The Beautiful And Ethan Brand By Nathaniel Hawthorne

The children In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter play a major role in the Puritan society. With their honest opinions of Hester and Pearl, the children are presented as more perceptive and more honest than adults. Due to their innocence, children are capable of expressing themselves without constraints; there are no laws or regulations that they are bounded by. As an adolescent go through the stages of life and grow older, they begin to be more conscious of the how they act as they are more aware of society and the things that are occurring in the world, creating a filter for their actions. When they remain as the children, on the other hand, are adventurous; they are still exploring the universe that seems to fill with mysteries that are bound to be solved. They tend to attach to the truth and they are not afraid to speak it freely. Children differ from adults in their potential for expressing these perceptions. With their obliviousness to the things that are actually going on around the town, children therefore react differently compared to the adults, who are more knowledgeable. Perceived to be immature, young children are presented as more perceptive and more honest than adults due to their innocence, how they are unaware of the reality and the crimes that are presented in society by the adults enables them to be blithe and not afraid of saying what they feel like. Due to their naivety, when they express what they perceive to be true, they do not get punished,

In Hawthorne’s “The Birth-Mark”, he criticizes the Age of Reason thinkers. The birthmark is a fascinating story of one man’s, Alymer, obsession with his scientific ability to produce perfection. Alymer says. “You came so nearly perfect from the hand of Nature, that this slightest possible defect” (1120). Hawthorne is a Romantic and he believes in the power of nature. Alymer thinks Georgianna birth-mark destroys her beauty, so like authors in Age of Reason,

Nathaniel Hawthorne was a brilliant writer of many stories, especially dealing with the nature of human beings, with themes including religion, perfection, and the natural world. His works have been lauded for their treatment of the human condition. Several stories, such as “The Birthmark”, “Rappaccini’s Daughter”, “Young Goodman Brown”, and “The Black Veil”, have been chosen to explain Hawthorne’s understanding of human nature. “The Birthmark” especially explains the pursuit of human perfection and the notion that nature cannot be overcome by humankind. “Rappaccini’s Daughter” details the human temptation to sin. “Young Goodman Brown” expresses the belief that once one sins, they will always be a sinner, cannot atone for their sins, and must pay for it. Finally, “The Black Veil” considers the idea of inherent sin, where the Black Veil represents all of sin in the town. Through his stories, Hawthorne conceptualizes his perspective on human nature by considering that because human beings pursue perfection, and are not content with their inherent imperfection, they experience the loss of their humanity.

    In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s tale, “The Birthmark,” the dominant theme is love conquering self, though there is also present the theme of alienation resulting from the evil within mankind. This essay intends to explore, exemplify and develop this topic.

Edgar Allan Poe and Nathaniel Hawthorne focus on concepts that relate to the darker side of the human experience by creating characters that embody the relationship between evil and abnormal psychology. “The Cask of Amontillado” by Edgar Allan Poe and “The Birth-Mark” by Nathaniel Hawthorne feature characters that engage in an abnormal or unusual behavior and suffer from a flawed, obsessive psyche that causes them to commit evil or immoral acts. Montresor and Aylmer, the two main characters of each short story, both exhibit obsessive-compulsive behavior with one character fixated on revenge and vengeance and the other attempting to transcend the limits of human capabilities by altering nature to achieve “perfection.” Poe and Hawthorne are suggesting

Sometimes, man is too eager to repair natural imperfections that may exist using science, rather than seeing these imperfections as beautiful natural occurrences, which will eventually lead to the destruction of nature. In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Birthmark,” it appears that Aylmer the main character wants to show the world that perfection is not beauty, and he demonstrates this with his wife Georgiana and that science should not alter the way that nature set man on this world to be. Hawthorne was a major asset to the transcendental movement, and this short story is a perfect example why. Nathaniel Hawthorne attempts to show the world the comparison between perfection and beauty mainly by: a psychoanalytic version of the plot and Sigmund Freud’s three fundamentals.

Nathanial Hawthorne writes a compelling story about a recently married scientist whose wife has a blemish on her cheek. “The Birthmark” written in 1843 is a critique of domesticity, feminine sexuality, and perfectionism. Cindy Weinstein takes the stance that “The Birthmark” is a critique of feminine sexuality. Weinstein suggests, “A key reason, then, that Aylmer wants to erase the birthmark is that it signifies a sexuality with which he is deeply uncomfortable” (123). This argument is seen throughout Hawthorne’s story, but Weinstein’s argument can be taken a step further to deal with the root cause, control. Aylmer is disturbed with Georgiana’s birthmark due to the fact that it signifies her sexual desires that he is unable to control.

Many people create the notion that perfection results in ultimate satisfaction. However, sometimes, the desire of perfection may burden them and doom them to unhappiness. Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story “The Birth-Mark” is a third-person narrative about Aylmer and his obsession to make his wife Georgiana perfect by removing her birthmark. Aylmer is a scientist who puts his love of science ahead of his love for his wife. His genuine, sincere, yet delusional effort to alter his wife's beauty with science illustrates the story’s theme that perfection is demoralizing which reveals within Hawthorne’s use of symbolism, characterization and the narrative point of view.

Nothing in this world is perfect. Our flaws are what make us the beautiful and unique people that we are. They give us our personality, and allow us to stand out from the crowd. Without them, our world would be boring. Perfection is a standard that no one could ever live up to, and the more “perfect” someone may be, the less of a personality they may have. “The Birthmark’’, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, is a story about a young, beautiful woman with a minor flaw that leads to the destruction of her life. Hawthorne uses the characters, foreshadowing, and symbolism to demonstrate the theme that physical perfection cannot be reached.

Nathaniel Hawthorne’s, “The Birthmark” introduces the constant chase for perfection. A man finds his wife’s birthmark on her left cheek annoying and flawed. He constantly craves for the birthmark to be removed; torturing his wife with thoughts of perfection, by simply removing the natural mark. Without acknowledging the consequences of the matter, the wife drinks a strong potion made by her husband to remove the birthmark. However, the husband’s lack of scientific success resulted in the death of his wife. In the end of this story, readers learn that perfection is not needed, and that flaws are what makes a person unique. Moral criticism, symbolism and theme are very commonly used literary elements in this story to elaborate the main focus and thought that is to be discussed.

Hawthorne illustrates an awe-inspiring example of how human imperfection is natural and the way we are created is how we shall remain, perfectly imperfect. It is difficult not to consider the world today and how much plastic surgeons profit and customers pay, just to reflect an ideal image. This story is published in the eighteenth century, which depicts a mad scientist (Aylmer) who claims to have the ability to create perfection in the imperfect, Godly creation of his wife (Georgiana). The marriage union is without happiness because of a small birthmark on Georgiana’s cheek, which Aylmer aspires to eliminate with his impeccable scientific expertise. In his short story “The Birth-Mark,” Nathaniel Hawthorne illustrates how an obsession

Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel “The Scarlet Letter” depicts a young woman, Hester Prynne, who committed adultery and bears a daughter, Pearl, because of the sin. Hester Prynne is then punished for her actions by being forced to wear the scarlet letter “A” by the community. This punishment produces many relationships between Hester and the community such as isolation, being a criminal, dependency, and the feeling of each other’s sin.

In The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne displays the mindset of both Romantic and Dark Romantic authors. The novel’s very title introduces the reader to a central symbol that Hawthorne uses to represent two of the main characters’ sin and guilt. Hawthorne uses duality and juxtaposition throughout the novel, so that the reader makes observations on man’s guilt and fault, but also the freeing aspect of humans’ hearts and also to develop the theme that it is better for one to accept his or her guilt than to mask it and entrap it within his or her soul. In the beginning of the novel, Hawthorne portrays the scarlet letter as a binding symbol for both Hester Prynne and Dimmesdale, though Hester comes to accept it where Dimmesdale gradually degrades internally and

In four of Hawthorne's stories there is a struggle for power and control as a vehicle to obtain perfection or beauty. In "The Artist of the Beautiful", "Rappaccini's Daughter", "The Birthmark" and "The Prophetic Pictures" the characters are controlled by their desire for perfection in their creations, but they do not achieve their goals without sacrifice.

Sin is dark force that twists the soul and warps the mind. Such a powerful force as sin is present in everyday life and cannot be simply ignored. Nathaniel Hawthorne, quite successfully, used literature to its full potential in order to express sins presence in life. The story he uses the express this theme is “The Birth-mark”. 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 was hurt but it did 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 was 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. There is a possibility, strong enough to cause fear in her husband, that the drug could be deadly; however, the imperfection that laid on her face troubles her, as well as her husband, to the point where she believes her life is worth 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 terribly wrong and Georgina has a terrible reaction. Soon after taking the cure she dies leaving Aylmer heartbroken and alone without his wife. In, “The Birth-mark”, Nathaniel Hawthorne brings to light sin’s presence in society through the use of allusions, symbolism,