The Birthmark

Abstract

In the short story The Birthmark (1843/1946), Nathaniel Hawthorne’s character Georgiana has a crimson birthmark on her left cheek that resembles a “bloody hand.” This one “visible mark of earthly imperfection” provides the impetus for anxiety that haunts Georgiana’s husband and Georgiana herself. Indeed, it ultimately drives him, encouraged by Georgiana, to surgically remove the offensive mark, leaving Georgiana dead. This story, written in another time, depicts the unrealistic expectations for flawless beauty in women that are still, and perhaps even more, pervasive today. Moreover, accompanying such expectations, the characters in the story experience marked psychological distress in response to