In Nathaniel Hawthorne's short story "The Birthmark," Georgiana is a beautiful woman and the wife of the scientist Aylmer. Aylmer grows obsessed with the small, hand-shaped birth mark present on Georgiana's cheek, and he abandons his professional work to focus on finding an effective method of removing the birthmark.
This, of course, introduces the first character's reaction to the birthmark. Aylmer wants to remove the birthmark because he sees it as his wife's only imperfection; he even has a violent dream in which he hacks off Georgiana's mark until he makes it to her heart, killing her in the process. This dream suggests that Aylmer is motivated not by love for his wife but rather by a selfish need for control.
As a scientist, Aylmer seeks to control nature through understanding by way of destructive dissection and violent research. His wife's birth mark symbolizes the mystery of nature that eludes Aylmer's control, which is why he becomes so monomaniacal in his quest to destroy it.
Consequently, Georgiana takes on her husband's disgust at her birth mark. After Aylmer confesses to her about his dream, Georgiana declares that she will do anything to please her husband—meaning that she voluntarily agrees to all of his attempts remove the mark.
This shows that Georgiana, who previously shows no real reaction to the mark, internalizes her husband's hatred for her imperfection. This internalization is representative of the ways in which the demands on women by men—even those women about whom they care deeply—are oppressive and destructive. Georgiana is even willing to die to please her husband, a selflessness that Aylmer does not possess in regard to his wife's birth mark.
Wednesday, September 2, 2015
Explain how any two characters in the short story view the birthmark.
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