Nature In The Birthmark

Jekyll is seen performing scientific practice, attempting to achieve a goal which can be argued to exceed his mental capacity. Dr. Jekyll wished to remove his dark side, tampering with the duality of man. He expressed hatred towards is his darker side. It shows this in the quote “many a man would have even blazoned such irregularities as i was guilty of;... I regarded and hid them with an almost morbid sense of shame.”

Rappaccini’s explanation for Giovanni being poisonous, “My science and the sympathy between thee and him have so wrought within his system that he now stands apart from common men,” (Hawthorne, “Rappaccini’s” 1064) shows that science has made Rappaccini forget about morality and ethics even when it involves his own daughter. He admires how his science has created a partner for his daughter and forgets about how Giovanni might feel about becoming toxic. Rappaccini’s lack of sympathy is also apparent in the way that he speaks to Beatrice in the last moments of her life. It’s made obvious that he isn’t upset about the fact that his daughter is dying when he says, “What mean you, foolish girl?” (Hawthorne, “Rappaccini’s 1064) only moments before her death.

A Hymn to Man’s Ego Be selfish. Most humans cringe at this advice, why would anyone encourage selfishness? Ayn Rand’s philosophy declares in order to achieve our greatest potential, we, as humans, must be selfish. Differentiating from the world’s perception of selfishness, Rand says that the true dictionary definition is simply “concern for oneself” and is an essential to life. Rand expresses her philosophy through the creation of her ideal character, Equality 7-2521, with her same moral values who struggles finding himself as an individual in a collectivist society within the science fiction novel Anthem.

Dr. Jekyll is in a state of happiness at this point of the text. He is being very positive and is describing how he feels to be free of the bonds of obligation. He is implying that he had left all the prior obligations he had as Dr. Jekyll, but now knows that he is a completely different person and is able to do the irregularities that he was able to do as Dr. Jekyll. Victor Frankenstein throughout the text played god and misused science in many ways. He attempted to make a beautiful human being but due to lack a skill, he made a monster unintentionally and

Through reading this short story we learn that Aylmer thinks the birth mark on poor Georgiana cheek is a flaw of her perfect existence. Finding out how much it means to Aylmer to remove the mark it tells us about how Georgiana feels unloved and in order to make her husband love her without feeling discussed she would have to let him try to remove the birthmark no matter what happens to

Prometheus gave the human race the gift of light because of this he was punished. This symbolization contributes to the work as a whole through a message in the book, light of science is good until it is pursued too far. In the story of Prometheus consequences are suffered. Likewise, characters in Frankenstein suffer repercussions for their actions. In other words, the light of science in Frankenstein is creation.

In the short story “The Birth-Mark” written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, the reader is introduced to a tragic love story that shows how foolhardy it is to make someone perfect. Hawthorne hammers this theme throughout the story of the scientist Aylmer and his lovely wife, Georgiana, who has a small, hand shaped birthmark on her cheek on the left side of her face. Aylmer develops a fixation on the birthmark that keeps his wife from being the image of perfection, and vows to use his scientific knowledge to remove it. Over the course of “The Birth-Mark” Hawthorne uses imagery and symbolism, figurative language, and type of narrator and narration. Hawthorne's use of vivid imagery and symbols to describe the conflict between Aylmer and the birthmark vividly highlights the conflict of Aylmer's love for Georgiana and his distaste of the birthmark.

Worthing, may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness.” (47) Obviously Jack could not help losing his parents, and Wilde uses this backwards logic to satirize his society. Voltaire uses backwards logic as well. For example, when Candide became ill, Voltaire writes: “With the aid of medicines and bloodlettings, Candide’s illness became serious.” (77)

In “The Plague,” Albert Camus explores the philosophy on the Absurd. He choses to express this theme through natural disaster, the bubonic plague, to represent the unpredictability absurd forces of nature that are hostile to men and how they react. The symbolic plague represents a multitude of ideas, but its purpose is to put humans to thought and action whereby they rise above themselves. Even though the plague is just an expression of men’s lack of power in the world, Camus esteems the wonderful nature of human effort to live and love and make meaning in spite of the Absurdity. Camus intends in “The Plague” to use literary techniques to enhance the Absurd ideas in life, to provide man a mental image of the Absurd, to demonstrate the human desire for meaning, and also to reveal the protagonists’ motivations to continue in life despite the Absurd.

He is fully aware he the root of all problems, yet he believes the Creature to be censurable and denying to give it a chance of salvation when he breaks his promise and destroys the female creature he was working on; his actions result in his father and Elizabeth’s deaths. This also makes the

The hand serves as the image of mankind. Aylmer sees his wife’s birthmark as “the symbol of his wife’s liability to sin, sorrow, decay, and death” (2). The way he views the mark on her cheek serves as a reminder that death is inevitable for both him and Georgiana. It contrasts Aylmer’s idea of achieving perfection through science and it disturbs him. When Aylmer dreams of removing Georgiana’s birthmark, he sees that the hand’s “tiny grasp appeared to have caught hold of Georgiana’s heart; whence, however her husband was inexorably resolved to cut or wrench it away,” (3).

“Humanity is just a work in progress.” This quote by Tennessee Williams accurately describes what many people believe, and consequently, why many people try to improve themselves. Even so, occasionally people can take the pursuit of perfection too far. This is the case for Aylmer and Georgiana in “The Birth-Mark,” written by Nathaniel Hawthorne. In this story Aylmer successfully removes his wife's only imperfection- a hand-shaped birthmark on her cheek, consequently making her perfect.

The Birthmark The short story “The Birthmark” was written by Nathaniel Hawthorne in 1834. The story follows a brilliant, yet insane scientist named Aylmer. He creates so many brilliant inventions in hoping to improve his life; his wife is just as perfect, despite a small hand shaped birthmark on her cheek. While Georgiana is considered gorgeous and beautiful by hundreds of men, only Aylmer sees the fault in the birthmark and deems it as a flaw that only he can fix with science. Nathaniel Hawthorne uses symbolism and figurative language to help convey the meaning of the short story to readers.

Although the theme of The Birthmark, has been interpreted in different ways, I believe the theme of the story is human imperfection and the strive for perfection, which is demonstrated by the birthmark on Georgiana’s face, her husband Aylmer, and their marriage. The birthmark on Georgiana’s face symbolizes human mortality and imperfection as believed among many critics. Most criticism has accepted the rather forthright and explicit allegorical interpretation of Hawthorne's "The Birthmark" that regards the mark on Georgiana Aylmer's cheek as the external sign of her human, imperfect condition and understands Aylmer's attempt to remove it as the expression of either scientific, rational, reformist presumption, or of too aspiring an idealism.

“The Birthmark” by Nathaniel Hawthorne Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story, “The Birthmark”, is an exemplary example of Dark Romanticism in early American literature. An abundance of romantic characteristics such as supernatural elements, intuition over reasoning, and the tendency to focus on the tragedy of the story are found throughout the Dark Romantic piece. Many examples of the supernatural trademarks are evident throughout the piece. One being, Hawthorne describes Georgiana’s hand to look as if, “...some fairy at her birth hour had laid her tiny hand upon the infant's cheek, and left this impress there in token of the magic endowments that were to give her such sway over all hearts” (6).