Georgiana's Destruction In 'The Birthmark' By Nathaniel Hawthorne

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In the short story “The Birthmark,” Nathaniel Hawthorne recounts a tale of a man who becomes so obsessed with a birthmark on his wife’s cheek that he completely disregards everything else about her, objectifying her to the point where he treats her like an experiment rather than someone he actually cares about. Aylmer’s neurotic captivation with Georgiana’s birthmark and his unreasonable desire to perfect his wife leads to her crippling self-loathing and ultimately her demise. Hawthorne not only exposes the destruction that a relationship such as theirs causes but cautions against the idea of complete obedience and devotion from a wife to her husband. At first, Georgiana is a confident person, assured in her own beauty and unique allure. When …show more content…

One night Georgiana overhears a dream he has in which he tries to remove her birthmark but ends up having to cut out her heart. Upset, she confronts him, and he admits to the dream, informing her in more depth about his abhorrence of the blemish on her cheek. By this point, Georgiana’s self-esteem is practically nonexistent and she has grown tired of her husband’s constant repulsed looks. Indeed, she now refers to the birthmark as “terrible” and tries to hide it from her husband’s view when he looks at her. In light of his dream, she tells him “Danger is nothing to me; for life, while this hateful mark makes me the object of your horror and disgust—life is a burden which I will fling down with joy” (Hawthorne 140). Aylmer’s relentless preoccupation with her birthmark has affected her so deeply that she would rather die than be on the receiving end of his revulsion any …show more content…

He reprimands her for entering his lab without warning and accuses her of not trusting him, to which Georgiana replies that it is he who does not trust her. She lets on that she knows very well that the procedure may not be successful but insists that he go on with it anyways. Aylmer’s treatment of his wife as an object that has to be fixed to fit his idea of a perfect woman has proved to be so detrimental to her self-worth that she willingly risks her own death to make him happy. Aylmer, on the contrary, cares little for the happiness of Georgiana. He is so engrossed in experimenting and removing her birthmark that he does not talk to her unless it is about the procedure or his own achievements, and he can barely stand to look at her. While Georgiana does everything in her power to make sure her husband is content, Aylmer thinks only of

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