...After reading “The Birth-Mark” by Hawthorne, I have put together a brief summary. There was a philosopher and scientist named Alymer. He was married to Georgiana, who many other men thought her and her birthmark were perfect and beautiful. This birthmark was upon her left cheek and looked as if it were an infant’s hand. Georgianna was often told that it was a charm and it was a privilege to kiss her mark. Her husband had agreed that it could have been a charm but on a different face. He saw the birthmark as a visible mark of an earthly imperfection. She was shocked to hear this from her husband and it made her question why he has married her. He never gave much thought, if any to her birthmark before they got married. In turn, he asked Georgianna if she had every thought...
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...In the story, The Birth-Mark, a man, Aylmer, is a natural philosopher (modern day ‘scientist’), specifically an alchemist who strives for perfection by manipulating nature. At the beginning, he marries a beautiful woman, Georgiana, who bears an imprint of a small red hand on her cheek. She wants to rid of the mark, so Aylmer makes a concoction to make it disappear; only, once Georgiana drinks it, she passes away. Aylmer should not be held accountable for her death because he possessed no malicious intent when he passed the drink and she begged him to get rid of the birthmark, even at the cost of her own life. Aylmer possessed no malicious intent when he gave Georgiana the goblet of the concoction; and therefore, should not be faulted with...
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...The birth-mark on Georgiana’s cheek in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story, The Birth-Mark, was a characteristic of hers that she adored. Her husband had considered perfect until after they got married and her and her husband got intimate. He saw her birthmark as an imperfection and wanted to make her the perfect woman that she could be without her birthmark. Although, he did not know that removing her birthmark would have unpleasant consequences. This birthmark that Georgiana possessed was a charm to her, but for her husband, Aylmer, it was a shock (4-5). He believed that his wife was perfect, but that birthmark made it impossible for him to think about anything else except removing it to make her perfect. Aylmer describes the hand as “its...
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...“Nearly Perfect” An Analysis of “The Birth-Mark” by Nathaniel Hawthorne By Samantha Truglio Professor Baber Composition II #2043 11 October 2014 Word Count 727 Samantha Truglio Professor Baber Composition II 2043 11 October 2014 Nearly Perfect An Analysis of “The Birth-Mark” In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story “The Birth-Mark”, he shows us the folly of human nature and our obsession with perfection. Hawthorne conveys his message through his main characters Aylmer, a scientist and lover of nature, and his beautiful wife, Georgina, who bears a small, crimson colored, hand-shaped birthmark upon her left cheek. Despite the amount of love that Aylmer has for his wife, he can’t help but to become engulfed with the mark that stains his wife’s cheek that keeps her from being perfect. Being a man of science he decides to create an elixir to remove her one flaw. “The Birth-Mark” is a story filled with potent symbolism to illustrate the scientist’s superficial endeavor, destructive irony, and a theme that provides us with moral allegory. The birth mark represents various things throughout the story, the most predominate symbol in this story is Georgina’s birthmark, which symbolizes the imperfection of human nature and mortality. Georgina was admired by many men, for she “came so nearly perfect from the hand of Nature” (Hawthorne 291), but the only man she craved admiration from was Aylmer, who was not able to get past the slightest defect that blessed her cheek. The...
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...beginning as a man who is a great scientist and a lover of nature but who also has a beautiful wife whom he loves dearly. Georgiana says, “To tell you the truth it has been so often called a charm that I was simple enough to imagine it might be so” (1). “Ah, upon another face perhaps it might,” replied her husband; “but never on yours. No, dearest Georgiana, you came so nearly perfect from the hand of Nature that this slightest possible defect, which we hesitate whether to term a defect or a beauty, shocks me, as being the visible mark of earthly imperfection”(2). To Aylmer, his wife is perfect, but Georgiana’s birthmark gives him extreme shock and being a man a science, he wishes to remove it although this idea of shock saddens Georgiana and makes her question Aylmer’s love for her. Hawthorne goes into details of human mortality and spiritual aspects of scientific experiments. “Georgiana”, said he, “has it ever occurred to you that the mark upon your cheek might be removed?”(1). Hawthorne shows...
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...Birthmark” by Nathaniel Hawthorne reveals a story of love on the edge of ending due to outward appearances. Georgina’s birthmark is considered a mark of imperfection to her husband, Aylmer. She could choose to embrace the birthmark or please her husband and exterminate it with his scientific knowledge. This story displays how even the little imperfections of outward appearances can affect a person. Overall, the story conveys an image of beauty, imperfection, science, and love. Nathaniel Hawthorne gives an image in this story that beauty goes much deeper than outside appearances. Beauty is not just outward appearances rather it is inward appearances. One of the main focuses in the story is that Aylmer believes Georgina’s birthmark is “a significance of imperfection”, and insists that she would be perfect without it(Hawthorne’s “The Birthmark”: Science and Romance). Aylmer has the mindset that Georgina would be perfect without it, but he does not realize that no one can be perfect until they pass away. Due to the significance of the birthmark, it becomes hard for him to continue to love Georgina because he only allows himself to focus on outward appearances. However, inward appearances are the key to what one should focus on....
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...Personal Response to Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Birthmark” While reading “The Birthmark”, I realized that it might be a way of the author to critique science, and how it tries many times to acquire perfection. The author relates the story of Aylmer, a young scientist who kills his beautiful wife trying to remove a birthmark that she had in her face. His attempt to make his wife perfect, got Georgina to die in the procedure. Aylmer got so obsessed with Georgina’s birthmark, to the point that when he looked at her he would only see the mark. Georgina was what could be described as the perfect wife. She loved her husband, and also loved his love for science, and admired his job. She was also really intelligent and on the other hand she did not...
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...School of criticism: Feminist criticism (1960’s-present) Tex: The Birthmark, Nathaniel Hawthorne Question 1: What does the work say about women’s creativity? The portrayal of the woman represented in The Birthmark best identifies with the portrayal of women who are taught to deny their creativity and deem it as a social indifference that makes them less than. During this short story we watch as her husband becomes repulsed by the mere sight of his wife’s birthmark. During the beginning of the story we see a side of Georgiana that embraces her indifference, she even attempts to defend her birthmark to Aylmer by explaining the beauty that others seen in her birthmark. The true diminishing to Georgiana’s embodiment of feminism is constantly...
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...Nathaniel Hawthorne through his writings employs a plethora of literary devices, in this instance, in his writings of “Rappaccini’s Daughter” and “The Birth-Mark”. Through both of these short stories the reader sees Hawthorne exhibit literary devices that are relative to his beliefs, in that of, nature, both human and floral, and the caution of science overpowering the aspects of nature, and the consequences of this superiority. Hawthorne had a very deep and intimate connection with nature, in the aspects of, floral nature. This connection is derived from his ideal that nature, in itself, provided a spiritual connection with God. This ideal corresponds with certain beliefs of Transcendentalists, allowing some readers to infer that Hawthorne could be identified in that community. However, Hawthorne disagreed with certain ideologies contained by the Transcendentalist society, as in, the belief that the world contained no evil. His disbelief is demonstrated in his consistent questioning of human nature’s purity and absence of evil. For example, in ” Rappaccini’s Daughter” the reader witnesses the manipulation of nature and the purity contained in nature by the garden that “is cultivated by the own hands of Signor Giacomo Rappaccini”...
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...Using different figure of speeches in one essay can embellish complexed sentences, as well as enrich the context, and one more important function is to emphasize the theme statement. Normally, author directly writes down his opinions. Sometimes authors are more willing to use some representative symbols to describe their thought. In our reading, “Birth-mark” and “A wall of fire rising”, writers use some representative symbols, such as the birthmark and the balloon, to show his theme statement. Symbolism is one obvious figure of speech using in the two articles. In those two articles, there are some similarities and differences between the function of symbolism. The different symbol methods result in various effects on readers’ feeling and understanding to the articles....
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...Examine the main trends in birth and deaths since 1900(24 marks) Sociologists use the idea of birth rates to measure how many births have been occurring. It is usually described as the number of live births per 1000 of the population per year. The trend highlights that the birth rate since 1900 has been fluctuating. In addition the fertility rates have decreased as well. From 1918 to 1946 birth rates in the U.K. fell significantly. An explanation to support why this occurred is because of World War 1 and 2. During this time period, many men had left their wives to join the war. This lead to a decrease in births as males were not present in their home country. This occurred in many countries not just Britain. Britain became more female orientated. This especially occurred in the more urban areas. The reason birth rates started to increased after 1950 was through the introduction of the NHS. This service, because it was free helped to save many lives. Births increased as more men were being treated and also the wars had ended therefore decreased the death rates heavily. Furthermore the TB vaccination was also brought in 1953. Tuberculosis was a very dreadful disease to catch, killing 2,200,500 people approximately before the 1950's. After that the deaths reduced dramatically to 600,000 since the vaccination. In the 60's the death rates increased. This was because of the diseases of affluence. This term describes diseases and health conditions thought to be a result of increasing...
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... Name: Essay Title: Examine the reasons for changes in birth rates and family size since 1900 (24 marks) | Underline or highlight the key concepts, terms and instructions, by identifying these key elements it will allow you to focus on answering the question. It is important to use relevant sociological terminology within the context of you essay. List the key sociological terms that will be appropriate for this essay. Birth rates, family size, baby boom, total fertility rate, economic liability, child centeredness, socially constructed childhood, infant mortality rate | IntroductionSignpost to the question and clearly explain the key concepts /terms of the question | The birth rate is the number of live births per 1000 of the population per year. There has been a decline in the number of births since 1900. In that year, England and Wales had a birth rate of 28.7, but by 2007 it had fallen to around 10.7. However there have been changes in births, with three baby booms (after the two wars and in the mid-1960s) The family size is the number of people living in the same house as a child. There has also been a change in family sizes since the 1900’s - it has decreased from an average of 3 to 1.8 children in a household. | Paragraph 1PointThe point must be appropriate in answering the question. | Changes in the position of women has affected the birth rates in the UK since 1900; | Explain the point | Women now have legal equality with...
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...The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman and The Birth-mark by Nathaniel Hawthorne have two characters with many similarities. The character in The Birthmark is not the main character in the story, but plays an important role is Georgiana. Georgiana is a beautiful women except for the hideous birthmark on her face hence the name of the story The Birthmark. The character in The Yellow Wallpaper is the narrator, whose name we were never given. These two women have such a similar story, but are both so different at the same time. Georgiana and the narrator, women with almost identical stories, were different by minor discrepancies that changed the enter course of their stories. The women in The Yellow Wallpaper and The Birth-mark have...
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...and was able to keep close to her two sisters and family members. To this day, sixteen years later, we have not seen or heard from her. Yes, what I experienced was temporary guardianship, and it does not amount to what adoptions actually endure; however, the pain and frustration we experienced like families do in adoption cases was still there. In this summary, I will point out how both authors used quotation marks, and italics as a way of making their point. In the article “Closed Adoption Can Sow Bitterness and Discontent”, the author Marcy Axness shows how open adoptions can be done with proper guidance and the mindset adoptees should be in for understanding the birth mother’s rights. In comparison to the article “Privacy in Adoption Is a Human Right”, written by Thomas C. Atwood, he defends the right of a standard set of mandatory guidelines in an open adoption. In Axness’s and Atwood’s article both authors use the elements quotation marks and italics to gain have their side on the issues of open adoptions, and open records. In Axness’s article, she used quotation marks as a way of making her points clear. She was very effective in catching the reader’s...
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...Symbols in stories can give you a lot of information that you didn’t have before, or it could serve as a source of irony in a story. Overall symbols have many different places in stories and can be used for many different things. The three stories that we read “The Birth-Mark,” “A Wall of Fire Rising,” and The Yellow Wallpaper” all used many different sources of symbolism. Just like how in “The Birth-Mark” the birth-mark was a symbol of human imperfection, in “A Wall of Fire Rising” the balloon was a symbol of freedom, and in “The Yellow Wallpaper” the girl in the wall symbolized John’s wife. In “The Birth-Mark” the girl that had the birthmark was considered to be perfect, with her only flaw being the birth-mark. The birthmark then showed how every human, no matter how close, is not perfect. “With the morning twilight Aylmer opened his eyes upon his wife’s face and recognized the symbol of imperfection” (Hawthorne 213-214). This symbol set up the entire story by making it so that Aylmer wanted to get rid of his wife’s birthmark. At the end of the story the birthmark was removed, but she died, symbolizing that no one in this world is perfect. The balloon in “A Wall of Fire Rising” symbolized the freedom...
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