Question

The crimson hand expressed the ineludible gripe in which mortality clutches the highest and purest of earthly mould, degrading them into kindred with the lowest, and even with the very brutes, like whom their visible frames return to dust. In this manner, selecting it as the symbol of his wife's liability to sin, sorrow, decay, and death, Aylmer's sombre imagination was not long in rendering the birthmark a frightful object.

Explain the above paragraph.

Answer 1

The paragraph describes Aylmer's obsession with his wife's birthmark as a symbol of human mortality and imperfection, signifying the inevitability of sin, sorrow, decay, and death.

Step-by-step explanation:

The paragraph from Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Birthmark discusses the powerful grip of mortality that binds even the purest beings to their inevitable fate of sin, sorrow, decay, and death. Aylmer, the protagonist, becomes obsessed with his wife's birthmark, viewing it as a symbol of her human flaws and imperfections.

This birthmark, in the form of a crimson hand, signifies the universal and inescapable nature of human mortality and imperfection. Aylmer's fixation on the birthmark and his desire to remove it reflects his inability to accept the natural imperfections that come with being human.