LAST POSTS

11 Feb 2011

"The Birthmark", by Nathaniel Hawthorne

Hello guys,

Just as we did with "Young Goodman Brown", we're going to work a little bit further with the second short story: "The Birthmark". I'm going to post several links below and, after reading/watching them, I'd like you to prepare the questions at the end of this entry:

Original story: here you have the link to the original story by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Remember that it was written in the 19th century, so the English language has changed a lot since then.

Plot: here you have a summary of the story. You can either read this document, or watch the trailer below (or both!):



Character analysis: click here for analysis of the two characters in the story: Aylmer and his wife Georgiana.

Symbolism: finally, here you have some information related to the main topics and symbols in the story. This might probably be the document you find most useful.

After you read these documents (they're really short), I'd like you to think about the following questions:

  • How does the character of Georgiana evolve during the story?
  • What made her want to remove her birthmark?
  • Where should the limit between science and nature be?
  • How much would you be willing to pay for perfection?
  • Can we find representations of this story in our everyday lives today?
We'll discuss all this next Wednesday / Thursday in class.

Thanks beforehand for your time and effort.

No comments:

Post a Comment