The_Birthmark

The Birthmark Vanity and pride are often considered major sins of the flesh. In Hawthorne’s “The Birthmark”, vanity and pride play major roles in the downfall of the characters, especially Georgiana. Georgiana is responsible for her own fate to a limited extent due to her husband’s vanity, the time period she lived in, and her own soft personality. The reader is able to follow Georgiana’s downfall throughout the story until the final climax of her personality flaws and Aylmer’s sins ends in her death. The primary cause of Georgiana’s downfall was one that was out of her control. She mainly fell victim to her husband’s vanity. Georgiana’s birthmark was a part of her and she was accustomed to seeing it upon her cheek. She received compliments about it. The fact that the birthmark was emblazoned on her cheek had never been a cause of concern for her. For Aylmer, the birthmark was a flaw that grew more egregious with every passing day. Aylmer was so concerned with Georgiana’s only physical flaw that his vanity took over his rational thinking. Georgiana fell victim to his vanity due to the fact that she georgiana, birthmark, georgiana’s, vanity, husband’s, time, victim, mark, period, own, control, been, aylmer, soft, pride, personality, husband, fell, fact, aylmer’s, downfall, cause, women, woman, whole, wanted, until, traditions, story, sins, responsible, refuted, received, pleasing, played