Hawthorne), yet the audience can tell she is just or more intelligent than Aylmer because she makes insightful remarks and her morals are stronger. This can be illustrated when Georgiana states "with a more than human tenderness" (Hawthorne) and tells her husband to not feel or express sincere regret or remorse for his wrongdoing or sin. Georgiana here shows a sort of enlightenment because the birthmark has been removed from her left cheek, she is now “perfect" to her husband and has all the wisdom that Aylmer has, yet still very flawed mortal lacks within him.
The whole story revolves over the birthmark that is located in on Georgiana's cheek and how her husband doesn't like it.

It symbolizes her uniqueness from the other women. It identifies her. Yet Her husband defines it as a “defect” (Hawthorne) in her perfectness. He wanted to change her appearance into what he considers to be beautiful but doing an experiment on her. He is overpowering her own self-confidence and self-love by shuttering her. Georgina got conceived by her husband to make her “flawless”. She came to say “either remove this dreadful hand , it take my life way.” ( Hawthorne) Meaning she preferred to be dead than alive and her husband finding her imperfect. Aylmer is determining what is beautiful and what is not on his own terms. And the wife just follows what he desires. Men, such as Aylmer, are made in controlled if what is the real beauty which they believe it is on the outside. He sees her as an object of beauty. He cares about what is on the outside and not the

inside.
The author's purpose in the short story is very powerful. The general purpose of Hawthorne's writing is to show the readers that obsession leads to doing the wrong things. Aylmer doesn't just love science, he is described to be obsessed with it. It is believed by the readers that he loves it more than his wife. To support this observation of purpose, as a reader, he can tell he only spends times with Georgiana to study to the birthmark. The purpose I got from the short story is that beauty is within us. It is a basic moral purpose. To show the readers what we can only define what is beautiful within ourselves, no one else should. Men should not define what is beautiful in women by just looking at her physical appearance. Beauty comes within you. It also shows us how women need to step up and not being overshadowed by what men think. I got this purpose because the short story was written in a time women began to stand up for themselves and what they believe in. They were speaking up and believing their own things.
Women are held back to think of what they find outer beauty is and how they themselves should look without a male perspective. As a reader myself, I believe we can still apply Nathaniel's values from the story into our current human experiences because still in our society we see this. Women want to change their appearance due to what men this is beautiful such as a skinny waist and big buttocks. And as women are starting to change their mind we are reflecting that we should determine what is beauty in women since we are woman and man is a man.