Summary Of Lusus Naturae

“Long Beautiful Hair,” wrote by Ann Hood, is a piece most would assume just to be a narrative of how the author goes through different hair phases in her lifetime. However, that is only the superficial meaning; Hood’s piece is metaphorically set up for a greater purpose. If analyzed correctly, her piece is a complex explanation of a life lesson that people often struggle with: figuring out who they are created to be. In order for her to convey the message fully to the audience, she tells her story in a time progressing sequence while also using rhetorical strategies such as pathos and a metaphor.

The author’s narrative, ripe with horrifying descriptions, is nonetheless told with compassion appealing to the emotions of the audience

Nathaniel Hawthorne was one of the representatives of the Dark Romanticism genre. The cultural and literal context, stylistic features and main themes of the Hawthorne’s short story The Birthmark will be discussed in this essay.

In “The Birthmark”, a short story by Nathanial Hawthorne, the use of the archetypal conflict Nature vs. Science, the character of Damsel in Distress, and the symbol of the Incurable Wound show how easily beauty is overlooked in the endeavor for perfection.

Although, in the story, the narrator seems to be struck with Porphyria, which can cause the hallucinations and voices she was the sole listener to, along with the excessive hair, and pink teeth, and red nails. This “curse” could be symbolic of something much more common and less gruesome. The porphyria could represent the pubescent stage in the young girl’s life. In the beginning of the story, she goes on to recount what her family said when she was burdened with the disorder-” ‘She was such a lovely baby,’ my mother would say. ‘There was nothing wrong with her.’ It saddened her to have given birth to an item such as myself: it was like a reproach, a judgement.What had she done wrong?” (Atwood, 263). Through this quote, it can be taken that she was not always like this, or as her grandmother would

Into this atmosphere of spiritual paralysis the boy bears, with blind hopes and romantic dreams, his encounter with first love. In the face of ugly, drab reality-"amid the curses of laborers," "jostled by drunken men and bargaining women"-he carries his aunt's parcels as she shops in the market place, imagining that he bears, not parcels, but a "chalice through a throng of foes." The "noises converged in a single sensation of life" and in a blending of Romantic and Christian symbols he transforms in his mind a perfectly ordinary girl into an enchanted princess: untouchable, promising, saintly. Setting in this scene depicts the harsh, dirty reality of life which the boy blindly ignores. The contrast between the real and the boy's dreams is ironically drawn and clearly foreshadows the boy's inability to keep the dream, to remain blind.

Moreover, the author portrays the character’s loneliness, feelings, and emotions as a result of her physical and mental distress. Similarly represented in Willow Weep for Me and its depiction of Danquah, her sister, and friends’ alienation and isolation regarding their clinical depression (Danquah). Further, the “pain” and “whimpers” are the physical and emotional responses to her illness, which can be compared to Grealy’s bodily response to chemotherapy, “wanting to turn itself inside out, made wave after wave of attempts to rid itself of this unseeable intruder, this overwhelming and noxious poison” (66).

The author, Margaret Atwood demonstrates the theme that in a violent isolated world, feminism is despised by the offended society, the inhuman treatment that women received may lead to physical and psychological perils; conversely, one’s firm belief could embody hope and reveal a precise future. Atwood uses irony to impart the theme. Significantly, the protagonist Offred feels she increasingly losing control of her body as “ an instrument, of pleasure” (Atwood 84). But the infinite emptiness inside her can never swap out the

Often times in literature the body becomes a symbolic part of the story. The body may come to define the character, emphasize a certain motif of the story, or symbolize the author’s or society’s mindset. The representation of the body becomes significant for the story. In the representation of their body in the works of Marie de France’s lais “Lanval” and “Yonec,” the body is represented in opposing views. In “Lanval,” France clearly emphasizes the pure beauty of the body and the power the ideal beauty holds, which Lanval’s Fairy Queen portrays. In France’s “Yonec,” she diverts the reader’s attention from the image of the ideal body and emphasizes a body without a specific form and fluidity between the forms. “Yonec” focuses on a love not

After being crushed with deep sorrow over the death of his beloved Ligeia, the narrator moves into a decaying abbey to leave behind his lonesome house. Although he leaves the exterior of the house untouched, the narrator decorates the interior with strange but lavish furniture. “The furnishings take on the shapes and colors of his fantastic dreams” as he attempts to cope with his loss (Kincheloe). This supports the idea that the narrator would rather live in his own colorful fantasy (like the inside of his house), than engage in the dark reality (as represented by the outside of the house). Losing Ligeia meant the narrator lost his fulfillment in life; which is why his reality is now gloomy and undesirable. Not only does is the furniture an example of dream imagery, the walls of the desolate house also have a dream effect. The moving images on the walls cause the house itself to seem restless and alive. The narrator imagines this because it represents himself; always on the edge of monstrosity with each changing mood. As he hallucinates on opium, his sense of reality and fantasy is put together as one. With each furnishing, a looming memory of Ligeia haunts him as he reminances her during his opium dreams.

Flannery O’Connor and Nathaniel Hawthorne are two American Literature short story writers. O’Connor’s short stories focused on the southern gothic genre which consisted of painful experiences with a spiritual angle. Nathaniel Hawthorne focused his work on the dark romanticism genre. Both of their works, explored conflicts between good versus evil and contain characters who discovered epiphanies which are sudden realizations or new perspectives. But the way that these two writers portray the epiphanies of their characters are very different but in some ways are similar. Flannery O’Connor brings her characters to a point where it is no longer possible for them to continue in their same manner therefore they undergo an epiphanal experience. Nathanial Hawthorne uses epiphanies in his characters to show a moment of truth where the main character has the opportunity to change his/her way of thinking or behavior. O’Connor’s use of epiphanies in her characters gives a more intense feel to the audience such as in the story “A Good Man is Hard to Find” than Hawthorne’s approach to epiphanies in “The Birthmark”.

In “The Birth-Mark” by Nathaniel Hawthorne and in Margaret Atwood’s “Lusus Naturae”, the theme of mortality and the theme of man vs. society are very apparent. Characters in both stories are ostracized by their family members because of their natural appearance. In “The Birth-Mark, Aylmer, views his wife Georgiana’s birthmark as a immense flaw in her beauty. He sees it as human imperfection and he tries to remove it and lower her self-esteem. In “Lusus Naturae”, the protagonist in the story (who is coincidently never named) is part of a family who does not accept her because of how her physical appearance looks like. The family's interpretation of the horrible ugly characters is what creates the struggle for the characters. Both stories suggest that degrading someone because of their physical appearance is unethical because most of the time they

Sin, a dark and powerful force, twists the soul and warps the mind to the point where it leaves society with unconquerable difficulties in everyday life. Nathaniel Hawthorne, quite successfully, uses literature to its full potential in order to express sins presence in life. He uses the short story, “The Birthmark” to express this theme. In this story, a man by name Aylmer for the first time sees a small defect in his otherwise beautiful wife, Georgiana. When Aylmer mentions it to her, she feels hurt, but it does not seem to affect her self-image. However, as time went on, the birthmark started to bother her causing her to believe she was flawed and in need of fixing. With the assistance of Aylmer's servant, Aminadab, Aylmer creates a miracle drug that would cure his wife of her imperfection: the birthmark. The possibly deadly drug incites fear in her husband; however, the blemish on her face troubles her, as well as her husband, to the point where she believes her life means nothing unless she could get it removed. After much meticulous preparation, the wife takes the cure. At first, everything seems well as her birthmark faded, however soon everything goes wrong, and Georgina has a terrible reaction. Soon after taking the cure she dies, leaving Aylmer heartbroken and alone without his wife. In, “The Birthmark,” Nathaniel Hawthorne brings to light sin’s presence in society through the use of allusions, symbolism, color, and beauty.

In “The Birthmark”, the relationships and behaviors of the characters play a significant role in the story by revealing more than the story itself does . Through the character’ different actions, characteristics, and behaviors, Nathaniel Hawthorne gives a deeper insight into his life, such as revealing his worldview to his readers, and also gives insight into a more relevant story. Hawthorne’s transcendentalist worldview is conveyed through Aylmer’s and Georgiana’s obsessions, Aylmer’s manipulation of nature, and the birthmark.

The repercussions of her story being warped from telling it has resulted in her life being changed into an almost supernatural fiction. Elizabeth Báthory directly affected