Symbolism and other figurative speech in The Birth-mark and The Thing in the Forest Birth – Mark : First and fore-most the birthmark represents the fatal flaw of humanity, and that eventually we all fall into sin, sorrow, decay, and death. I think that the birthmark represents the desire for perfection or in this case the lack of. Georgina’s husband found her birthmark to be all consuming blot on her otherwise beautiful face. He made it something so awful that his wife lost her own feeling of beauty and began to feel ugly.
She was willing to do anything to have this ugly stain removed from her face. As so many women, strive to attain outer beauty through plastic surgery. What Georgina’s husband failed to appreciate was her inner beauty, something that would never fade. I also think the birthmark represents her husband’s ongoing battle with nature. He was so full of himself and the confidence that he could control nature that he was willing to risk the life of the woman he loved. He acted as if could control life and death. I think he believed that if he could rid her of this birthmark that he could prolong life.
The shape of the birthmark as is pointed out in the story was in the shape of a hand. To many it seemed as if a fairy had placed her hand on her face and left this imprint as a token of the magic endowments that were to give such power over their hearts. The handprint could also represent that she had been touched by God Another aspect of the birthmark to consider is that it deeply interwoven with the texture and substance of her being, would lead us to think that her flaws weather literal or symbolic are deeply woven into her character and cannot be easily removed.
As we see from the fact that when her husband attempted to remove the birthmark he removed her very life. In addition, consider that the birthmark is red and sometimes fades depending on her mood. The red could represent her passion and even her sexuality, maybe something her husband was afraid of and he thought if he removed it, he would be able to control her. The Thing in the Forest – This story was rather difficult for me to read. I am a mother and I could relate to how hard it would be to send your children away even if it was for their wn good. My Great-great grandparents came here to the United States because of the war. I think the symbolism of the thing in the forest represents the war itself. The airplanes and the tanks and they rolled over the ground destroying everything in their path. These girls were young they did not understand all that was happening around them. They were scared and as they walked into the forest they felt as if they had found a safe place but they soon learned that, no place was safe from the horrible ravages of war.
Perhaps as they were in the forest a battalion of tanks passed by and the young girl who followed was unable to get out of the way in time and was killed. Needless to say, this event, whatever it was, affected these girls the rest of their lives. Figures of speech – In the Birthmark the narrator uses the color red and white to highlight Georgina’s purity and imperfections. Hawthorne describes Georgina’s skin “a healthy though delicate bloom. ” He describes her complexion as snow.
Hawthorne helps up to appreciate how self-conscious she had become when he states “at the mention of her birthmark , Georgina as usual, shrank as if a red-hot iron had touched her cheek. ” The Thing in the Forest – Byatt uses figures of speech to help us visualize these children as they are marched off. “a spare hands’ like a scarecrow, a disorderly dwarf regiment” He also helps us to appreciate the thing in the forest “it moved in waves, the smell of maggoty things. ”
