Birthmark Research Paper

In The Birthmark the story begins with the challenge Aylmer is facing. He wants to mix his love for science with the love he has for his wife. The only way he can do this is by removing his wife birthmark that’s holding her back from being perfect. Aylmer oppresses his wife in a symbolic way by making her feel bad about her birthmark. Aylmer begins to speak with Georgiana and asks her “...has it never occurred to you that the mark upon your cheek might be removed?” (1). This the start of him pestering his wife and making her feel about herself. He does this to get her to agree with him about removing the birthmark. To answer Aylmer’s question, Georgiana replies by saying “To tell you the truth it has been so often called a charm that I was

The Birthmark is the story set in the late 18th century, it tells about the scientist named Aylmer who wants to remove the birthmark from his wife’s cheek as he believes it makes her imperfect. Also, he sees it as a sign of Georgiana’s «liability to sin, sorrow, decay, and death». He is sure that it needs to be removed. Aylmer succeeds in his attempt to remove the birthmark, but destroying the original design of Nature, he also destroys his wife. She eventually becomes perfect and

In “The Birthmark” we first learn about the main character named Aylmer. He is fascinated with science. “He has devoted himself, however, too unreservedly to scientific studies ever to be weaned from them by any second passion” (Hawthorne 952) He eventually finds love with his wife Georgianna, but there is something about her he just will not seem to take much longer. Georgianna has a red birthmark on her cheek which is the shape of a small hand. While she thinks it is beautiful, the most important person in her life doesn’t feel the same way. In fact, Aylmer is truly disgusted and in shock by her mark, claiming it is a “visible mark of earthly imperfection” (Hawthorne 953). Finally telling his wife how he feels, Georgianna is in disbelief. She is upset, hurt, and confused, even questioning their marriage as she tells him “You cannot love what shocks you!” (Hawthorne 953). The last thing she would have thought is that the person she planned to spend the rest of her life with doesn’t see her beauty mark the way she does.

Although her and Aylmer hate the birthmark, some of her past lovers and some readers might view it as unique, possibly as a symbol for her personality. The birthmark is something that separates her from others and makes her stand out, probably why all of the women hate her birthmark, they are jealous of her uniqueness. But Aylmer can’t help but to focus on the birthmark and it’s

In reality, if a person has a birthmark or an imperfection, it usually means there is nothing special thematically, metaphorically, or spiritually.

Nathaniel Hawthorne's novel "The Birth-Mark", explains the relationship between Aylmer, a scientist, and his wife Georgiana’s birthmark. The story is told in third person point of view. The story gives access to both Aylmer and Georgiana thoughts. It allows readers to see that because Aylmer is a scientist and a perfection, he feels that Georgiana would be perfect if the mark was to be removed or on another woman besides her. Aylmer sees his wife's birthmark is a symbol of imperfection. The mark is described to be a small deep crimson mark shaped like a hand on her left cheek. As he sees the mark, he sees her becoming less beautiful. Once the mark is removed, she would become perfect and beautiful. However, Georgiana, Aylmer wife feels that the mark is a symbol of a charm because she was told that the mark was placed on her cheek during her birth-hour by a fairy. Hawthorne shows us that people view beauty in different ways.

A birthmark as referred to in this short story is the “Differences of temperament”, the inborn traits someone can develop. In Nathaniel Hawthorne 's "The Birthmark" there are many different themes such as, nature versus science, and perfection. We see Aylmer struggle with his own temperament. For him the birthmark becomes the symbol of Georgiana’s flawed humanity, which he tries to alternate. Throughout the story, we come across several observances of otherness revolving around “The Birthmark”.

The Birthmark is a story by Nathaniel Hawthorne the carries vast amounts of symbolism in its pages. It’s a story that you can pretty much look at anything that is involved and see how it carries some type of underlying meaning that either helps the character development or means something entirely different. The basis of the story is similar to that of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, which only came out about 20 years before The Birthmark. For the most part the story is about human imperfection and how many can find the one thing wrong with anything even though others completely overlook it. Now let’s take a look at the plot, characters, and some of the symbolism that we find in The Birthmark.

The marks are both a permanent reminder of a horrible time in someone’s life. They were used to identify someone as part of a bad group of people. It also showed that someone ‘owned’ you and everyone will always see you as your mark, no matter if you willing recieved it like some rebels or not.

“‘If she were my wife, I’d never part with that birthmark.’” (page 4) Aminadab said this under his breath because he disapproved of Aylmer trying to remove Georgiana’s birthmark. This implies that Aminadab believes that Georgiana was born this way, and she is beautiful regardless of the birthmark. I feel he also thinks it is crazy for Aylmer to want to change something so badly on his own wife’s body that he feels it is a sin to have it. This connection is relating to this article I read online called Love Yourself- Flaws and All. The article explains how sometimes people will not like your flaws but you are born with them. Even if you can “fix” the flaw (in this case removing the birthmark), you will still be

As an infant, Harry James Potter was given a scar after a powerful wizard tries to kill him. However, his mother was willing to die for her son, and her love protected Harry from Voldemort. Because of this, Harry Potter survived with a small scar on his forehead, and Lord Voldemort disappeared without a trace. In Thomas C. Foster’s How to Read Literature like a Professor, he states that in most stories a character’s strange marks and shapes signifies that they have an important role. Therefore, Harry’s battle scar indicates not only his past but also his future. Foster notes that the markings indicate the damage life inflicts. For example, when Harry first came into the wizard world, most people knew who he was because

Georgiana’s birthmark is unique to her, and in many ways, it is symbolic of her true self though her birthmark is what leads to her ultimate downfall. The minuscule and nearly transparent reddish pink handprint that inhabited Georgiana’s left cheek was a point of contention in her marriage. Georgiana loved her birthmark, “it has been so often called a charm, that I was simple enough to imagine it might be so,” it was a mark of her individuality and beautiful in its own and rare way (Hawthorne 340). It was only when Aylmer, her husband, expressed his interest in removing it calling it, the visible mark of earthly imperfection,” that Georgiana begins to loathe her birthmark (Hawthorne

The conflict of The Birthmark directly involves Georgiana’s birthmark. Alymer has this strange obsession and disgust of her birthmark. She is so perfect in every way except for birthmark that it haunts him. This not only creates conflict with Aylmer and his love for his wife, but also with his wife and her love for herself.

Something people should know about me is that I consider my unique physical traits to be symbols of beauty as they represent my individuality and set me apart from other people. The pink birthmark that covers most of my left arm is the first thing most people notice about me and with pity in their eyes, ask if I am a burn victim or if I have an incurable disease. My first dermatologist in the United States even asked me, for no medical reason, if I wanted to remove my birthmark with lasers. Followers of beauty standards consider my birthmark a hideous cosmetic characteristic that is completely undesirable and should be removed at any cost. During middle school, my friends also asked me if there were medical treatments to "help" me, which shocked

Hawthorne, Nathaniel “The Birthmark” Literature and the Writing Process, edited by Elizabeth McMahan, believed that Aylmer’s belief is that to have life there must be imperfection and losing imperfection was losing life. She explains as she shows us how “The Birthmark” which is a story filled with symbolisms and irony. Hawthorne displayed this belief in his short story "The Birthmark”, which is about a scientist named Aylmer who becomes disgusted by his wife, Georgiana’s tiny birthmark on her left cheek and kills her in the process of trying to remove it. He sees it as a flaw in his beautiful wife. Georgiana knows that her birthmark disgusts him. She began to feel disgusted by this birthmark when she realizes her husband’s disgust with it; she had never felt hate for herself until she realizes his feelings toward her birthmark. He asks if she has ever considered having it removed. This is not something she never looked at this way before, considering that other people in her life, especially men, had always seen it as a “charm”. Aylmer was not trying to just get rid of Georgiana's birthmark, rather, he was trying to change nature, He believed he had control over it. That's where things took a toll for and up for the worst. Aylmer had a hard time accepting imperfections in life.