the birthmark

This story is a great example of why you should accept someone’s imperfections. Supposedly, many men would die to be with Georgiana but she decides to be with the one man who finds her to be imperfect. I feel bad for Georgiana because I feel as if she has a horrible self-image of herself not because of her birthmark but something much deeper than that, which I could not figure out. I think this because she lets this man continuously tell her how imperfect she is due to something she has no control over like a birthmark when she has plenty of bachelors that would love to be with her. Even so, she is fascinated by Aylmer and his confidence in science. I think Aylmer’s confidence in science is a symbol and lesson for the general public of Hawthorne’s time that believed that new scientific experiments could cure anything when in reality they can’t so they should just be happy to have good health and happiness. Throughout the entire story, Aylmer does not see Georgiana as anything more than science experiment, even after her death, even though she is one of the most beautiful women around and loves him dearly which causes me to wonder if he is even capable of loving but then I realized that he is in love with himself and his work. The only thing that would truly make him happy is if Georgiana was physically perfect because of him and his scientific genius.

*i had emailed this entry to you earlier in the semester when i could not be added to the group but i figured i would add it to the discussion board so it would be easier for you to grade.*

the fall of the house of usher

I always find myself intrigued by Poe’s work and this story is no exception. I was very entertained all the way through and found myself intrigued at all the unanswered questions Poe posed. In my opinion there was a large connection between nature, surroundings and emotion. The description of the day the author walks to the house is dark and soundless. This echoes the appearance of the house, which is described as gloomy. The narrator also notices that the house looks worn down and even feels sickly and evil due to the dying trees and gloomy pond lurking near by. The gas surrounding the house the night Madeline reemerges is also a natural foretelling of the evil that is about to occur. There was also a link to spirituality in this story especially after Madeline passes. As soon as she is buried, the eerie feeling goes from bad to worse. This is especially evident when the narrator is reading “Mad Trist” to Roderick. The more he reads the story the more the natural noises of the environment mimic the actions in the story to the point where it is impossible to ignore the coincidences that are occurring between nature and the book. Roderick then suspects this is because they have buried Madeline alive and this is when we see the foretelling of the natural gas come true because Madeline storms into the room and attacks Roderick in spite which leads to his death. The originality of this story takes the reader on the rollercoaster ride of emotions ranging from scared to curious.

*i had emailed this entry to you earlier in the semester when i could not be added to the group but i figured i would add it to the discussion board so it would be easier for you to grade.*

Hawthorne, “The Birthmark”

Hawthorne’s The Birthmark is all about humanity versus science; passion versus logic. In this sentence, the man “left his laboratory, cleared the counters, washed his hands… persuaded a beautiful woman to become his wife.” I believe this one sentence gives the reader insight to the whole story. The sentence is completely mechanical and highly scientific. Already, it should be clear to how bizarre this story is. It is as if the scientist found what is supposed to be the love of his life in a mundane way. He found his wife in a routine or something. Basically, the form of the sentence reflect the content of the sentence. As a scientist, the man is highly objective, not at all subjective; highly logical, not at all emotional; highly  mechanical, not at all mortal. This objectivity finds the scientist a problem with his wife: she has a birthmark on her face. Instead of him embracing her beauty, he obsesses with her imperfections and strives for perfection. Her birthmark symbolizes multiple things: emotions, imperfections, passions and ultimately human nature. The scientist tries to destroy the birthmark in a number of ways finally resulting in killing her. After her death, the scientist has no reaction, completely staying within his cold personality. Instead of a description of his reaction, there is a closing argument. I think this reflects his nature as well. The story is told in iambic pentameter. This is clearly intended by Hawthorne. If read aloud, the story is told in a rhythm similar to a heartbeat.

The Birthmark

Nathaniel Hawthorne creates a great image in our heads with his story “The Birthmark.” Not only is the story very interesting with all his uses of 19^th century diction and great irony, but his symbolism in “The Birthmark” is great. There are a couple moral stories in The Birthmark such as human perfection does not exist, science can lead to chaos and disastrous consequences, and that you cannot create perfection or try to be God.  The Birthmark by Nathaniel Hawthorne had a lot of great symbolism including science, imperfection and dominance of Aylmer. Hawthorne’s theme is debatable as well as the symbolism of the birthmark.  Hawthorne created a great story that can be looked into from different point of views and create different moral stories depending on who is reading it. The symbolism of Georgiana’s birthmark has a lot to do with how people see the moral story. What the reader thinks Georgiana’s birthmark symbolizes will affect how the reader sees the story as a whole. I’ve discussed many symbolizes of the birthmark but that is still just a few. The birthmark is a great short story because Nathaniel Hawthorne made it very broad. Although we think we know it, it’s very debatable what the birthmark really symbolizes and what the moral story is. Hawthorne uses Georgiana’s birthmark to create a great story. He makes us read between the lines and there are many symbols of the birthmark in this story which all have different moral stories behind them depending on how the reader sees the birthmark.

Ah Bartleby! Ah Humanity!

Bartleby possesses the strange, yet all to familiar, desire to resist change. His methods of resisting change are passive and pervasive, causing much frustration to those delivering change. Despite the infallible logic of his manipulators, Bartleby prefers not to reason and is seemingly incapable of empathizing with his fellow coworkers  This refusal to empathize manifests in an inability to understand another person’s frame of reference. This idea is key in understanding the symbolic nature of Bartleby’s peculiar disposition. Although Bartleby has flaws, he is an exceptional worker, with much potential. However, his potential is wasted by his commitment to confinement and inability to empathize. After some time, his wish of a sedentary life-style is granted with the gift of blindness. Bartleby is now useless, all his potential of greatness was burnt up. I feel Melville is using Bartleby as a symbol to describe the wasted potential in humanity. With his desire to be confined to a brick wall and inablility to compromise, Bartleby seems like a useless contribution to society. This is not true, Bartleby is skilled and diligent; he has potential which was wasted. This idea could also be extended to humanity. This idea of wasted potential is reaffirmed by the end of the story. Bartleby’s previous job was burning letters that we send to people who died. This is the saddest possible waste of potential and shows the burning up of humanity with the burning of the potential.

Dead or Alive?

In Edgar Allen Poe’s, “Fall of the House of Usher,” the narrator seems to have found an old friend that is dying from “FEAR.” When talking about his illness, Usher never quite pinpoints exactly what the illness is bedsides the last word, “FEAR.”

Fear is an illness that can take many forms, as the narrator finds from living in that house, trying to help Usher. This is very much a classic horror story. Just look at the way the setting is described, everything from the beginning is dark and “gothic.” Think about the sister, who floats in and out of rooms. Is she alive or isn’t she, is the house alive or isn’t it? What about Usher’s servants, Usher himself even? We try to hard to fit this into a realistic box that it will never go into.

Poe once again created an Opium induced frightening masterpiece. The illness, “FEAR”

is thrust upon the reader through the narrator, allowing for a question on our own sanity, on our own outlook on “FEAR.”

The Birthmark

In the literature “The Birthmark” by Nathaniel Hawthorne a deranged doctor discovers a sole imperfection in his wife. The doctor develops a sheer hatred for a birthmark on his wife and decides that it must be removed in order to create a perfect spouse. Hawthorne conveys the grade school message of knowing how great you have it, as what one possesses can be taken from them all too quickly. By attempting to take an already magnificent person, and create a superhuman, the doctor loses the person he holds nearest to his heart.

 

Hawthorne uses the loss to instill a glass half full mentality. Showing that the only skill needed for a person to be happy, is the desire to make themselves happy. No matter how the surgery to remove the birthmark went, the doctor would never have been capable of satisfaction. Rather then appreciating the woman he says he loves, he attempts to transform her into something completely different. By trying to change who his wife is, the doctor kills her.

 

The doctor can also be portrayed as an inner conflict, the conflict which self confidence causes. By being self conscious the doctor allows his personal weaknesses to put the love of his life in danger. Had the doctor been confident, and known that he loves his wife, he would never have needed to remove the birthmark in the first place. Confidence is a virtue which is hard to come by, and easily misunderstood. The doctor does not need to flaunt his wife’s beauty, however by being confident in the woman he has chosen the doctor would have lived a better life, and continued living with his wife.

Bartleby, the Scrivener

Bartleby was one of the strangest characters that I can remember reading about.  When the story starts off he seems like he would be a normal copywriter.  Bartleby copied extremely quickly “as if long famishing for  to copy”.  As time goes on and he keeps saying his infamous phrase of “I would prefer not to” I believe the message that Melville was trying to invoke became a little confusing to me.  At first I thought that maybe Bartleby felt that he was overworked or working too much and just wanted a break.  However, that solution became less plausible because Bartleby would not really say anything else.  He would not move or do anything.  The next thought that occurred to me that could possibly explain what was causing Bartleby to act this way was he had some kind of mental breakdown or mental disorder.  This though does not seem like the point Melville was trying to portray.  Melville is a – author so the meaning of Bartleby must lay deeper.  Eventually when Bartleby is arrested and put in jail and eventually dies  in the prison yard the message that I gathered from reading this story was maybe Melville was trying to say that Bartleby had a strong knowing of what he wanted and what he did not want to do.  No one could convince Bartleby to do something he did not want to do.  Melville could have been saying that he wants to society to not judge people who are very stubborn and set in their ways but to maybe just let them be as long as they are not hurting anyone.

Fall of the House of Usher

In Edgar Allen Poe’s “Fall of the House of Usher” Poe uses his dark past to create an overwhelmingly gloomy mood. Whether it’s Poe’s choice of colors, or his choice of Autumn as the season, the writer maintains a consistently dark tone throughout the story. Autumn is a time of closing, a time of death, and discoloration. Something consistent with the tones of dark romanticism. The character’s in the story possess a similarly depressed mood throughout their experiences. From Roderick Usher, to his sister Madeline, each character lacks a sense of vibrance, or life to them. Roderick mopes about the Usher’s beaten down abode with no sense of lust for life. Madeline is described in an almost ghostly manner, lacking many crucial characteristics that most living beings possess.

 

To the best of my knowledge Roderick’s sister Madeline is neither dead, or completely alive. During my second time reading the passage I decided that she is quickly approaching death, something clear to Roderick, however her death is drawn out and painful. The story seems to have some strange connection to an event in Poe’s life, something which brought him severe, drawn out agony. Poe uses a dark and angry diction to display his inner angst and the pain that he has sheltered within for so long, before letting all of his emotion out in the form of Madeline’s character. Whether Poe meant to or not he has created a story which resonates with me as more of an autobiography then a romantic fiction. I see this as a clever way for Poe to release inner demons.

 

“The Real Thing”

“The Real Thing” by Henry James was at first a very confusing read. I had to actually read it twice to even get an idea of what he was talking about. I ultimately concluded that his short story was based of Society and class status. The Narrator has decided to paint for a supposed aristocratic couple named Major and Mrs. Monarch. The names alone clearly alluded to the idea even though this couple is poor they are ranked high in society. Monarch was an interesting choice for a last name since it is refers to a king and then for his first name to be major is a sort of irony since major means primary and could be thought of as a military term.  So was the reason for naming the characters as such irony? But for them to also not be good models due to them not being very flexible to drawl creates the real irony. Especially since Mrs Churm (described as very uneducated) is so easily sculped into whatever the narrator wants to drawl.  So was is James point in the story? He is trying to say that the poor or middle class can have hopes to one day react aristocracy meaning they have nothing to lose where as those with high social status have everything to lose? But what is the “Real Thing?”, is it the idea of social status and even though this high status couple can only act as high status people, they have stooped so low for money that they have agreed to model?