Women in The Birthmark Essay -- Birthmark Essays

The Birthmark Women Everything he has to say is related, finally, to that inward sphere. For the heart is the meeting-place of all the forces spiritual and physical, light and dark, that get by for dominance in mans nature. . . . (McPherson 68-69). McPhersons heart is the come across to understanding the role of women in Nathaniel Hawthornes tale, The Birthmark. Only imperfection is what ill-judged Aylmer sees in the birthmark on Georgianas cheek. But he is regrettably oblivious to the virtue in her soul, the deep beauty contained in the wisdom of her love for him. The wifes virtue leads her onward and upward the keep ups lack thereof and inability to appreciate virtue in his Georgiana leads him downward and downward. The concept of women is established in the very opening diss eer of The Birthmark. The narrator introduces Aylmer as a scientist who found a spiritual similitude more attractive than any chemical one, referring to his love for Georgiana. She is portrayed a s having meaning in Aylmers life not in scratch line place, but in second place to his scientific interests. Even after(prenominal) Aylmer has persuaded a beautiful woman to become his wife, he is not confident of loving her properly, unselfishly, because he had devoted himself, however, too unreservedly to scientific studies ever to be weaned from them by any second passion. The narrator seeks to exempt this error or lack in Aylmer by explaining that it was not eccentric for the love of science to rival the love of woman in its perspicaciousness and absorbing energy. Already at the outset of the tale, the reader perceives that Georgiana is going to be shortchanged in this marriage. She is exposed to the problem initial... ...el . The Birthmark Electronic Text Center, University of Virginia program library http//etext.lib.virginia.edu/etcbin/toccer-new2?id=HawBirt.sgm&images=images/modeng&data=/texts/english/modeng/parsed&tag=public&part=1& department=div1 McPherson, Hug o. Hawthornes Use of Mythology. In Readings on Nathaniel Hawthorne, edited by Clarice Swisher. San Diego, CA Greenhaven Press, 1996. Stewart, Randall. Hawthornes Female Characters. In Readings on Nathaniel Hawthorne, edited by Clarice Swisher. San Diego, CA Greenhaven Press, 1996. Swisher, Clarice. Nathaniel Hawthorne a Biography. In Readings on Nathaniel Hawthorne, edited by Clarice Swisher. San Diego, CA Greenhaven Press, 1996. Williams, Stanley T. Hawthornes Puritan Mind. In Readings on Nathaniel Hawthorne, edited by Clarice Swisher. San Diego, CA Greenhaven Press, 1996.