Herman Hesse's Well-Known Bildungsroman

As hatred for Sula grows, her birthmark takes its final form, serving to justify her ostracization from respectable society. With disgust towards Sula at an all-time high, rumors that she set her mother, Hannah, on fire begin to recirculate. The culmination of damning public opinion on her birthmark is that it is “Hannah’s ashes marking [Sula] from the very beginning” (114). This interpretation too has biblical underpinnings. Just as “the Lord put a mark on Cain” for killing Abel, so too were “Hannah’s ashes marking [Sula]” (Genesis 4:15). Immediately following this development, the phrase “evil birthmark” is used, and as the birthmark is in essence Sula, she too is, by proxy deemed “evil” (115). The transformations from stemmed rose to snake to Cain, document Sula’s societal downfalls.

The sin stories in the Book of Genesis address theological, cosmic, social, and ethical questions. These sin stories, The Fall of Man, Cain and Abel, and Noah and the Flood, and The Tower of Babel show the functions of myths and demonstrate man's likeliness to sin. These myths let the readers learn of the culture, beliefs, and foundation of the time.

Cain is very much like each and every one of us and it seems that we are fascinated with him. This could be because there is good and evil in every one of us. Of Abel, we basically just hear that he was born and murdered by his brother. Without a lot of explanation we are left with the nagging mystery of the death of an innocent man. We deal with that continuing mystery each day as innocent people are killed. In some ways you find out that murderers are more like you than different from you. Most of them have snapped during a horrible time in their life and taken the life of a loved one. For them it was not a logical move because none of them really were thinking logically at the time. Typically it was an action coming out of being totally absorbed in the other person.

For his sin he was expelled from Eden. From that day on he led the life of an exile, doomed to be "a fugitive and wanderer in the earth" (Gen. 4:12) and denied the rights of a normal man, only to bare the mark of a sinner and warning to others. With this Cain walked into the land of Nod (unknown, evil, dark), only to leave a legacy felt by the generations of his offspring.

The Birthmark by Nathaniel Hawthorne is trying to communicate some important ideas about a variety of themes, he articulates a few weighty themes around this brief argument: the struggle between science and nature. In a story full of successful and almost magical scientific experiments, it is intact nature itself that is more powerful than any creation made by man. As is to be expected, this path to perfection also includes the creation of life and the victory over death. In the birthmark Aylmer does not see, like others who pretended Georgiana's hand before him, a singularity that accentuates her immaculate beauty. He sees in that crimson little hand an indication of decay and death. And also of immorality and sin, in tune with the belief

In “The Birth-Mark” by Nathaniel Hawthorne and Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart,” the symbols of the birthmark and the old man’s eye influence the plots of the stories. Through different ways, the characters in both stories feel compelled by these objects to do something. The main character, Aylmer, in “The Birth-Mark,” was obsessed with his wife’s birthmark which he saw as a flaw in her beauty, as well as a symbol of human imperfection, and tried to remove it. In “The Tell-Tale Heart,” the narrator sees the old man’s eye as “evil” and holding mysterious powers which symbolizes the narrator’s deepest fear and his obsession where he chooses to destroy it. The characters’ interpretation of these things created conflict, and both stories are formed by the symbolic meanings that the characters attribute to those things.

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”.

In “The Birthmark,” the “evil” in the story is the birthmark on Georgianna’s cheek. It represents human’s imperfection.

This may represent the fact that we are born the way god wants us to be, and we really should accept people as they are. This acceptance was something that Aylmer could not handle because of his personality. In The Birthmark Georgiana is afraid of her husband, whereas the all of the people ended up being afraid of the minister.

Nathaniel Hawthorne was the author of multiple short stories and poems, all of them in the Dark Romantic genre. Hawthorne gained his inspiration at home with his mother, sisters, and his wife, Sophia Peabody who was a poet as well. In his writing, one of his strongest traits was his use of allegory. Hawthorne often uses allegory in his short stories to add a different perspective onto his many works. In his short story, “The Birthmark,” Hawthorne utilizes foreshadowing and symbolism to portray the allegorical lesson that striving for perfection results in troubling outcomes.

In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story, “The Birth-Mark,” there are a variety of symbols representing control, the earth, man, and nature. These themes all tie together in the characters along with the bigger symbols of the story. Characters in this story are symbols with ideas of control and how they control one another. Aylmer controls Georgiana, Aminadab, and he attempts to control nature by removing his wife’s birth mark. In the story, nature controls every character in ways like killing Georgiana and putting the spot on her cheek in the first place. There are themes of man versus nature with Aylmer trying to eliminate the birth mark, Aylmer controlling Aminadab, and his occupation of a scientist who tries to control nature. The main symbols in “The Birth Mark” are of control and nature, seen through many characters and concepts in the text.

Written by Nathaniel Hawthorne during the American Renaissance, the short story “The Birth-Mark” details the events of a brilliant scientist and natural philosopher named Aylmer who obsesses about his wife Georgiana’s birthmark in the shape of a tiny hand on her left cheek. The symbol of the birthmark causes the plot to advance in the story, as Aylmer is compelled by this red mark to act upon his emotions. Aylmer views his wife’s birthmark as an imperfection in her virtually flawless beauty and as a result, attempts to it via a potion that he strongly believes cannot fail. His interpretation of the birthmark creates conflict in the story, which is shaped by the symbolic meaning that he attributes it to. Aylmer’s failure to accept his wife’s appearance for who she is leads to misunderstandings, pain, and ultimately, death.

One of those signature tales is “The Birth-Mark”; it is a story about the union between a man of science, Aylmer, and a woman of beauty, Georgina (Hawthorne 12). Hawthorne adorned this piece with deep, thought provoking symbols; such as the one on Georgina’s cheek. The mark is more than just a physical attribute on her skin; to Aylmer, it was a “symbol of his wife's liability to sin, sorrow, decay, and death”, in essence the mark is her humanity (14). All humanity strives to get rid of their defects; as well as Aylmer, as his experiment is to rid Georgina of her flaws. The birthmark became more and more present to Aylmer after his marriage; he began observing his wife’s appearance and developed a morbid obsession with the “singular mark” on her cheek (13). The mark is described as being “deeply interwoven” in her skin; it is a part of her being, and not just of her appearance (13). The birthmark resembles a hand; the shape’s importance is recognized

He also bore a mark that nobody who came in contact with him would kill him. This signifies that as people are young they will make mistakes and by just punishment will realize that they were wrong. Cain now had a lifetime to think about his murder.