How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Paragraph)
Quote #4
"Aylmer,'' resumed Georgiana, solemnly, "I know not what may be the cost to both of us to rid me of this fatal birthmark." (16)
"Fatal" is a really interesting word here, because it takes on at least a few meanings. On one level, it is fatal in that it leads to disaster (it's disrupting Georgiana's marriage). It's also fatal in the sense that it is driven by fate – Georgiana was somehow fated to bear this mark upon her face. On another level – one of which Georgiana is probably unaware – it is fatal in that it will cause her death.
Quote #5
"Danger is nothing to me; for life, while this hateful mark makes me the object of your horror and disgust, — life is a burden which I would fling down with joy. Either remove this dreadful hand, or take my wretched life!" (18)
Given this line, is it possible that, at the end of the text, Georgiana knows she will die but drinks the elixir anyway, preferring death to a life where her husband shudders at her image?
Quote #6
Forthwith there issued from an inner apartment a man of low stature, but bulky frame, with shaggy hair hanging about his visage, which was grimed with the vapors of the furnace. This personage had been Aylmer's underworker during his whole scientific career. (26)
Creepy! There's something unsettling about Aminadab. Hawthorne heightens this reaction to the character with the specific words he uses to describe him. Consider how "underworker," for example, can't help but make us think of the word "undertaker."