Examples Of Gender Bias In The Birthmark

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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 …show more content…

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 …show more content…

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

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