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The Birthmark

            Vanity and pride are often considered major sins of the flesh. In Hawthorne's "The Birthmark", vanity and pride play major roles in the downfall of the characters, especially Georgiana. Georgiana is responsible for her own fate to a limited extent due to her husband's vanity, the time period she lived in, and her own soft personality. The reader is able to follow Georgiana's downfall throughout the story until the final climax of her personality flaws and Aylmer's sins ends in her death. .
             The primary cause of Georgiana's downfall was one that was out of her control. She mainly fell victim to her husband's vanity. Georgiana's birthmark was a part of her and she was accustomed to seeing it upon her cheek. She received compliments about it. The fact that the birthmark was emblazoned on her cheek had never been a cause of concern for her. For Aylmer, the birthmark was a flaw that grew more egregious with every passing day. Aylmer was so concerned with Georgiana's only physical flaw that his vanity took over his rational thinking. Georgiana fell victim to his vanity due to the fact that she wanted to be pleasing to her husband, and the only way for her to be pleasing to Aylmer was to be rid of the birthmark. .
             Georgiana also fell victim to the time period in which she existed. In Georgiana's society a woman was subject to her husband. Aylmer wanted to remove the birthmark; Georgiana would not refute him. The birthmark made Georgiana an abomination to her husband. This played heavily enough on Georgiana's psyche that she began to become self-conscious about the mark. .
             Georgiana is so desperate to fit her husband's ideal that she is willing to give her life, if it means the birthmark would be refuted and she would be perfect in Aylmer's eyes. This factor was somewhat out of Georgiana's control. Women of her time were conditioned to be complacent; therefore, she felt compelled to do her husband's bidding.


Essays Related to The Birthmark

1. The Birthmark by Nathaniel Hawthorne

... Aylmer's' confusion causes a sense of loss. His search for wholeness and perfection is ultimately unattainable. In fact, by reading "The Birthmark" one can see that Aylmer's confusion over the signifier of the birthmark and his unquenchable desire for unity, both of the signifier and the separateness of his loves, make him to try to create perfect beauty in his wife as a route to regain his ... wholeness, for which he was searching only to hear his wife cry out, "Aylmer, dearest Aylmer, I am dying!" (179) He comes to her side "as the crimson tint of the birthmark faded from her cheek an...

  • Word Count: 774
  • Approx Pages: 3

2. Nathaniel Hawthorne and the Depravity of Man

... that people must embrace their humanity and all its flaws. Georgiana is the most important character in "The Birthmark" because she is the carrier of the birthmark and all of its views, interpretations, and consequences. In "The Birthmark" Hawthorne exposes all the different views of Georgiana's birthmark. To some, including Georgiana at one point, the birthmark, according to Hawthorne, is a beauty mark that "[m]anywould have risked life ... for the privilege of pressing his lips to the mysterious hand [the birthmark]" ("The Birthmark" 466). Based upon this view, the birthmark ... ...

  • Word Count: 1568
  • Approx Pages: 6
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: Undergraduate

3. The Birthmark

... 's hand that is imprinted on his wife's left cheek as detestable. Some of Georgiana's past lovers thought that the birthmark was a "token of the magic endowments that were to give her such sway over all hearts."" Even she did not mind the presence of the birthmark; she had grown accustomed to it. At times she even called it a "charm,"" her lucky charm. But, Aylmer did not ... see the birthmark as being such. To Aylmer, the "bloody hand destroyed the effect of Georgiana's beauty, and rendered her countenance even hideous."" Aylmer would not even ... wanted such treatment so she began to ...

  • Word Count: 1007
  • Approx Pages: 4
  • Grade Level: High School

4. Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Birthmark (Point Of View Essay)

... scientist who stops his study when he fell in love and married his wife, Georgiana. She has a birthmark on her right cheek described as a "Crimson Hand". Georgiana is very beautiful, but Aylmer becomes obsessed with the birthmark and eventually is "repulsed at the sight of her." He is completely absorbed with his wife's birthmark and it begins to have a negative effect on their relationship "With ... the morning twilight, Aylmer opened his eyes to his wife's face, and recognized the imperfection; and when they sat together at the evening hearth, his eyes wandered stealthily to her cheek...

  • Word Count: 419
  • Approx Pages: 2

5. Analysis of Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Birthmark

... Aylmer wanted his wife Georgiana to be free of blemishes. It was mentioned that everything about her is good, except he could not stop staring at the birthmark on her face. Aylmer believed the crimson hand "was the bond by which an angelic spirit kept itself in union with a mortal frame" (29). In other words, it was ugly and kept her from ... relatable to religion. Aylmer in this story, is similar to God, and Georgiana represents mankind. Aylmer felt that Georgiana was an angel trapped in a mortal body. He believed that once the birthmark was removed she would have angelic properties. G...

  • Word Count: 1024
  • Approx Pages: 4
  • Grade Level: High School

6. The Birthmark

... it simply grew faint and disappeared; yet with any sudden change in emotion, she was apt to turning pale and thus, the mark reappeared " ... in what Aylmer deemed an almost fearful distinctness" (43). The fact that the birthmark changes with Georgiana's passing moods bothers Aylmer because with its " ...glimmering to and fro with every emotion that throbbed within her ... and preoccupied his feelings of hatred for the mark had become. Many admired the mark as a distinction of Georgiana's innate beauty and uniqueness. But there were also those who deemed that very mark as the complete opp...

  • Word Count: 1411
  • Approx Pages: 6
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: High School

7. The Birthmark: the dangers of science

... of using it to correct nature. Georgiana was a devoted faithful wife that lived to please her husband. When she learned that the mention of her birthmark troubled her husband it began to distress her as well. "At the mention of the birthmark, Georgiana, as usual, shrank as if a red hot iron had touched her cheek."(p.125). She was so devoted to her husbands happiness above ... it sinks deeper into her eventually ending at her heart. Hawthorne uses this dream to show the reader what the results of altering nature will be. The birthmark it self represents imperfection. When Georgiana tells...

  • Word Count: 726
  • Approx Pages: 3
  • Grade Level: High School

8. The Birthmark

The Birthmark "The Birthmark" is a love story, concerned with the relation between men and women. Aylmer, the husband character, reveals a deep suspicion of mind and body theories current for the time. Aylmer the story's problematic "hero" is a scientist, artist, and a newlywed. Aylmer, an aesthetic scientist, directs his attention to processes and compounds that does not relate to an immediate spiritual end. Georgiana ... redder than her own rosy complexion, but upon being startled, she pales and the tiny mark is highlighted against her whitened cheek. Once Aylmer decides that the mark is a ...

  • Word Count: 254
  • Approx Pages: 1
  • Grade Level: High School

9. Comparison Between Dr. Heidegger's Experiment and Birthmark

... of, but they are so anxious to be young again, they do anything he says. After the drink the elixir, they return to their evil ways, and, after a while, they return to being old again. In "The Birthmark-, Aylmer's is very determined to remove the birthmark off Georgiana's face. The birthmark represents all evil to him, and he wants nothing to do with it. Georgiana does not trust ... to prove that he can do this to them so he takes a 55-year-old rose and gives it some of the water so it blooms again. The rose eventually dies again, proving he cannot turn back the hands of time. In "The B...

  • Word Count: 863
  • Approx Pages: 3
  • Grade Level: High School

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