The Birthmark and Desiree's Baby

In the beginning of Hawthorne’s “The Birthmark,” Hawthorne describes Aylmer as a man of science who has a great love for his young wife, Georgina. However, soon after their marriage, Aylmer becomes troubled with the crimson hand that lies upon Georgina’s cheek and brings up the thought of having it removed. He said to her, “You came so nearly perfect from the hand of Nature that this slightest possible defect, which we hesitate whether to term a defect or a beauty, shocks me, as being the visible mark of earthly imperfection” (pg. 649). It had never occurred to Georgina to remove her birthmark because she was a woman of great beauty whom many men desired and viewed her birthmark not as a sign of her imperfection or flaws, but a kiss from an angel or a fairy marking. While she wasn’t troubled by her husband’s remark at first, but as his continual remarks on the removal of the birthmark begin to become more and more persistence, she too begins to develop a hatred for it as well, especially when she notices him reacting anytime her face becomes pale or flushed enough for the birthmark to appear intensely visible. Because of Aylmer’s blunt disgust for the birthmark, Georgina’s view of it is also altered. What she thought was seen as a “charm” was now a defect to her perfection. Eventually Georgina becomes equally obsessed with the removal of her birthmark mostly because she sees how its presence disturbs her husband so much.

Kate Chopin’s “Desiree’s Baby,” had many surprising twists in its plot. The story begins with the background information of Desiree herself. When she was a child, she was found sleeping in the shadow of a big stone pillar next to the gateway of Valmonde. Monsieur and Madame Valmonde, a wealthy couple in Louisiana, found Desiree and adopted her into their family. As she grew older, she married a wealthy man named Armand Aubigny. The two of them loved each other very much and eventually gave birth to a child. As months went by and the child grew older, they realized that the child wasn’t white. The child’s skin was part black. Armand automatically assumes that Desiree is part black because we are unaware of her origins, since she was adopted. He willing supports her decision to return to the Valmonde estate to be with her mother. Once she had left, he never saw her again. He created a huge bonfire to burn all of her belongings along with the letters she had written him before their marriage. While going through the pile of letters, Armand comes across a letter that his mother wrote to his father. In reading this letter, he discovers that his mother was black, meaning that he was the one who was part black, not Desiree. When I was reading this story, I didn’t expect this ending. It definitely added a twist to the plot. Overall, I enjoyed this one.