Thursday, September 20, 2012
The Return of the Repressed: Illiteracy and the death of the narrative in Hawthorne's "The Birthmark" - Shakinovsky
This article focuses on the feminism that was depicted in the Birthmark. The thing I found most interesting was when the article talked about Aylmer changing Georgiana's thoughts about her birthmark. While reading the story by myself I thought it was odd that Georgiana felt so strongly about the originality of her birthmark, but at the end of the story she hated it just as much as Aylmer. I think this is a great example of feminism because back then a woman's opinion was not nearly as strong as a man's. I think Georgiana felt this way towards Aylmer. She knew she wasn't going to win the argument over the birthmark staying or leaving, so she gave in and let his opinion be the "right" one. I think many women back then felt this way. The man's decision always went, but it might not have necessarily been the right one. In today's society that is NOT how it works!
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In this article it talked about how before they got married, the birthmark didn't play any part in her "imperfection", but after they got married, it played a huge role in their life. This article also talks about all the many symbols the birthmark had. The color was one of the symbols, and it applied it to womens writing. It also talked about how the birthmark was part of her, imprinted on her, and without it she was nothing too.
ReplyDeleteThis article made the connection that Georgiana (with her birthmark) was like Medusa. Georgiana was beautiful and everyone knew it, but her birthmark on her cheek didn't seem to ruin her appearance. At least not until Aylmer and Georgiana got married. After they got married her birthmark seemed to be the main focus of Aylmer. He was so obsessed with it that he even changed her opinion of her birthmark.
ReplyDeleteThis article also says that Georgiana always thought of her birthmark as a charm but once her husband saw it as an imperfection she started to see it as an imperfection. Georgiana went along with Aylmer using her as an experiment to erase her birthmark, even though she knew it would kill her.
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