“The Birthmark” is a story filled with allegory, foreshadowing, and moral lessons. Hawthorne uses these tools not only to prepare the reader for what is to come in the story but to warn the reader of the consequences that follow reckless and selfish behavior. Hawthorne uses his characters as instruments to fulfill his motives. Hawthorne’s characters can also be paralleled to people living in modern times. The quest to obtain perfection is littered throughout …showed first 75 words of 1165 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1165 total…tremendously and destroys the woman he loved, and that is exactly what we are doing to ourselves today. We are trying so hard to become perfect when nature never intended us to be perfect. Perfect can definitely be thought as an opinionated adjective. Works Cited 1.) Hawthorne, Nathaniel. “The Birthmark.” The Compact Bedford Introduction To Literature: Bedford/ St. Martin’s Boston - New York 2.) Quinn, James and Baldessarini, Ross “A Psychological Readings of “The Birthmark”(b.1937)