“The Birth-Mark” was written in 1844; by Nathaniel Hawthorne. The story describes Aylmer as a successful scientist. He discovers many mysteries of nature, such as what causes volcanoes and earthquakes; however, it is ironic that even though the story was written in the 1840s, which was the peak of the second great awakening, Aylmer did not believe in God. Georgiana is Aylmer’s faithful wife. She is born with a birth-mark in the form of a very tiny hand on her left cheek. Everybody adores this mark
defying nature can be seen again when he is discussing the mark on Georgiana’s cheek. “’No, dearest Georgiana, you came so nearly perfect from the hand of Nature, that this slightest possible defect, which we hesitate whether to term a defect or a beauty, shocks me, as being the visible mark of earthly imperfection’” (Hawthorne 219). This shows Aylmer is not trying to remove the mark as an act of love, but instead trying to remove the mark because it symbolizes a stain of imperfection by nature.
The Birth-Mark The Birth-Mark is a piece of literary work that demonstrates the struggles between Man vs. Nature. The short story epitomes of the 1800s, is a time where the field of philosophy began to grow. It is believed that the only way people can learn is through experimentation and observation. The theme of The Birth-Mark can clearly be perceived as the foolishness of striving for perfection. Throughout the story a natural philosopher named Aylmer is famous for his scientific discoveries
Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Birth-Mark” Written in the 1840’s, “The Birth-Mark” by Nathaniel Hawthorne shows a man’s battle with human perfection. In the story, Aylmer has a beautiful wife named Georgiana. Aylmer feels his wife is beautiful but not perfect. The one thing standing in the way of her being perfect is a small crimson colored birth-mark on her face (Hawthorne). Superficially, the story appears to be about a scientist’s obsession with removing the birth-mark from his wife’s face. However
Obsession with perfection in the short story “The Birth Mark” by Nathaniel Hawthorne has a lot of the same issues we see in society today. Everyone strives to be perfect, but nobody can quite get there. In this short story, it is the classic tale of a woman, Georgiana, trying to be perfect for her husband, Aylmer. Georgiana caused her own death trying to be a truly perfect wife for her husband. Georgiana is a beautiful woman, and like any other woman, wants to please her husband. Aylmer is a scientist
The short story “The Birth-Mark” written by Nathaniel Hawthorne in 1843. Set in the late eighteenth century, the recent invention of electricity increased the faith of many in the potential control of nature. The main character Aylmer, an avid lover of science, is one of those people. Aylmer soon weds his girlfriend Georgiana and slightly divides his devotion to science for his wife. As much as Aylmer seems to love Georgiana, he is perplexed and oddly bothered by a birthmark in the shape of a hand
Journal critic, John Lammers, writes Powers’ Eve Tempted: Sculpture and ‘The Birth-Mark to discuss his perspective of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Birth-Mark” and how the famous Powers’ Eve Tempted sculpture parallels with the message of the story. Hawthorne’s short story delays the message of even the most perfect creation has flaws. Lammers concludes that Georgiana’s physical characteristic of a birthmark is an indication of her life. Hawthorne makes the birthmark intertwined within Georgiana’s heart
Hawthorne’s short story “The Birth-Mark” is a story symbolic of society’s tendency to pressure on an individual to conform. Georgiana is an ideal wife; she is beautiful, happy, and, most of all, puts her husband’s happiness over her own. She is so shocked to learn that her husband, Aylmer, finds her birthmark appalling, that when he proposes to experiment on it, she is willing to subject herself to the tests to please him. Eventually, though Aylmer is able to eradicate the mark he feels disfigures her
In the short story The Birth-mark, Aylmer: scientist, philosopher and perfectionist, is married to Georgiana, a woman of unthinkable beauty and possibly the closest woman to ever reach perfection. However, the tiny hand shaped mark that lay on the surface of her cheek aggravates Aylmer and he thinks day and night of how he may get rid of it in order to help Georgiana reach the perfection that he longs for. The actions that he proceeds to take, prove that he is indeed the villain and the one to blame
Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Birth-Mark” unfolds during the nineteenth century; a time when women had rights unequal to those of men, and were also treated as property without value by their husbands. Nathaniel Hawthorne’s narrative offers a negative portrayal of how men in these patriarchal societies take advantage of the women. “The Birth-Mark” portrays Aylmer and Georgiana in a negative light when Georgiana resembles the patriarchal “good girl,” and surrenders herself to her husband. Readers can
Science” Portrayed in The Birth-Mark The Birth-Mark, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne in 1843, is a story about a scientist and his wife, whose relationship is greatly impacted by science. The scientist’s wife, Georgiana, has a crimson birth-mark on her left cheek that is shaped like a hand. The scientist, Aylmer, loathes the birth-mark on Georgiana’s face, and he desperately desires to conduct a scientific experiment to remove the unique mark. In Hawthorne’s, The Birth-Mark, the theme, “love for a
Humans have been known to seek perfection/true beauty for centuries, yet there has always been a limit to these ventures. Hawthorne’s “The Birth-Mark” shows us the extent of action that an obsessed scientist will conduct, even to his own wife, in the hopes of obtaining perfection without knowing the depth of true beauty. Aylmer becomes disgusted/obsessed with his wife Georgiana’s birthmark that is shaped like a small crimson colored hand. He acknowledges that his wife is beautiful and the narrator
“The Birth-mark” and “Ligeia” both reveal the destructive effects of obsession with perfection on the principal male and female characters. “The Birth-mark” is a story about a young woman, Georgiana, whose husband convinces her that the removal of her birthmark will make her perfect and pure. “Ligeia” is a story about another young woman, Rowena, who is driven to sickness and death because of her husband’s obsession with his former “perfect” wife and her inability to measure up. These separate husbands
The words “beautiful” and “perfect” are both vague yet relative concepts as they are defined from person to person. In Hawthorne’s “The Birth Mark,” imperfections perceived by one are also seen as defining in beauty by another. Perfection, as sought by Aylmer, became an obsession which in the end required Georgiana to undergo a process of transmutation to become perfect and therefore a more desirable human being in Aylmer’s eyes. The concept of “bodily perfection” remains the same today as it was
In addition to his other works, Hawthorne’s “The Birth-Mark” is another example of female inferiority in society. Unlike The Scarlet Letter and “Old Esther Dudley,” which focus on the strength of women, “The Birth-Mark” focuses on the importance society places on female beauty. Aylmer, a scientist, marries the beautiful Georgiana, but she has one flaw: a red birthmark resembling a “human hand, though of the smallest pigmy size.” Aylmer asks Georgiana if she has ever considered having it removed since
“The Birth-Mark” is a short story that was written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, which was published in march of 1843. This story is about a scientist, Aylmer, who is obsessed with physical perfection. It is important to mention that he is a scientist, since they are known for wanting things to be golden. Aylmer is married to a beautiful and caring woman, Georgina. According to to her husband the only “flaw” she has is the small red birthmark on her cheek that is shaped like a tiny hand. He points this
century writer, Nathaniel Hawthorne, was writing about feminine beauty and the lengths man will go to in order to achieve that physical perfection long before the era of “America’s Next Top Model” and “Nip/Tuck”. Hawthorne’s classic tale “The Birth-mark” seems to caution against “perfecting” nature’s beauty through the use of science. “The Birthmark” introduces us to a fervent scientist, Aylmer, who marries a beautiful young woman, Georgiana. Try as he might, Aylmer cannot keep his passions
Nathaniel Hawthorne’s clear insight about humanity diseases, sins and quarrels, and, along with these conflicts, their paradoxes influences one of his finest works, “The Birth-Mark”( ). Interestingly, the Grimm Brothers’ “Snow White and the Seven Dwarves” tells a similar story through symbolism and character development. Both authors use symbolism to establish the bridge between life and the state of death and to show sign of dominance. In addition, the parallelism between the two stories demonstrates
In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story “The Birth-Mark”, Aylmer is plagued by the smallest mark on his wife’s cheek and eventually kills her in an attempt to remove it. I explored what happened after her death and instead of following Hawthorne’s ending where Aylmer is pleasantly surprised with the removal of Georgiana’s birthmark, I looked at what might happen if the birthmark stayed on her cheek. I wanted to delve deeper into the true madness of his character and how he might come to the realization
As the years pass, we begin to forget the little insignificant things while keeping the memories that somehow evolutionarily change our outlook or emphasizes it. The Birth-Mark, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, is a story that dramatizes the very thing I despise, which is when men objectify women. “A man of science,” Aylmer, could not see his wife’s birthmark as a “charm” but as a symbol of imperfection while her admirers dreamed of the chance to lay their lips upon Georgiana’s hand-shaped charm. Aylmer’s