The Birth-Mark Essays

Disguised by Goals of Perfection: Analysis of Hawthorne’s “The Birth-Mark” An English proverb says, “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure.” Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Birth-Mark” portrays the human struggle of valuation as Aylmer, a scientist driven in his pursuit of perfection, relentlessly goes about making his wife acceptable. He sets a course to rid his wife, Georgiana, of a blemish on her cheek – the birth-mark. While the mark is despicable to Aylmer, many people find it to be endearing

regardless the cost correcting a deficiency. In “The Birth-Mark”, Nathaniel Hawthorne engages the reader in this moral tale about a scientist (Aylmer), a woman (Georgina), and a “pygmy size” (Hawthorne 6) birthmark. In this story, Hawthorne implies that Aylmer is infatuated with science more than he loves his wife and the obsession with getting rid of her birthmark becomes his new devotion and in the interim causes him to mistreat her. “The Birth-Mark” utilizes multiple themes; the most prominent is

from all flaws or defects. These scholars’ arguments contribute to the story, “The Birth-Mark”, Nathanial Hawthorne expresses the common personal issue that individuals possess. The Birth-Mark was about a man named Aylmer and his obsession of science and the birth mark on his wife’s face. The birth

The Text “The Birth-Mark” by Nathaniel Hawthorne is a story about interpretation and its lethal consequences. Hawthorne tells the story of Aylmer, a man of science, who is set on finding a way to remove his wife, Georgiana’s birth mark from her cheek to finally make her ‘perfect’. To the common eye, the birthmark appears to be a small, red handprint on a stunningly beautiful face, but to Aylmer, this mark is a penetrating stain on the face of his “nearly perfect” wife. In the end, his interpretations

“The Birth-mark” and “a Wall Of Fire Rising” are the stories of presenting the symbolism and figurative language. “The Birth-Mark” is written by Nathaniel Hawthorne and “A Wall Of Fire Rising” is written by Edwidge Danticat. In “The Birth-Mark”, it talks about there is a s couple and the wife is very beautiful. However, there is a birthmark on her face which the husband thinks that is a foreboding. therefore, the husband invents a medicine to eliminate the birthmark. The medicine successfully eliminated

The title of the short story “The Birth-Mark” reflects the strongest symbol in the story, the birthmark on Georgiana’s cheek. Throughout the story the birthmark is referenced in a variety of ways to show how it is diversely perceived by different people. Those different perceptions work in conjunction with the end of the story to portray the birthmark’s different symbolic meanings. Right away in the story the reader is given two different perceptions of the birthmark, one from Aylmer, Georgiana’s

In the short story, “The Birth-Mark” written by, Nathaniel Hawthorne, explains a husband seeing the imperfections of his beautiful wife. Aylmer, husband, was quite an intelligent scientist. Overtime Aylmer was disgusted by his wife's, Georgiana, birthmark however, everyones else thought she was very beautiful the way she was created. Aylmer convinced Georgiana to have her birthmark removed, leaving her thinking death was a better option than living with a hideous mark on her cheek that her husband

Erin Kellock Ms. Battle Engl. 112P 28 Aug. 2014 Is Beauty Only Skin Deep? Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Birth-Mark shows man’s struggle of accepting one’s true and natural beauty and sciences’ obsession with perfecting nature. In the tale of a 19th century scientist and his pursuit of removing the birthmark from his otherwise perfect wife, the reader sees how tight of a grip the human mind has over the soul. More striking though is the question brought about by how far one would go to defy nature with

Aylmer and Georgiana in “The Birth-Mark,” written by Nathaniel Hawthorne. In this story Aylmer successfully removes his wife's only imperfection- a hand-shaped birthmark on her cheek, consequently making her perfect. The results of this are disastrous, however, as Georgiana soon passes away. Georgiana's death due to the removal of her birthmark represents something more than what is actually written. The symbols shown by the birth-mark on Georgiana’s cheek in “The Birth-Mark”

Analyzation of The Birth Mark Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story “The Birth Mark” shows readers the foolishness and selfishness of trying to create a perfect being and defying our creator. Nathaniel shows an example of this act by publishing this story of Aylmer and his non-perfect wife, who has a birth mark in the shape of a hand on her cheek. Aylmer is so disgusted with this mark that he soon begins to use science to take care of the problem. Throughout “The Birth Mark” Hawthorne performs different

The Birth-Mark by Nathaniel Hawthorne has many feminist allegorical clues in it making it a subconscious short story about the unequal treatment of women in society. Hawthorne also seems to cover those said allegories by showcasing a lot of overt religious wording to draw in his audience of puritan readers at that time. A short summary written about the story in 1843 might say that it is about a man of science wanting to play God by tampering with his wife Georgiana’s naturally achieved birthmark

Melville’s “Bartleby The Scrivener,” Reverend Mr. Hooper from Hawthorne’s “The Minister’s Black Veil,” and Aylmer, from Hawthorne’s “The Birth Mark” confirm Emerson’s belief that there is nothing more sacred than being true to one’s self and what he/she stands for, even if it is not what others consider right. Aylmer is a character in Hawthorne’s “The Birth Mark” that fulfills Emerson’s belief of going against what is expected of you, even if it may not be what others consider

Birthmark” the theme is it’s foolish to strive for perfection. In “The Birthmark” Aylmer is disgusted by this mark on his wife’s cheek, and because she’s almost perfect to him, he wants to remove the mark. In the story Aylmer says “No, dearest Georgiana, you came so nearly perfect from the hand of nature…” and “...as being the visible mark of imperfection.” Aylmer even stares at the mark, and has nightmares about it. “...and when they sat together at the evening hearth his eyes wandered stealthily

Obsession is like a pair of blinders, blocking out the world and permitting us to stare in only one direction at one thing. As human beings, we all have obsessions to some extent. We may become obsessed with a person, a place, or an object. Something so simple could be completely intoxicating to an individual taking over their everyday thoughts and blocking out all other concerns. Is this when an obsession becomes unhealthy? Is this when it becomes all too much? In Nathaniel Hawthorne's "The Birthmark"

only another force can truly cause a birthmark to resemble a hand upon Georgians check. Despite the fact, she is described as being beautiful to the point of angelic, almost perfect. However, this doesn't stop Aylmer from his attempts to remove the mark. History has always come to show us that you cannot fight nature without consequences in return. An example of this would be a mutation, and how today's science has come to try and cause this. Sheep have been testing subjects to this, and nature shows

especially many talented writers who wrote romantic short stories. One of the most famous Romantic writers of the time was Nathaniel Hawthorne. Nathaniel Hawthorne was an American novelist who specialized in dark romantic writing such as the “Birth-Mark.” In the “Birth-Mark,” Hawthorne uses symbolism to portray the sinfulness and imperfections of humans. Hawthorne’s view of man is that humans are not perfect and all-knowing, while humans have our own opinion and consider ourselves to be nonpareil because

Important Themes of Nathaniel Hawthorne's The BirthMark in Contemporary Times Nathaniel Hawthorne was an American Romantic writer who lived from 1804 to 1864. Much of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s work discussed and represented controversial issues and ideologies of his time through careful charter and plot choice. Hawthorne’s work The BirthMark represents his disdain for cold intellectual obsession with sciences that disturbs natural human relationships and promotes unnecessary, excessive changes in a

appearances or achievements. The central theme of the fiction story “The Birth-Mark" by Nathaniel Hawthorne is vanity. The main character, Aylmer is a scientist, married to a woman, Georgiana, who in his eyes, is almost perfect. The only flaw she has is a small, hand-shaped birthmark on her cheek. He tells her, “...you came so nearly perfect from the hand of Nature, that this slightest possible defect... shocks me, as being the visible mark of earthly imperfection.” (Hawthorne, 1843) He has the idea that

symbolizes the consequences of the imbalance stated before. Even research of genecology, such as those stated in “The Perils of the Imperfect Expectations of A Perfect Baby”, agree that several complications are possible to those mothers who wish to birth the “perfect baby.” Hawthorne’s story illustrates the outcome of such imbalance, proving that perfection does not exist, and those whom which to surpass nature and transcend to higher level than that set by nature will face the consequences. “The

In the short story “The Birth-Mark” written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, the reader is introduced to a tragic love story that shows how foolhardy it is to make someone perfect. Hawthorne hammers this theme throughout the story of the scientist Aylmer and his lovely wife, Georgiana, who has a small, hand shaped birthmark on her cheek on the left side of her face. Aylmer develops a fixation on the birthmark that keeps his wife from being the image of perfection, and vows to use his scientific knowledge