USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -An abundance of romantic characteristics such as supernatural elements, intuition over reasoning, and the tendency to focus on the tragedy of the story are found throughout the Dark Romantic piece. Many examples of the supernatural trademarks are evident throughout the piece.

Detailed explanation-2: -The birthmark and the painting may represent the flaws of human nature-sinfulness, evil, and corruption (“Dark Romanticism”). In this case, as the birthmark fades and as the painting is perfected, the women are cleansed of their innate flaws that make them human and therefore cannot live.

Detailed explanation-3: -Two aspects of Romanticism are the importance of imagination and strong emotions. In Birthmark, the wife displays these traits through her actions. The wife comes to imagine a future in which she does not have to have the “hideous” birthmark on her face anymore and submits herself to her husband’s experimentation.

Detailed explanation-4: -“The Birthmark is a story which has the basics of a Gothic story which was written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, and represents a Romantic view of life. In order to catch those from the story, first the knowledge of Romanticism and Gothic literature is needed.

Detailed explanation-5: -Dark Romantics focus on human fallibility, self-destruction, judgement, punishment, as well as the psychological effects of guilt and sin.