Tyrannizing Influence In Nathaniel Hawthorne's 'The Birthmark'

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A. “Until now he had not been aware of the tyrannizing influence acquired by one idea over his mind, and of the lengths which he might find in his heart to go for the sake of giving himself peace.” Aymler once pictured Georgiana as perfection, birthmark and all. After a while, the birthmark came to represent everything that was undesirable to him. The idea of the birthmark was like a virus that originated in a part of his brain and slowly spread and took over every thought he had that Georgiana was flawless. The line represents the overall idea of the obsession Aymler had with this one idea that the birthmark was eating away at his life, his marriage, and his sanity. The meaning of this line allows the reader to directly connect to Aymler and with any personal “tyrannizing influence” they may be experiencing. It overall summarizes why he is in this state of disgust with Georgiana and how he wants nothing more to relinquish himself from it. It connect to the overall concept that people will go through extraordinary lengths to release their…show more content…
I think it relates but with a twist. The pleasure that Aymler is trying to obtain is seeing Georgiana without the birthmark. This is because the birthmark represents everything that he despises about Georgiana. He is in constant effort to obtain this pleasure but lacks conscience to do so. This is primarily because he does not think about the most important aspect of this obsession with is Georgiana herself. He lacks the respect and consideration to avoid embarrassment for Georgiana. By constantly focusing on this one flaw that his wife has, it has made her very self-conscience and equally despise it. If Aymler had more of a conscience he would not try to obtain this sense of pleasure of picturing his wife without the birthmark as he would embrace it and think it was equally as beautiful as the rest of her
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