Thursday, September 20, 2012

Symbolism of Aylmer and Georgiana

This article describes Aylmer as a wizard and intelligent, but he tries to play the role of God by removing the imperfect birthmark. It describes Aylmer as a devil figure. The example they use for this is that when Georgiana enters the lab the first thing she sees is the furnace and the hot worker with the glow of fire. They think this is symbolic of the devil working away in hell. This article also describes Georgiana as angelic and heavenly with her birthmark.

http://gencobb.com/think/literature/literary-reviews/review-of-the-birthmark-by-nathaniel-hawthorne/

1 comment:

  1. I also read this article and found the comparison between Aylmer and a devil figure very interesting because I had never thought of it in that way. The article also suggests that the central idea of the story deals with the consequences of trying to become godlike. When Aylmer tried to play a higher role and fix Georgiana's flaw, it ended in the death of Georgiana which points to man's failure to realize that perfection is unattainable.

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