Monday, December 2, 2013

What are three examples of conflict in the short story, "The Birthmark," by Nathaniel Hawthorne?explain the understanding of the story change...

It's been a while since I've read this story, so let me
start you with these two conflicts:


The main conflict in
this story is indicated by the title--Georgina's birthmark.  She is beautiful, charming,
in touch with nature, and completely well-adjusted.  She has always seen her birthmark
as a blessing, and in fact, she looks at it (a small hand-shape) as the place where she
was touched by an angel.  Her husband, however, can not find any beauty in it.  Rather,
he sees it as a flaw in his wife's appearance.  Quite sad, really, that he can't seem to
accept her for the way she is.


A second conflict is that he
is a scientist of questionable reputation.  Every experiment he has attempted has been a
collossal failure.  Yet, in spite of this, he has taken it upon himself to trust his
ability as a scientist to successfully remove Georgina's birthmark without damage to his
lovely wife.  Of course, as foreshadowed by his string of failures, he ends up killing
her.  Ironically, he is successful in removing the birthmark, but as it is her essence,
or rather the "heart" of her, removing it also removes her ability to
live.

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