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

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In “The Birthmark” by Nathaniel Hawthorne, one of the main characters has a birthmark across her face that the author directly says is a symbol of her mortality. Hawthorne states that it is reflective of her flaws and humanity. Her birthmark symbolizes how interwoven flaws are and how crucial they are to who a person is. The story would not exist without Georgiana’s birthmark; the small red handprint is crucial to her character and the conflict in the story. As her husband urges her to have it removed, we can see that he is unhappy with her imperfections and wishes her to be perfect both physically and spiritually. He wishes for her to be as beautiful as possible, “he found this one defect grow more and more intolerable with every moment

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