In the short story “The Birthmark”, Nathaniel Hawthorne writes about a scientist, his wife, and the unhealthy relationship they share. The story follows Aylmer, a scientist, who is determined to remove his wife Georgiana’s birthmark. One aspect of their unhealthy relationship is Georgiana’s sole dependance on Aylmer. Furthermore, Aylmer does not view Georgiana as his equal. Not only this, but Aylmer frequently belittles her, continuously pointing out her flaws, which drives her to do something dangerous. Georgiana’s dependance on Aylmer, the inequality of the relationship and Aylmer’s disregard for her feelings, are the main ingredients of Aylmer and Georgiana’s unhealthy relationship. Georgiana’s dependance on Aylmer contributes to their unhealthy relationship. When Aylmer and Georgiana got married, Georgiana was taken from her mother's house, forcing her to live an isolated life with Aylmer. Georgiana says, “Then why did you take me from my mother’s side? You can not love what shocks you!” This quote explains that Georgiana is much younger than Aylmer, and suggests that she was taken from her mother's house in order for them to wed. When women are young they often seek comfort and advice from their families, a luxury that Georgiana does not enjoy. Due to the fact that she is stuck in Aylmer's house, where only his opinion is given …show more content…
When Aylmer and Georgiana got married, Georgiana was taken from her mothers home, making her complete dependent on Aylmer and his opinions. In addition to this, Aylmer’s belief hat he is better than God, and has the ability to remove Georgiana’s birthmark, creates inequality in their relationship. Finally, due to Georgiana’s obsession with what Aylmer thinks of her, paired with Aylmer's rude looks and comments, leads her to do something
These scholars’ arguments contribute to the story, “The Birth-Mark”, Nathanial Hawthorne expresses the common personal issue that individuals possess. The Birth-Mark was about a man named Aylmer and his obsession of science and the birth mark on his wife’s face. The birth
Intro: Nathaniel Hawthorne’s fictional short story “The Birthmark” and The Twilight Zone’s darkly romantic episode “Eye of the Beholder” both use gothic elements and delve into the realm of science to explore concepts of beauty and perfection. Through their contrasting characterizations of the scientist and employments of irony and allusions, each work comes to its own conclusions about how to define and treat beauty. Body #1: The Birthmark From the very first paragraph, Hawthorne’s story revolves around Aylmer, a scientist who supposedly gives up his career to marry the beautiful woman of his dreams, Georgiana.
This overriding confidence makes him blind to his past failures and logical sense. Georgiana pointes out the faults Aylmer’s past experiments by saying, “His brightest diamonds were the merest pebbles, and felt to be so by himself, in comparison with the inestimable gems which lay hidden beyond his reach.” (Hawthorne, 217). This shows that Aylmer always reached for the unreliable and impossible overcomes when experimenting. This raises concern when Aylmer focuses on using his own wife as an experiment rather than the love of his life.
In The Birthmark, Hawthorne depicts the obsession for perfection, the tole it takes on one and the consequences it has. The quest for perfection is unrealistic and unobtainable as we are only mere humans incapable of reconstructing our DNA. In The Birthmark, Hawthorne tells the story of a woman named Georgiana and her scientist husband Aylmer, who are both fixated on a birthmark similar to the look of a tiny human hand. Aylmer is disgusted by Georgiana’s birthmark, wanting to please her husband Georgiana is willing to do anything for him to look at her in a normal manner “Danger is nothing to me;for life which this hateful mark
One way that Hawthorne conveys the dangers of trying to modify nature is through the dream that Aylmer has. Aylmer is a scientific man and represents the ideals of science and discovery. His trust in science and his ability to remove Georgiana’s birthmark cause him to ignore the warning that his dream provides him. In the dream Aylmer is trying to cut out the mark, but he must keep cutting deeper and deeper to find that it is wrapped around Georgiana’s heart (647). This connection shows that the birthmark is more than a birthmark, it is an anchor that is connected to the life of Georgiana.
Within the past year, the treatment and perceptions of women have been challenged due to the various marches and movements. Nathaniel Hawthorne’s romance, The Scarlet Letter, presents how women were viewed in a Puritan society, falling into a rigid dichotomy of either being the “saint” or “sinner.” This is otherwise known as the “Madonna/Whore complex,” which is explored through the life of the novel’s protagonist, Hyster Prynne. Her struggles and experiences through this dichotomy ultimately affect her both physically and emotionally as it represses her femininity.
(add more about how he is trying to play God then talk about because he was so prideful he made his wife want to do anything for him, even die.) If you think about it, Aylmer only wants to remove the birth-mark from Georgiana’s face for the scientific thrill. It is not about her, it is about his ego. Hawthorne describes Georgiana as being perfect in every way except for the birth-mark on her face. He also shows that Aylmer loves his wife but cannot stand the imperfection.
Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Birthmark” is a short story detailing the relationship between the married couple Aylmer and Georgiana. Georgiana has a hand-shaped birthmark on her left cheek which Aylmer finds appalling on her otherwise perfect face. The couple eventually decides to remove the mark, with disastrous results (Hawthorne). Barbara Eckstein, author of Studies in Short Fiction, critically reviews “The Birthmark” in her article, “Hawthorne’s ‘The Birthmark’: Science and Romance as Belief.”
Georgiana, who is very much content with the way she looks was convinced by Aylmer to do an experiment on her face despite it being unsafe and dangerous. In the line, “He had devoted himself, however, too unreservedly to scientific studies ever to be weaned from them by any second passion,”(Hathorne) Aylmer’s true feelings about Georgiana only being second to science. To Georgiana, loving and taking care of him is her top priority and her fear of losing her husband’s love and her desires to please everyone around her caused her own life. Georgiana exclaims, “‘Shocks you, my husband!" cried Georgiana, deeply hurt; at first reddening with momentary anger, but then bursting into tears.
The novel, A Thousand Splendid Suns, is a story written by Khaled Hosseini about two women and the lives they had and what they faced as they grew up. It focuses on Mariam and Laila. The two were brought up in very different ways and they were raised by very different parents. Mariam was raised by a single mother since the father was mostly absent, only visited occasionally and she was a bastard child. Her mother bore her before marriage; she got pregnant for Jalil while working as a housekeeper at Jalil’s place who later threw her out.
Hawthorne uses imagery sense of smell to get readers to imagine the scene, “When Georgiana recovered consciousness she found herself breathing an atmosphere of penetrating fragrance, the gentle potency of which had recalled her from her deathlike faintness” (Hawthorne). “The Birthmark” also creates irony with “Aminadab, the less inferior man to Aylmer is the one who speaks sensible to Aylmer by disclaiming that if Georgiana was his wife, he would not try to remove the birthmark” (“The Birthmark”). The figurative language helps enhance the story. Nathaniel Hawthorne’s meaning for the story was a man’s strive to perfection only caused the death of his wife. Aylmer was too focused on what perfect could be, and Georgiana blindly agrees with him and decides to remove the birthmark, despite never having a problem with it.
In the text, Georgiana demonstrates her tolerance towards Alymer, as she remains obedient, and faithful, as his experiment reveals her a narrow chance of success. She is too tolerant to him, which made her easy to manipulate and control, as Hawthorn writes, “Much as he had accomplished, she could not but observe that his most splendid success were almost invariably failures, if compared with the ideal at which he aimed” (8). Although she noticed the slight chance of success, she still viewed her husband as a god, who she must not reason with further. Jane, on the other hand was intolerant to her husband. She was aware of the mistreatment by her husband, which ultimately compelled her to get revenge against him by making him faint, as Gilman writes “Now why should that man have fainted?
The Birthmark observes the life of Aylmer, whose life is eternally plagued by scientific and experimental curiosity, and his wife Georgiana who was born with a small hand-shaped sized birthmark upon her face. Aylmer’s attitudes towards the birthmark quickly turn from sincere recognition to shocking distaste. As Aylmer’s attitude towards the birthmark change, his desire to rid Georgiana of the birthmark increases, but Aylmer quickly discovers that some aspects of nature must never be tampered with. The central theme of The Birthmark, which is the fruitless strive for perfection, becomes clear when observing the symbol of the birthmark, motifs of crimson and white, and deep characterization.
Equally Aylmer and Dr. Rappiccini, both characters in Hawthorne’s works causes destruction of human life with selfish aims to perfect the woman of their choice. In the case of Aylmer’s love interest in science, just as with the case of Beatrice’s father, blinds him to the true beauty and humanity of the woman before him. Aylmer views Georgiana’s birthmark as a symbol of imperfection and tries to remove it. At the end of the story, Georgiana say, "My poor Aylmer," she repeated, with a more than human tenderness, "you have aimed loftily; you have done nobly. Do not repent that with so high and pure a feeling, you have rejected the best the earth could offer.
After his wife suffered a miscarriage, author Nathaniel Hawthorne was motivated to write a short story titled “The Birthmark”. Written in 1843, this story delves into ideas about mortality as well human perfection. As an intelligent and creative writer, Hawthorne dives into serious topics such as seeking human perfection and playing with ideas of mortality. Not only does this story hint at ideas of seeking human perfection, but it shows the consequences of dealing with such serious matters. To briefly summarize this story, it begins by describing newlyweds Aylmer, a skilled scientist, and Georgiana, a beautiful woman with only one imperfection.