Hawthorn's the birthmark essay
Blind Pursuits
Jules Zanger in her essay, speaking of the Unspeakable: Hawthorne's "The Birthmark," talks about the different interpretations of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story “The Birthmark.” one of the interpretations she talks about “regards the mark on Georgiana Aylmer's cheek as the external sign of her human [and] imperfect condition.”(Zanger, 364) She goes on to talk about Georgiana’s husband Aylmer who tried to remove the mark on her face because it kept her from being perfect. She talks about how people understand that Aylmer’s decision to surgically remove his wife’s imperfection was “either scientific, rational, reformist presumption, or of too aspiring an idealism.” (Zanger, 364) Zanger talks about a lot of things in her essay at the beginning, but she focuses mainly on the gender roles of society of the nineteenth century and how it is shown in the story. The male dominance of the nineteenth century, because Aylmer made the decision and his wife agreed in order to please him in spite of her opposing the idea and initially refusing to remove the “birthmark” that many considered charming, and a sign of her “angelic “being. Zanger addresses the gender roles of the time, when men had their roles in society and women had theirs. Zanger describes Aylmer as dominant, which was the norm. Males were dominant in the nineteenth century. They enjoyed more freedom than females. At the time women lived lives not very different from the lives of slaves; women were like slaves back then. Women had less privileges than males, for example females had no right to vote, no right to education, females were barred from universities, and they were only allowed to work at low-paying jobs; their sole purpose was to marry and reproduce. These dominant natures of men at the time as described by Zanger are shown through the characterization of Aylmer and his wife Georgina. Aylmer in the story is very domineering. Before they were married, Aylmer thought that
Jules Zanger in her essay, speaking of the Unspeakable: Hawthorne's "The Birthmark," talks about the different interpretations of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story “The Birthmark.” one of the interpretations she talks about “regards the mark on Georgiana Aylmer's cheek as the external sign of her human [and] imperfect condition.”(Zanger, 364) She goes on to talk about Georgiana’s husband Aylmer who tried to remove the mark on her face because it kept her from being perfect. She talks about how people understand that Aylmer’s decision to surgically remove his wife’s imperfection was “either scientific, rational, reformist presumption, or of too aspiring an idealism.” (Zanger, 364) Zanger talks about a lot of things in her essay at the beginning, but she focuses mainly on the gender roles of society of the nineteenth century and how it is shown in the story. The male dominance of the nineteenth century, because Aylmer made the decision and his wife agreed in order to please him in spite of her opposing the idea and initially refusing to remove the “birthmark” that many considered charming, and a sign of her “angelic “being. Zanger addresses the gender roles of the time, when men had their roles in society and women had theirs. Zanger describes Aylmer as dominant, which was the norm. Males were dominant in the nineteenth century. They enjoyed more freedom than females. At the time women lived lives not very different from the lives of slaves; women were like slaves back then. Women had less privileges than males, for example females had no right to vote, no right to education, females were barred from universities, and they were only allowed to work at low-paying jobs; their sole purpose was to marry and reproduce. These dominant natures of men at the time as described by Zanger are shown through the characterization of Aylmer and his wife Georgina. Aylmer in the story is very domineering. Before they were married, Aylmer thought that