The Birthmark
Hawthorne makes it clear to his readers that the birthmark is a symbol, mostly by telling us that it is a symbol. Check it out:
...Aylmer's Laboratory in the late 1700s
Hawthorne begins his narrative by placing Aylmer "in the latter part of the last century" (1). Because he was writing in...Third Person (Omniscient)
The narrator of "The Birthmark" is allowed access to both Aylmer and Georgiana's thoughts. When learn, for example, that Aylmer perce...Parable, Dark Romanticism
Dark Romanticism is a genre that explores the darker, sinful side of man. Think of it as a hybrid between Romanticism and Gothic fict...Pointedly Moralistic
Hawthorne really likes to tell us how it is in this story. He has a message to tell us – the story is didactic and moral – so...Grand
If you find "The Birthmark" to be slow reading, you're not alone. Hawthorne's prose can be dense, labored, and a veritable minefield of five-dollar words...As far as plot is concerned, Georgiana's red mark is pretty much the focus of the story; this is the tale of Aylmer's attempts to remove his wife's birthmark. Of course, symbolically, the birthmark...
At the end of "The Birthmark," Aylmer both succeeds and fails. He succeeds in that he finally rid his wife of her birthmark. He fails in that…she's dead. What went wrong?
If you've bee...
Initial Situation
Aylmer is thoroughly devoted to science, and also recently married.
Before the birthmark even come...
Anticipation Stage and Call
Aylmer wants to remove Georgiana's Birthmark.
OK, so "The Birthmark" is tricky in that A...
Act I
Act I is usually marked by the "hero's" commitment to his "journey." Whether you focus on Georgiana or on Aylmer as the story's "hero," we can be pretty...- Hawthorne was a newly-wed himself – six months, actually – at the time he wrote "The Birthmark." Think this has anything to do with his subject matter? (
PG
"The Birthmark" is really more sexual politics than it is sex. The story explores, among other ideas, the way that our physical self-image can be so altered by the gaze of th...
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