The Birthmark Conflict

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

Aylmer was a man knowledgeable scientist had an obsession for perfection in all aspects of life. Aylmer also viewed his wife as being flawless, except for the hand-like birth-mark that appeared on Georgiana’s left cheek. One day, Aylmer sits looking at his wife with many thoughts wondering throughout his mind, "Georgiana," said he, "has it never occurred to you that the mark upon your cheek might be removed?" "No, indeed," said she, smiling;

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.

Aylmer is an opposite representation of C. JoyBell’s quote because he loses sight of his love of Georgiana for scientific perfection, without any self reflection upon the matter. Moreover, Aylmer’s want to dispel Georgiana's birthmark produces a change in his feelings toward her. When discussing the birthmark and a possible removal with Georgiana, Aylmer said, “‘you [Georgiana] came so nearly perfect from the hand of Nature… as being the visible mark of earthly

The archetypal conflict of Nature vs. Science is shown in Aylmer’s intention to remove the birthmark, nature’s constant reminder of human mortality, from Georgiana’s cheek. Aylmer believed that the birthmark might heighten Georgiana’s beauty if it wasn’t her only visible imperfection, but on Georgiana’s otherwise flawless complexion the birthmark was nothing more than “the fatal flaw of humanity…the ineludible gripe in which mortality clutches the highest and purest of earthly mould,

Although love is at often times a great thing, it can blind people and misguide them. The relationship between Aylmer and Georgiana is a scenario of misguided love gone wrong. In “The Birthmark”, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Aylmer expresses his love of science much more than he expresses his love for his wife, Georgiana. This happens despite the extreme love his wife shows him, and her obedience and trust towards him. He ends up ruining her life when turning her into a scientific experiment. His love for science consumes his brain and he is unable to think about the human part of his life and thus, ends up losing it.

According to Ann Charters in The Short Story and its Writer, "conflict is the opposition presented to the main Character of a narrative by another character, by events or situations, by fate, or by some aspect of the protagonist's own personality or nature. The conflict is introduced by means of a complication that sets in motion the rising action, usually toward a climax and eventual resolution" (Charters 1782).

Hawthorne has created a lot of characters that are unlike the Aylmer’s who never leave and have no existence outside of the laboratory. This marriage was a unique but very odd one at that with Mr. Aylmer identifying his wife’s birthmark as an imperfection and then trying to improve her flaws after judging the way she appeared facially. The nineteenth century was known for woman to change their appearances if men did

Every author creates some type of conflict to have the reader sitting on the edge of their seats whether the conflict be man versus man, man versus self, or man versus nature. The novel The Road by Cormac McCarthy wrote a story about both a man and a boy who have particularly conflicting characteristics when it comes to decision making. The boy in the story is very optimistic about everything and the man can be pessimistic when either deciding on what to do or when thinking about life or the future. In addition, both characters have different outlooks and personalities that can sometimes collide.

Aylmer’s craving to make his wife Georgiana perfect is destined to fail because perfection cannot be found on earth and only found in heaven. Aylmer obsesses about the birthmark that is on his wife for an extensive time that it actually starts to inconvenience him. For Aylmer, it symbolizes mortality and sin and comes to mast over Georgiana’s beauty in his cluttered mind. Consequently, her tiny imperfection, which is only a birth-mark, is all he can see and is so prominent to him. The desire for perfection not only kills Georgiana inside and out, but it also ruins her husband. Aylmer starts to break down because his desire to create the ideal woman becomes such a fixation that it prevents him from seeing all the good his wife has to over him and the world. Nevertheless, Georgiana says that she will risk her life for him and have the birthmark erased. Aylmer is very confident about it but ends up killing her in the process, emotionally and

Conflict is opposing actions, ideas, and decisions that hold a plot together. Clugston (2014) states “Conflict is the struggle that shapes the plot in a story” (4.1 Plot, para. 4). Conflicts are also encountered in most of the literature we read for pleasure. It can create personal connections and instill deeper meanings to our experiences as we read, especially if we can relate what is read to our personal life.

The character of Aylmer can be seen as a sinister, mad scientist who constantly fights with nature in order to attain human perfection. From the beginning of the story Aylmer’s

Portrayed as spiritual and intellectual in contrast with his crude laboratory assistant Aminadab, Aylmer becomes disturbingly obsessed with a birthmark on his wife’s countenance. The plot of the short story revolves around the man’s attempt in removing the mark, which results in the death of Georgiana. In the very beginning of the story, the audience discovers through the narration that Aylmer views his wife’s birthmark as more than a congenital, benign irregularity on the skin. In reality, the primary reason why he becomes severely obsessed with the birthmark is because in his eyes, the mark symbolizes something. Aylmer proceeds to further clarify his inner thoughts by replying to his wife, “This slightest possible defect, which we hesitate whether to term a defect or a beauty, shocks me, as being the visible mark of earthly imperfection” (Mays 340). Although Georgiana is initially mortified and even goes as far to question the existence of the marriage between them, the narration later sheds light and explains that the precise reason why Aylmer is excessively bothered with the birthmark is because he regards Georgiana as virtually the embodiment of perfection. As a consequence, perceiving a flaw on his wife’s image that clashes with the concept of her beauty inevitably leads him to feel aggrieved and begin to judge the birthmark as a dangerous blemish residing on her skin.

Another tool that Hawthorne brings into use in ?The Birthmark? in order to show difference between the two characters is conflict. Throughout this short story, both Georgiana and Aylmer are at

In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s text The Birth Mark, he expresses human nature and its drive for perfection. In this text, Aylmer is very persistent to remove his lover’s birthmark from her cheek. Hawthorne states, “‘Georgiana’, said he, ‘has it never occurred to you that the mark upon your cheek might be removed’” (Hawthorne 418). Aylmer’s drive for perfection causes him to turn to science to try and find the answers to remove the mark from his wife’s face, initially seeking to make her “perfect” in human natures belief. By the end of this text, his wife is corrupted by his persistence to make her “perfect” and ends up passing away due to the complications that Aylmer laid upon her. “‘Aylmer-dearest Aylmer-I am dying’” (Hawthorne 429), quotes Hawthorne. Aylmer’s drive for perfection for his wife was so overpowering that he aims too high and puts science ahead of his love for his wife. This drive for perfection is still a very prominent in human nature and why humans behave as they do today. The drive for perfection is the reason