In the short story, “The Birthmark” by Nathaniel Hawthorne, The main character Aylmer realizes his wife's imperfections and tries to change her for forever. Told in 3rd person point-of-view, Hawthorne supports this idea by showing that he loves his wife very much but her having that birthmark isn't good enough and that sometimes changing people has consequences which develop the conflict between Aylmer and his wife and incorporating many symbols throughout the story. Hawthorne’s purpose in the story is to examine how people deal will other people's flaws and how they try to change them. Hawthorne begins his story by showing how Aylmer does not like her birthmark and how he wants to remove it. Aylmer in the story is a big scientist and it starts off with him only caring about science. He eventually puts down his test tubes long enough to marry his beautiful wife Georgiana. Once they are married he starts to realize that she has a birthmark on her face the shape of a hand …show more content…
She starts to get all depressed and makes her feel uncomfortable about her mark. In the end, Aylmer tries to remove the mark and when doing so he ends up killing his wife. The mark was connected to her life and when you take it from her she can't live anymore. That shows how there are some consequences for when you try to change people. That is how in the story the, “The Birthmark” Aylmer the main character develops conflict between him and his wife and suffers the consequences from trying to change her. By him wanting to change his wife it made her very depressed. It made her feel awful about her birthmark and started to change her. In the end when she agrees to get it removed Aylmer kills his wife because the mark is connected to her life source. That is how this story shows that changing people lead to
Nobody is perfect and no one ever will be. This theme shows up often in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story, The Birthmark. In this story, a scientist named Aylmer becomes obsessed with removing a hand-shaped birthmark from his wife’s, Georgiana, visage. After a series of tests, he is successful, but Georgiana becomes perfect and can no longer stay in the mortal world, so she dies. The Birthmark demonstrates how foolish it is to strive for perfection and this is revealed throughout the story using narration.
Which leads him to the point of using science to remove the birth mark. Aylmer’s obsession of removing the birth mark led to the death of his wife, Georgina. Hawthorne uses Aylmer to present a common issue that individuals have. Furthermore, each scholar help better understand the theme of obsession and achieving a goal that leads individuals to a path of negativity because of individuals’ foolishness to achieve perfection, science vs naturality, and mental isolation.
Intro: Nathaniel Hawthorne’s fictional short story “The Birthmark” and The Twilight Zone’s darkly romantic episode “Eye of the Beholder” both use gothic elements and delve into the realm of science to explore concepts of beauty and perfection. Through their contrasting characterizations of the scientist and employments of irony and allusions, each work comes to its own conclusions about how to define and treat beauty. Body #1: The Birthmark From the very first paragraph, Hawthorne’s story revolves around Aylmer, a scientist who supposedly gives up his career to marry the beautiful woman of his dreams, Georgiana.
This overriding confidence makes him blind to his past failures and logical sense. Georgiana pointes out the faults Aylmer’s past experiments by saying, “His brightest diamonds were the merest pebbles, and felt to be so by himself, in comparison with the inestimable gems which lay hidden beyond his reach.” (Hawthorne, 217). This shows that Aylmer always reached for the unreliable and impossible overcomes when experimenting. This raises concern when Aylmer focuses on using his own wife as an experiment rather than the love of his life.
In The Birthmark, Hawthorne depicts the obsession for perfection, the tole it takes on one and the consequences it has. The quest for perfection is unrealistic and unobtainable as we are only mere humans incapable of reconstructing our DNA. In The Birthmark, Hawthorne tells the story of a woman named Georgiana and her scientist husband Aylmer, who are both fixated on a birthmark similar to the look of a tiny human hand. Aylmer is disgusted by Georgiana’s birthmark, wanting to please her husband Georgiana is willing to do anything for him to look at her in a normal manner “Danger is nothing to me;for life which this hateful mark
Obsessed with the birthmark of Georgiana, Aylmer actions and dreams define the tone for the entire piece. Dreaming about the removal of Georgiana's' birthmark Aylmer states “but the deeper went the knife, the deeper sank the hand, until at length its tiny grasp appeared to have caught hold of Georgiana's
Aylmer attempts for perfection and never reaches it, nevertheless Georgiana Says she reverences him now more than ever, even as she gradually dies. When the birthmark was gone, so was her iniquity. This made her perfect, so she was no longer human. For the reason that she was no longer human so she dies. 2.A small red birthmark in the shape of a hand on her cheek.
The birthmark itself symbolizes morality. Aylmer, this brilliant scientist and husband to Georgiana, sees it has as fatal flaw. It also represents this imperfection of human nature. Nothing is perfect in nature, but science can help improve to make it seem flawless.
The Birthmark: This is the first time I read this story. I think the story is a tragedy, because at the end of the story Georgiana died. I feel bad for her, because she did not do anything wrong. She is a charming woman who desires a better man. Aylmer is a horrible husband who does not appreciate her wife.
The hand serves as the image of mankind. Aylmer sees his wife’s birthmark as “the symbol of his wife’s liability to sin, sorrow, decay, and death” (2). The way he views the mark on her cheek serves as a reminder that death is inevitable for both him and Georgiana. It contrasts Aylmer’s idea of achieving perfection through science and it disturbs him. When Aylmer dreams of removing Georgiana’s birthmark, he sees that the hand’s “tiny grasp appeared to have caught hold of Georgiana’s heart; whence, however her husband was inexorably resolved to cut or wrench it away,” (3).
Symbolism in “The Birthmark” In “The Birthmark” Nathaniel Hawthorne gives us a story that is telling us on some level to accept your own, as well as other people's imperfections or it could destroy not only your relationship with them, but also your relationship with yourself. In this story Hawthorne uses symbolism to show us exactly how this kind of behavior can lead to not just ruining relationships, but in this case even death. In “The Birthmark” Hawthorne uses a wide variety of objects and people such as a withering flower, a birthmark, poison, Aylmer's dream and Georgiana's death, and even a character named Aminidab to symbolize that nobody is in fact perfect and we all must accept each others flaws in order to have good and healthy relationships.
Equally Aylmer and Dr. Rappiccini, both characters in Hawthorne’s works causes destruction of human life with selfish aims to perfect the woman of their choice. In the case of Aylmer’s love interest in science, just as with the case of Beatrice’s father, blinds him to the true beauty and humanity of the woman before him. Aylmer views Georgiana’s birthmark as a symbol of imperfection and tries to remove it. At the end of the story, Georgiana say, "My poor Aylmer," she repeated, with a more than human tenderness, "you have aimed loftily; you have done nobly. Do not repent that with so high and pure a feeling, you have rejected the best the earth could offer.
“Good fiction creates empathy. A novel takes you somewhere and asks you to look through the eyes of another person, to live another life”. (Barbara Kingsolver) Fiction is an imaginary thing or event, postulated for the purposes of argument or explanation as defined by Dictionary.com. There are many literary devices that writers incorporate into their works. The main reason literary devices are used is to connect with the reader.
In “The Birth-Mark” symbolism and figurative language is used to help describe Aylmer and his feelings for his wife’s birthmark. Aylmer’s wife loves her birthmark and couldn’t imagine not having.
Aylmer's determination to remove the birthmark may symbolize his fear of death. Alymer has faith in his own power and abilities. In removing this birthmark he believes he can alter his