ANALYSIS OF THE SHORT STORY “THE BIRTHMARK” Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Birthmark” illustrates how one’s obsessions and moral weakness leads to another’s questioning of their self-image and drives the pursuit of perfection in our society. The main character‚ Aylmer‚ develops an obsession with becoming a world renowned alchemist‚ yet falls short when he sets his goals and cannot accomplish them. The unrealistic goals that Aylmer sets reflect how his character is composed; he consistently strives
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Nathaniel Hawthorne was a Gothic writer who wrote short stories like “Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment”‚ “The Artist of the Beautiful”‚ and “The Birthmark”. Hawthorne’s writings often reflected romantics’ beliefs in nature and contained his message about science and man’s quest for perfection. An example where these ideas are shown‚ are in Hawthorne’s short story “The Birthmark”. In this story‚ a scientist named Aylmer grows tired of his beautiful wife’s birthmark and asks her if she would remove it. Although
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The Birthmark by Nathaniel Hawthorne In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story The Birthmark‚ the narrator introduces us to Aylmer‚ a brilliant scientist who spent his life studying nature extensively to the detriment of his own personal life. His wife‚ Georgiana‚ has been marked with a small‚ red birthmark on her cheek that most men found attractive all her life. Aylmer only sees this birthmark as a flaw and his desire for perfection can only result in death for Georgiana because becoming an ideal
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(1843) by Nathaniel Hawthorn Although Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote “The Birthmark” in the mid-1800s‚ its themes and ideas are still present in our society today. The context of his language and presentation of the topics in the fiction while utilizing literary devices are exceptional. Through these instruments‚ the author shares the themes of science‚ religion‚ submission‚ and perfection (Gale‚ pg.12). This essay will discuss the various literary devices used by Nathan Hawthorne in the theme science
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“The Birthmark” written by Nathaniel Hawthorne looks into the mind of a man obsessed with natural beauty. Aylmer is an outgoing‚ brilliant scientist‚ who believes that man should have the ultimate governing over nature. Therefore‚ he believes that a man should be able to do anything. His unwarranted fixation with his wife’s being perfect in order to love her‚ made her preoccupied about her beauty as well. Aylmer’s wife Georgiana became so grieved about her birthmark she said "Remove this dreadful
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Theme in The Birthmark‚ conveyed through Symbolism. (more exciting Title‚ perhaps.) * Nathaniel Hawthorne‚ in his short story * “The Birthmark” (written and published prior to 1843)‚ contains the element of symbolism to present the theme of personal beauty‚ regardless of physical appearance. More specifically‚ he speaks of the appearance of Georgeanna‚ the wife of Aylmer‚ who had a very large birthmark‚ or blemish that appeared upon birth. An Individual is perfect the way they were made‚ and should
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the smallest idiosyncrasies or characteristics charming at first. However‚ after the initial “honeymoon phase” these characteristics cannot be overlooked any longer. This is especially evident in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story‚ “The Birthmark”. A man named Aylmer is no longer able to overlook the birthmark that was bestowed upon his wife‚ Georgiana’s‚ cheek. Even though the mark was small enough to be covered by two fingers‚ he was not able to allow it to disrupt the utter perfection of the rest
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nature‚ natural beauty and emotion. Nathaniel Hawthorne‚ a romantic period author‚ wrote “The Birthmark” that became published in 1843. The story commences with Aylmer being introduced as an exceptional scientist and natural philosopher. Aylmer abandoned his experiments for a while to wed his wife Georgiana. However‚ Aylmer grows overly obsessed with the want of removing Georgiana’s birthmark morphing this love story into the death of Georgiana. In the short story
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The “Birthmark” by Nathaniel Hawthorne is a story that I know can still appeal to the current day and especially in the past history. The story takes place at a time when scientific discoveries and experiments were going on to try and have an understanding for everything since at the time scientist were very curious about almost everything. Unfortunately one of the experiments they would conduct were on humans. From the Story “The Birthmark” we easily learn that human experimentation is very frowned
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comprising the duties anticipated. The story consists of a theme that suggests there is a particular way for women to conduct themselves‚ reinforcing the idea of women having to be domestic. This leads to feminism through the things women are presumed to do for the satisfaction of others‚ an example of this is‚ cleaning the whole house‚ perhaps looking good while doing so? This is also evident in the story of The Birthmark. Hawthorne’s dark romanticism story mainly focuses on his belief of science
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