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Compare And Contrast Rappaccini's Daughter And The Birthmark

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Natural Beauty is Perfection Itself In the short stories “The Birthmark” and “Rappaccini’s Daughter” by Nathaniel Hawthorne, the value of science over human life is established. Nathaniel Hawthorne explores the characterization of beauty, emotion over love, versus intellect over science, and an exploration of creator over creation. He presents an idea about scientific research, especially regarding feminine beauty. These tales are told with a motive to give the audience a sympathetic understanding of women’s beauty; which is something precious and already the model of nature’s perfection. Beauty is illustrated through the characters in both stories. In Rappaccini’s Daughter, Beatrice is “with as much richness of taste as the most splendid of the flowers, beautiful as the day, and with a bloom so deep and vivid that one shade more would have been too much. She looked redundant with life, health, and energy; all of which attributes were bound down and compressed, as it were, and girdled tensely, in their luxuriance, by her …show more content…

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. Aylmer, dearest Aylmer, I am dying" (Hawthorne 350). Unfortunately, the cost of getting rid of the birthmark was connected to her heart and the dangerousness was not understood until it was too

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1165 Words | 5 Pages

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.

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502 Words | 3 Pages

Georgiana at first didn’t care that she had the mark on her face. She enjoyed the mark because she had been told by many people that “some fairy at her birth hour had laid her tiny hand upon the infant’s cheek”. But eventually, in her eyes it seemed like a devil had laid his hand upon her cheek. This fairy vs. devil symbolizes the way that Aylmer changes her point of view of the birthmark in a negative way. As the male authority figure Aylmer is convincing her to change her looks, whether she wants to or not.

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781 Words | 4 Pages

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.

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523 Words | 3 Pages

(147) At the end of the story, Aylmer accomplishes the surgical procedure of removing the birth mark; however, it killed his wife in the process. Hawthorne uses The Birth Mark as a lesson to be learned that everyone cannot be perfect. Georgiana represents the closest state to perfection that someone can get in this world; although, Aylmer is not satisfied with that. Howard states, “Aylmer feels that the mark may render him unnecessary to Georgiana.(135)

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947 Words | 4 Pages

Aylmer, dearest Aylmer, I am dying! ¨. In this quote Aylmer had developed a cure that was used to get rid of a birthmark on his wife Georgiana's face. But as the birthmark went away so did Georgiana's life. In this poem, the author was conveying the same point that the other author had conveyed but in a different manner. The knowledge of getting rid of Georgiana's birthmark led to her death just as in Frankenstein the knowledge of creating life led to the death of Victor's

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208 Words | 1 Pages

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.

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791 Words | 4 Pages

In the short story “The Birthmark”, Nathaniel Hawthorne writes about a scientist, his wife, and the unhealthy relationship they share. The story follows Aylmer, a scientist, who is determined to remove his wife Georgiana’s birthmark. One aspect of their unhealthy relationship is Georgiana’s sole dependance on Aylmer. Furthermore, Aylmer does not view Georgiana as his equal. Not only this, but Aylmer frequently belittles her, continuously pointing out her flaws, which drives her to do something dangerous.

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1079 Words | 5 Pages

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.

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1526 Words | 7 Pages

From the late 18th century to the mid-19th century America began to experience Romanticism; a period where emotions, spiritual understanding, and a close relationship with nature were emphasized. Romanticism is clearly the style used in Hawthorne’s “The Birthmark” not to mention it is chalked full of symbolism in light of one man’s obsession with nature, science, perfection, and Georgiana. The birthmark resembling a “tiny crimson hand” imprinted on Georgiana’s cheek is clearly a form of symbolism used to represent many concepts in this great literary piece. Many may interpret “the hand” to symbolize such things as mortality, imperfection, humanity, the hand of nature, the hand of God, or even a liability of sin.

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408 Words | 2 Pages

Aylmer believes that he can correct “what Nature left imperfect in her fairest work!” (4). Aylmer, who stands as a symbol for science, obsessively seeks to remove Georgiana’s birthmark and make her ideal. When mankind attempts to change nature in the pursuit of perfection, it never ends well as seen in Aylmer’s attempts at

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465 Words | 2 Pages

Aylmer is trying to change something that Nature has produced, and in most cases, man loses when playing God. The birthmark fades as the wife dies. Hawthorne wrote a story injected with symbols about the dangers of symbols. Why would he do that? Examples are often times the best ways to teach and learn.

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739 Words | 3 Pages

Throughout our lives, we as people encounter decisive perseverance that ultimately defines who we are as people, and how we are perceived by others; an enduring sequence of life brought on by humanity. In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story “The Birthmark”, a prodigious alchemist named Aylmer experiences toilsome perseverance while attempting to remove an odious birthmark residing on the face of his beautiful, but imperfect wife Georgiana; going to extremes to assist in its removal. Aylmer performs many trials of experiments on his wife as he faces his intolerable predilection to restore perfection to his wife; forming a costly rivalry between love and science. Philosophy and science have always been significantly impactful topics throughout history, aiding in the development of new technologies and unprecedented topics; a burning passion for which Aylmer possessed within his intertwining worlds of both his wife and his laboratory. Along with Aylmer's exceptionally intimate

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989 Words | 4 Pages

The short story “The Birthmark”, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, plunges the readers into the dramatic atmosphere of scientific endeavors. A multitude of emotions arise as the protagonist, a prominent scientist, wishes to remove a birthmark appearing on the cheek of his lovely wife. However, Georgiana seems to disagree with the venture, as readers feel she is seriously threaten by the removal of her birthmark, which could be seen as the impurity among her gorgeousness. The presence of science in the story releases an element anxiousness as it is portrayed somewhat threatening for the readers. Multiple elements of the story sustain the anxious viewpoint of science as readers endure a vast range of negative emotions.

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416 Words | 2 Pages

The Price of Perfection Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote the short story “The Birthmark” in 1843 and it is set at a time when science was an emerging field. Science at that time was unexplainable and mysterious to the common person which lead to it being referred to as magic. One of the themes that is common in Hawthorne's work is the sinful nature and impurity that is at the heart of each person. Hawthorne shows the dilemma of the flawed nature of a person and the ultimate price of perfection that will be paid.

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1139 Words | 5 Pages

The true essence of “The Birthmark” is infiltrated through the hidden structure of the strength of a woman. As we unpack the passion behind the obsession that Aylmer presents with his genius in science, on the surface, one may recognize his obscenity and categorize it as a reflection of masculine control. Though, this is in fact true, what strikes as an unbeknownst strength is the hidden sacrifice that Georgiana represents as she succumbs to her spouse and his desire to make her “perfect”. As Hawthorne structures this sacrifice as a mere testament of how women of the late 1700’s - 1800’s valued the perspective of their spouse, it is necessary to extract how this act of selflessness attributes to the amount of love and respect Georgiana has for

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