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How Did Nathaniel Hawthorne Write A Birthmark

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Lit criticism of Nathaniel Hawthorne's short stories.
Nathaniel Hawthorne was born on July 4, 1804 and dies on May 19, 1864. He spent most of his childhood in Maine. Their he grew up for most of his life without a major male influence. Due to his early education as well as his love of reading greatly influenced the way Hawthorne wrote, he attended Bowdoin College where he graduated in the middle of his class. Nathaniel Hawthorne couldn’t see himself in any other career so he spent 12 years perfecting his writing. Nathaniel published his first novel, Fanshaw: A Tale in 1828. When he published his first short story, it was rejected, but after a few more years he gets a collection of short stories published, some of the narrative, he is famous …show more content…

Nathaniel uses a birthmark as a symbolic representation of mankind's desire to remove imperfections from our world. “The mark, as the subject around which the entire narrative revolves, is quite obviously of central thematic and structural concern in the story, but, from the outset, what is regarded as most interesting about it is its signifying quality. its capacity for different readings by different readers is presented to us as one of its first and major characteristics”(Britannica). What the author of this article is saying is that the mark is perceived differently by different people where one perceives it as an imperfection another could perceive it as an enhancement to her own beauty. Which could be related back to human instinct to remove imperfections from the world, but what they see as imperfection is really an enhancement for mankind. This can also be seen in the book when at the end of the story Georgiana says “My poor Aylmer…. You have rejected the best the world could offer.” (Birthmark p. 19) Offen times mankind takes after Aylmer and rejects the beauty the world has already provided us or they seek to make it better rather than enjoy what's already there. By doing this the human race is wasting time stressing over material things in life rather than enjoying what the world has to offer

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