ipl-logo

Summary Of The Birthmark

326 Words2 Pages
The story about The Birthmark is about a scientist named Aylmer who is in love with his work, but at the same time he is love with a young woman named Georgiana. Later Aylmer and Georgiana get married, however Aylmer slowly beings to pay close attention to Georgiana’s birthmark on her cheek. The narrator describes the shape of the birthmark as a little hand and due to its shape Georgiana believes it’s from a fairy that has blessed her. Aylmer one night brings up Georgiana’s birthmark and suggest why she doesn’t get rid of it, at that moment Georgiana was insulted. Thus grew Aylmer’s obsession over the birthmark he could not stop thinking about it, he thought that it was a mark that signified as a sinful person. Georgiana and Aylmer started
Show More
Related
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.

Read More
801 Words | 4 Pages

In the text, Georgiana demonstrates her tolerance towards Alymer, as she remains obedient, and faithful, as his experiment reveals her a narrow chance of success. She is too tolerant to him, which made her easy to manipulate and control, as Hawthorn writes, “Much as he had accomplished, she could not but observe that his most splendid success were almost invariably failures, if compared with the ideal at which he aimed” (8). Although she noticed the slight chance of success, she still viewed her husband as a god, who she must not reason with further. Jane, on the other hand was intolerant to her husband. She was aware of the mistreatment by her husband, which ultimately compelled her to get revenge against him by making him faint, as Gilman writes “Now why should that man have fainted?

Read More
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.

Read More
590 Words | 3 Pages

The Birthmark The short story “The Birthmark” was written by Nathaniel Hawthorne in 1834. The story follows a brilliant, yet insane scientist named Aylmer. He creates so many brilliant inventions in hoping to improve his life; his wife is just as perfect, despite a small hand shaped birthmark on her cheek. While Georgiana is considered gorgeous and beautiful by hundreds of men, only Aylmer sees the fault in the birthmark and deems it as a flaw that only he can fix with science. Nathaniel Hawthorne uses symbolism and figurative language to help convey the meaning of the short story to readers.

Read More
791 Words | 4 Pages

Georgiana’s dependance on Aylmer, the inequality of the relationship and Aylmer’s disregard for her feelings, are the main ingredients of Aylmer and Georgiana’s unhealthy relationship. Georgiana’s dependance on Aylmer contributes to their unhealthy relationship. When Aylmer and Georgiana got married, Georgiana was taken from her mother's house, forcing her to live an isolated life with Aylmer. Georgiana says, “Then why did you take me from my mother’s side? You can not love what shocks you!”

Read More
871 Words | 4 Pages

Georgiana took note of Aylmer’s displeasure of the birthmark from the dream and through his stealthy stare, causing Georgina displeasure (Nathaniel Hawthorne 114). Aylmer’s further loathing of the birthmark, causes Georgiana to give up for the sake of his happiness. She tells, Aylmer after bringing up the conversation of the birthmark, “Either remove this dreadful hand, or take my wretched life!” (Nathaniel Hawthorne 114). Aylmer could have avoided tragedy, however he failed to listen to his assistant Aminadab, who stated he would “never part with that birthmark” (Nathaniel Hawthorne 114).

Read More
824 Words | 4 Pages

The first and most important use of symbolism we receive is that of the birthmark. We learn that, “in the centre of Georgians's left cheek, there was a singular mark, deeply interwoven, as it were, with the texture and substance of her face” (205). Upon further reading Hawthorne tells us that, “Its shape bore not a little similarity to the human hand” (205). Georgiana had a birthmark right in the middle of her left cheek that resembled a tiny hand in which Aylmer thought was very imperfect. The birthmark symbolizes mortality or an imperfection of

Read More
717 Words | 3 Pages

In the story “The Birthmark” by Nathaniel Hawthorne, he uses several techniques to help build his story. Hawthorne tells a story of a man of science whose name was Aylmer. He married a beautiful women named Georgiana, although she was quite beautiful she had a birthmark on her face which, in Aylmer’s eyes was an imperfection. Aylmer tries to perfect Georgiana, but in the end Aylmer’s attempts to change Georgiana causes him to lose her. Aylmer does not accept the idea of imperfections in people.

Read More
408 Words | 2 Pages

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).

Read More
619 Words | 3 Pages

The author does this to give us the impression that the birthmark is no ordinary birthmark, but that it has some sort of mystical tie to Georgiana. Another example is how the story talks of how Georgiana was like a celestial being after Aylmer had relieved her of her only flaw but he regretted removing it for it also ridded

Read More
947 Words | 4 Pages

At the end of the story Aylmer regretted pressuring his wife to change herself and feels remorseful for what he did. The Birthmark follows the struggles of man versus nature and man versus self. The main character Aylmer suffered no not being about to accept the flaws of his wife but also the fact that he cannot do everything, mostly because it is not his place to do these things. As the story develops the need for Aylmer to reach perfection grows stronger and later kills his wife.

Read More
573 Words | 3 Pages

Aylmer’s views on perfection led to the demise of Georgiana. He skewed Georgiana’s views by making it seem that if she wasn’t perfect then he could not love her. Throughout the process Georgiana was scared of her husband’s actions but she was made to believe that what he was doing was normal so she went along with it.

Read More
549 Words | 3 Pages

His obsession over the birthmark became overwhelming for his loving wife, to the point where she feels as if “a red-hot iron had touched her cheek” whenever the birthmark is mentioned. While she once referred to her mark as a “charm” she changes her tone to describe it negatively after she now associates it as the object of Aylmer’s “horror and disgust.” To intensify Aylmer’s obsession leading to Georgiana’s insecurity, it is mentioned that he did not think about the birthmark until after they had married, after Georgiana had grown to love Aylmer and his view of her

Read More
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

Read More
717 Words | 3 Pages

Here is a story of Aylmer, “a man of science,” who had a wife who was known for her beauty and her “hand-shaped birthmark.” Although perfect in the eyes of her admirers, her husband did not agree for the birthmark grew more and more intolerable for him in their lives together. As the days went on, Georgina became bothered by the way her husband would react towards her presence, towards the mark upon her cheek. She then agrees to allow Aylmer to remove her birthmark, even after reading his past experiment failures. This mistake brings his “peerless bride,” Georgiana, to her demise (Hawthorne 350).

Read More

More about Summary Of The Birthmark

Related Topics

Open Document