The Birthmark Essay examples

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Demonstrating one’s fascination and ethical downfalls can lead to a question of how they see themselves. This then pursues society to act on what is right and what is normal or to them, perfection. Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Birthmark” illustrates this theme very clearly. Aylmer, the main character has the dream of being a famous alchemist. He becomes very obsessed with this idea but sets his goals to high that he cannot achieve them. Aylmer is constantly seeking for perfection but seems to fail constantly as demonstrated in the story. As Aylmer is still trying to achieve perfection he marries Georgiana who has one imperfection on her body. For Aylmer this becomes another obsession and he must fix it immediately. This is where the conflict occurs and Aylmer sees his wife’s birthmark on her cheek as a defect that must be removed. Georgiana is beautiful but because of one small imperfection Aylmer becomes fascinated with the elimination of her birthmark. Georgiana explains to Aylmer that her birthmark has become a charm to her but Aylmer replies “No, dearest Georgiana, you came so nearly perfect from the hand of Nature, that this slightest possible defect, which we hesitate to term a defect of a beauty, shocks me, as being the visible mark of earthly imperfection”. Aylmer even believed that this birthmark might be a sign of his wife’s faults or mistakes that she has made. Georgiana then questions her own birthmark when Aylmer begins to dream about removing her birthmark

The Birthmark Analysis

“The Birthmark” by Nathanial Hawthorne is an ironic love story. This story explores the conflicts between the love of a woman and the love of science. Simply put the main character Aylmer seeks perfection to a deadly fault, and wants to remove the birthmark on his wife Georgiana’s face. He throws caution, logic, and likability to the wind in a dramatically drawn-out story where he predictably kills the woman he loves just to get rid of a silly birthmark on her cheek. Aylmer is not capable of true…

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Perfection In The Birthmark

attempts to change nature for that very intention. Georgiana, a beautiful, young woman married to a scientist by the name of Alymer, has become a living, breathing experiment. Her appearance is nearly perfect, except for a single red hand shaped birthmark that rests upon her cheek – her fatal flaw. After marriage, Aylmer begins to despise his wife’s single visible imperfection. He persuades Georgiana to allow him to remove the…

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The Birthmark Symbolism

The birthmark on Georgiana’s face symbolizes humanity. Hawthorne lets us know that it also equally representing her flaws. It is human nature to be mortal and imperfect; it’s okay because we’re all just human. He argues this belief in this story. Aylmer believes that the birthmark is hideous, and a major flaw in his wife. He considers it to be completely unattractive. This makes want to remove the birthmarks from Georgiana’s face completely. This represents humanity’s want to remove the flaws and…

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The Birthmark Essay

Summary/ Critique of “The Birthmark” by Nathaniel Hawthorne Summary In “The Birthmark,” the main characters are Aylmer and Georgiana. Aylmer is a brilliant scientist and natural philosopher who left his scientific work for a while to marry a woman named Georgiana. Georgiana‘s beauty is well known throughout the entire town. Aylmer is amazed by Georgiana’s perfection, except for one little flaw on her face, a birthmark on her cheek. Georgiana's birthmark is very tiny. It disappears when she…

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The Birthmark Essay

Task 3:B In the short story, “The Birthmark,” Nathaniel Hawthorne incorporates gender roles in his portrayal of Georgiana, the bride of Aylmer. Georgiana is by all accounts a beautiful woman with one small flaw. She has a very small deep red birthmark in the center of her cheek. Shortly after marrying, Alymer asked about the mark and wanted to know if she ever thought about having it removed. To this she replied, “it has so often been called a charm that I was simple enough to imagine it might…

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The Birthmark Essay

Cody Stewart The Birthmark 1. Aylmer doesn’t recognize how beautiful his young wife is. Instead, he notices the one minor flaw of the small red mark on her cheek. Many others had appreciated it, but he saw it as a huge flaw and imperfection. This compares to the contemporary obsession with physical perfection because what one person sees and finds attractive might be hideous to someone else. Another similarity to modern society is the fact that the one person that Georgiana loved more than…

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The Birthmark Analysis Essay

The Birthmark Analysis The Birthmark is a short story centered around the ideas of self-value and personal opinions on beauty. Georgiana is introduced to readers as the most beautiful person many people have ever seen. Hawthorne states that many women are jealous of her beauty and many men are envious that Aylmer got to call her his wife. Later in the story Aylmer becomes obsessed with the birthmark because he thinks that it represents the imperfection that is a mark of the world. He never values…

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The Birthmark Critical Analysis

Summary In Judith Fetterley’s critical essay on Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Birthmark”, she uses a feminist strategy to analyze his short story. The position she takes is that the story is a “demonstration of how to murder your wife and get away with it” (Fetterley). I do not think that he was actually trying to kill his wife, but I do think he was striving for perfection. In that quest, he did rid her of the birthmark; but the consequence was death. She argues that the story could not be told in…

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Tragic Flaws In The Birthmark

Consequences of Tragic Flaws In the short story “The Birthmark” by Nathaniel Hawthorne, tragic flaws are found in the two main characters and eventually leads them to their downfall. Fatal flaws are an essential component to this story because Hawthorne wanted to demonstrate the consequences they could bring. Therefore, both of the main characters can be held accountable for the reactions that occur at the end of the story. Even though one character may hold more of the blame, both Aylmer and…

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The Birthmark Literary Analysis

“…[It] was not unusual for the love of science to rival the love of woman in its depth and absorbing energy.” (Hawthorne In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story, “The Birthmark,” he describes how a love for science clashes with the love for women. The protagonist of the story, Aylmer, has a deep passion for science and creating potions. He strives to create the perfect image of a human, and his egocentric actions result in the death of Georgiana. Hawthorne uses this story to allow the reader to see…

Words 655 - Pages 3