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Examples Of Tragic Flaws In The Birthmark

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Many children and teenagers will get in sticky situations and ask their parents for advice. Their parents will then respond by telling their kids about their past experiences in a similar situation to help their kids not make the same mistakes that they made. Just as parents try to help their kids not make the same mistakes that they made, tragic flaws do the same in literature. For example, in “The Birthmark” by Nathanial Hawthorne, both Aylmer and Georgiana possess tragic flaws that can be used to teach the audience how to not make the same mistakes that led to their tragedy (Hawthorne 10).

What is a tragic flaw? According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, a tragic flaw is a flaw in a character that brings about the downfall of the hero …show more content…

Aylmer’s tragic flaw was that he seeked perfection in every aspect of his life and if a part of his life was not perfect, he had to change or fix it. Aylmer, not long after marrying Georgiana, began to complain about the birthmark that laid on her left cheek. While everyone else in the community thought of Georgiana’s birthmark as beautiful, Aylmer thought the birthmark was a “symbol of imperfection” (Hawthorne 2). Aylmer is determined to make his wife perfect by removing her birthmark. He later tells her that he has found a solution that would take the mark off of her cheek. Georgiana's submissiveness to her husband causes her to agree to have the birthmark removed. This will later lead to the tragedy that takes place in this …show more content…

The responsibility for the tragedy that took place in “The Birthmark” is equally shared between the couple. Aylmer’s search and desire for perfection and Georgiana’s submissiveness to her husband led to the downfall that took place in the story. Aylmer convinces Georgiana to let him use a potion that he has created to remove the birthmark. Overall, the potion was not successful because even though it removed the birthmark, it also caused the tragedy of the story: the death of Georgiana (Hawthorne 10). The tragedy of this story could have been avoided if Aylmer would have loved his wife for the way she was and didn’t expect her to look a certain way or be his vision of perfect. Secondly, if Georgiana would not have listened to the opinions of her husband and realized the only opinion about herself that matters is her own, the tragedy would not have taken

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