Middle Colonies I. The Middle Colonies a. Location i. Along the lower Hudson River ii. Included New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania b. Religion i. Puritan, Baptist, Quaker, Catholic, and Jewish congregations ii. Lutherans or Calvinists, Presbyterians, Anglicans, Baptists iii.…
In "The Birth-Mark" by Nathaniel Hawthorne, the author floods the story with many forms of symbolism to show there is no true form of perfection on earth. Although trying to accomplish such a thing, Aylmer not only highlights his failures as a scientist, but also kills his beautiful wife. After many nights of gazing upon his wife's porcelain face, slaying her heart with his disgusted looks, Aylmer convinces his wife Georgiana to let him conduct an experiment on the hand-shaped, rosy birthmark she flaunted upon her cheek, to remove such flaw and achieve pure perfection on earth. Within Aylmer's laboratory exists two contrasting rooms that display not only the workplace for the grungy men, but the heavenly boudoir of which his wife so pleasently…
Aylmer is the scientist whose seek for the way to perfection his wife, Georgiana. Georgiana have a small red birthmark on her left cheek and she do not want to remove it. Aylmer interpreted the birthmark as a sign of mortality and sins. He thinks that he came overcome it by removing the birthmark. Aylmer talked to Georgiana about removing her birthmark and she said that she will risk her life to have the mark erase. As a result of his attempt trying to remove the birthmark, he ends up killed Georgiana. Aylmer realized that it’s not always necessary to seek for perfection and better things. Since he had removed his wife’s birthmark and she is now perfect, Georgiana had to heaven because human world is not a place for an angel to…
In the story “The Birthmark” written by Nathaniel Hawthorn, the author sets a dark and cold mood of hatred through Aylmer and Georgiana’s relationship. Aylmer especially has hate towards the birthmark which leads to his change of attitude towards Georgiana. When Aylmer says, “a defect or a beauty shocks me” hurts Georgiana because she believes “you cannot love what shocks you” (Hawthorne 219). The quote implies that the birthmark is a part of Georgiana and Aylmer cannot love her for her true self if he cannot look past a simple “earthly imperfection” (Hawthorn 219). Aylmer had so much hatred towards the birthmark that he thought it was a “frightful object, causing him more trouble and horror than ever”(Hawthorn 221). The hatred which Aylmer continuously has for Georgiana’s birthmark creates a consistent darkness over Aylmer because he could never appreciate his wife even when she was dying.…
“No, dearest Georgiana, you came so nearly perfect from the hand of Nature, that this is the slightest possible defect- which we hesitate whether to term a defect or a beauty- shocks me, as being the visible mark of earthly imperfection (Hawthorne 645).” Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Birth-Mark” uses symbolism to explore the stain of sin on the world and in the individual. Georgiana is the picture of pure perfection, with one exception, a hand shaped birthmark on her left cheek. There are many themes in this piece. They include, the mark of sin brought in the world and the inability for a human to cleanse themselves from sin. Another theme in this story is the necessary imperfection within people. Each of the characters in “The Birth-Mark” are appalled by the imperfection on the surface. But are unaware of the imperfection within themselves. Hawthorne’s “The Birth-Mark” examines the sinful nature of the world and mankind’s desire to remove it from the surface.…
Nathaniel Hawthrone wrote the short story "The Birth-Mark," which was published in March of 1843. The story is about Aylmer, who is a scientist, and is obsessed about a birthmark on his wife left cheek. He didn’t point the birthmark until shortly after their marriage. When he pointed it out he asked his wife if she ever thought about removing the birthmark. The birthmark is a symbol of Georgian's humanity.…
All her life she had thought that her lovers found the crimson hand to be a charm. She had thought she was beautiful and the birthmark only added to her beauty.…
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…
Aylmer’s wife is a beautiful woman with pale white skin. Georgiana’s nearly perfect beauty is flawed with the hand on her cheek. It is a birthmark deeply interwoven within her face. It is in the shape of a tiny hand, such as one…
The Birthmark story takes place in a time where some individuals thought that spells and magic existed, and that alchemy was a sure way to cure any illness or imperfections of the body. In this time, even the most prestigious scientist thought that people’s illnesses could be cured by merely creating a concoction with the components of Mother Nature and with a little assistance from the spiritual world. Birthmark also centers around a hand shaped birthmark, on the cheek of a newly wedded woman, and the extent; she would go through to ensure her husband’s happiness. Some people saw this birthmark as a charm, while some were disgusted by it, like her husband. "Georgiana," said he, "has it never occurred to you that the mark upon your cheek might be removed?"(Hawthorne, 1843). Her husband in his obsession, being this magnificent scientist believed that he could remove the mark, but the deeper he dug, the more he emotionally hurt her. These two short stories speak about inequality, social discrimination and to what extent people are willing to please the one’s they adore.…
No one is born perfect, but yet everyone has the desire to be. In the story "The Birth-Mark" by Nathaniel Hawthorne, the main character's wife, Georgiana, sets out to be perfect. The narrator introduces Georgiana's husband, Aylmer, as a brilliant man of science. After Aylmer and Georgiana got married, Aylmer quit his experiments for a while until he found his next project which was Georgiana's birth-mark. One day, Aylmer questions Georgiana about the birthmark on her face and from that point on he is fixated on removing it. At first Georgiana does not have the desire to remove, what she once calls a charm until Aylmer persistently puts her down about it. Aylmer tells Georgiana that he has a potion that would effectively remove her birth-mark.…
A short story by Nathaniel Hawthorne, “The Birthmark”, is a short story about a newly married couple and the husband becomes obsessed with his wife’s birthmark. The birthmark is a symbol in the text. The text reads as follows “The crimson hand expressed the ineludible gripe in which mortality clutches the highest and purest of earthly mould, degrading them into kindred with the lowest, and even with the very brutes, like whom their visible frames return to dust. In this manner, selecting it as the symbol of his wife's liability to sin, sorrow, decay, and death” (Booth 215 ). Hawthorne is telling us the readers that love is not perfect using the symbol as the birthmark itself. The husband, Alymer wants to control nature to try to fix this birthmark , but in all reality it is his insecurity. Alymer wants perfection in his wife and this perfection does not exist.…
In Hawthorne's short story, "The Birthmark," he examines that nature is supposed to be imperfect and cannot be changed. Hawthorne's main character, Aylmer is a static and stock character who does not change and is a mad scientist. He is determined to remove his wive's birthmark and is in denial that nature is imperfect and not everything can be changed. Hawthorne examines the theme that nature is supposed to be imperfect he shows it through Aylmers thoughts about how nature works. Aylmer is a part of nature himself and tries to achieve perfection by making his wife perfect and removing the birthmark. Lastly, Hawthorne uses symbolism to once again portray that nature cannot be changed and it is meant to be imperfect. The dream Aylmer has a deception…
It is nearly a universal truth that any good piece of literature contains well developed characters and most authors achieve this by providing background and dialogue for the main character '?s that helps the reader to identify with each character. In "?The Lady with the Dog"? however, Anton Chekhov expresses the metamorphosis of Gurov and Anna Sergeyevna, as well as their relationship, not through dialogue, but by providing symbolism throughout the setting of the story. From the first scene through the end of the story the setting plays a crucial role in expressing the emotions of the individual characters as well as the blossoming relationship between them.…
For this assignment, one is to imagine that they work for the maker of a leading brand of low calorie, frozen microwavable food. The maker estimates a demand equation for its product. They use data from twenty-six supermarkets around the country for the month of April. To get a better understanding of how to solve the equation, one must first have a better understanding of demand estimation.…