The Birthmark Reading Quiz & Reading Questions

fairies

Georgiana’s other lovers felt the birthmark was the result of…

crimson

What color is used to describe the birthmark?

a perfectionist

Aylmer can best be described as…

foil

What type of character is Aminadab?

Pygmalion

Aylmer makes an allusion to compare himself to…

Science and Nature

The primary conflict in the story is between…

he laughs

What is Aminadab’s reaction to Georgiana’s death?

critical and obsessive

Which words best describe Aylmer?

The geranium drooping and losing leaves

The servant disappearing into the night

The description of the laboratory

Events in the story that foreshadow Georgiana’s fate

science

What is Aylmer’s first love?

Georgiana

What is his “second passion”?

The birthmark on his wife’s cheek.

Soon after marriage, what troubles Aylmer about his wife?

A charm

What does Georgianna consider the birthmark to be?

Aylmer states that the birthmark is an imperfection, and he wants his wife to be perfect.

Why does Aylmer dislike it so?

The crimson birthmark on her pale skin

What is meant by the description, “a crimson stain upon the snow”?

A human hand

What does the birthmark look like?

The birthmark was said to have come from a fairy at her birth hour that laid a hand on her cheek.

How was it described by Georgianna’s lovers?

To give Georgiana sway over all hearts

What purpose was this “magic endowment” supposed to be able to do?

a “bloody hand”

What did other women, jealous of Georgianna’s beauty, call the birthmark?

grow more and more intolerable with every movement of their united lives…”

Because Aylmer sees Georgianna “otherwise so perfect, he found this one defect…

fatal flaw

ineffaceably

finite

wrought

“It was the _____ ______ of humanity which Nature, in one shape or another, stamps ______ on all her productions, either to imply that they are temporary and _____, or that their perfection must be _______ by tail and pain.

fatal flaw

A characteristic or trait that brings about the downfall of a character

ineffaceably

impossible to remove or erase

the irony is that Aylmer’s imagination, meant to elevate and perfect, instead leads to destruction, showing that some imperfections are essential to being human—and trying to erase them can cost everything.

On page 245 the narrator states, “Aylmer’s somber imagination…” about the birthmark brings about a great irony in the story. What is the irony?

Sin, sorrow, decay, death, and humanity

What is the birthmark a symbol of?

human imperfection

What does the birthmark represent?

his desire for perfection

Aylmer’s fatal flaw