Georgiana's Character in Nathaniel Hawthorne Birthmark

Introduction

The plot is set in motion when he marries a beautiful young woman, Georgiana, who bears a curious birthmark on her cheek in the shape of a tiny crimson hand. Envious women sometimes say it spoils her beauty, but most men find it enchanting. Aylmer, however, becomes obsessed with the birthmark as the one flaw in an otherwise perfect beauty.

When Aylmer involuntarily shudders at the appearance of the birthmark, which waxes and wanes with the flushing or paling of the lady's cheek, Georgiana also develops a horror of her supposed blemish (Mayer, 532). Aylmer ...