The Birthmark Symbolism, Imagery & Allegory

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:The crimson hand expressed the ineludible gripe in which mortality clu...

Never have two settings been more different than the laboratory and neighboring boudoir in "The Birthmark." Let's take a look at the text:she found herself breathing an atmosphere of penetrating fr...

Aylmer's dream is a classic case of literary foreshadowing. It's also Hawthorne's way of driving home his point about the futility of separating human imperfections from our very humanity (see "Wha...