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Who Is To Blame In The Birthmark

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Failure to distance yourself from toxic people can be fatal. A literary portrayal of this can be seen in The Birthmark. Aylmer and Georgiana’s emotionally abusive relationship ended with the death of Georgiana. Although some may argue that Georgiana’s death is her own fault, she is not to blame. Aylmer thought Georgiana’s birthmark was imperfect and wanted to remove it. Aylmer is to blame for Georgiana’s death by showing her how much he hated the birthmark and by eventually making her hate it herself, causing her to allow him to remove it. Georgiana loved Aylmer so much she was willing to change the way she looks to make him happy. She saw how disgusted he was with her and she couldn’t take it. “Pray do not look at it again. I never can …show more content…

In this quote, Georgiana is explaining how she likes her birthmark. She says this after Aylmer asks her if she had ever thought of getting it removed. Georgiana did not want to have it removed, she thought it was a charm. This is the first time Aylmer brings up the birthmark and Georgiana is completely devastated. This quote is the most important quote in the whole story because it proves Georgiana did like her birthmark at some point. If Georgiana never liked her birthmark it would be a different story, she would have had it removed for herself; but she had loved her birthmark and got it removed for Aylmer’s happiness, not her own. “Not even Aylmer now hated it as much as she” (Hawthorne, 297). All the things Aylmer said and did resulted in Georgiana hating her birthmark. She was told and shown, so often, how vile it was that she finally believed it; he made her believe it. An ordinary, beautiful, admired woman was dispossessed of her own self-worth by the man whom she was married to. He abused her into hating her birthmark. Georgiana would of not died on that day if Aylmer had not caused her to hate something she once appreciated about

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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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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.

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When Aylmer and Georgiana got married, Georgiana was taken from her mothers home, making her complete dependent on Aylmer and his opinions. In addition to this, Aylmer’s belief hat he is better than God, and has the ability to remove Georgiana’s birthmark, creates inequality in their relationship. Finally, due to Georgiana’s obsession with what Aylmer thinks of her, paired with Aylmer's rude looks and comments, leads her to do something

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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

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627 Words | 3 Pages

Georgiana had thought her birthmark to be an asset and a charm to those who laid eyes on her. It was an addition to her overwhelming beauty. However, upon marriage to Aylmer her opinion changed. Aylmer had said to her, ’"

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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.

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It shows that our flaws make up a large part of who we are which make it very difficult to separate the two. To remove it would only result in failure. Aylmer finally is able to remove “the last crimson tint of the birthmark -- that sole token of human imperfection” (13). The mark shows that people are inherently imperfect and it’s what makes us human. Once Aylmer removes that imperfection, Georgiana dies because it is impossible to obtain perfection as a person.

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In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story “The Birthmark” Aylmer is a successful scientist who decides to step away from his work to get married. He marries a woman named Georgiana. She is described as a beautiful woman with a birthmark on her cheek. After marrying Georgiana, Aylmer becomes fixated on the birthmark and soon becomes frightened of it.

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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

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Georgiana is a representation of human life and her birthmark is a symbol of the deep-rooted imperfections all humans have. Aylmer begins to dream about her birthmark which leads him to believe that the mark is more than just a physical imperfection but linked to who she is as a person. This symbolism shows that the imperfections in humans are related to what makes a person unique. The understanding that human imperfections will never be removed leads the reader to know that the only way for Georgiana to be perceived as perfect would to be inhuman. Aylmer eliminated her one imperfection and erased her humanity with it.

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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.

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A character having an ability to be an influence of fatality is a dangerously powerful trait to have. The victim’s life is placed into the hands of the influencer. This power of fatality can be seen within Robert Frost’s poem, “Out, Out,” when a personified buzz saw cuts the hand off the boy using it. This injury causes him to die. This power of fatality can also be seen in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story, “The Birthmark,” a scientist, named Aylmer creates a risky and unreliable potion that was expected to remove his wife’s birthmark but, it ultimately kills her.

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The phrase “No, dearest Georgiana, you came so nearly perfect from the hand of Nature, that this slightest possible defect, which we hesitate whether to term a defect or a beauty, shocks me, as being the visible mark of earthly imperfection”(212) was used to illustrate a point of Aylmer's obsession with the mark and how he is not satisfied with his wife's current aesthetics. Aylmer loves Georgiana

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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.

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2.2. THE GREAT GATSBY Considered as Fitzgerald’s masterpiece, The Great Gatsby offers a similar point of view about women in the 1920s. In this novel, there are three remarkable female characters. The first of them is Daisy Buchanan, the leading female character.

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