The role of women in Rappaccini's Daughter, The Prophetic Images, Lady Eleanor's Cloak and The Sign of Birth During a critical research on the works of Hawthorne, I came across an interesting piece dealing with the feminist view of “The Birth-Mark.” The article, written by Fetterly, explores the relationship between Aylmer and his wife and how this relationship is a typical male-dominated situation. Although the story is about the scientist's failure, there is an undercurrent here about how Aylmer views his wife: negatively. This view towards women can be seen in many of Hawthorne's works, including "Rapaccini's Daughter", "Prophetic Images", and "Lady Eleanor's Cloak". While this view of women isn't always at the forefront of the piece, it's definitely worth exploring how they are treated by men in each. In “The Birthmark,” Aylmer sets himself the task of freeing his wife from the one imperfection she has. ha. By trying to perfect her, readers get the idea that Georgiana is somehow inadequate and that this inadequacy lies in her appearance. The message to readers seems to be that women must be perfect both outside and inside, which Aylmer claims is flawless. Aylmer decides that he will "fix" Georgiana. Feminists see this as a problem of male control. There are several mentions of Georgiana as "otherwise so perfect", both in appearance and soul, except for this birthmark. The idea of ​​having to have the most beautiful wife is a very degrading view of women. It plants in our minds the idea that men are superior to women, and that men are the ones who can "fix" women in an attempt to bring them to my level... middle of paper... ...a shadow of death falls on the female characters of each of these stories. This would fit into what Fetterly describes as “the great American dream of eliminating women.” It seems that the men's role in these pieces was primarily to try to control their wives/love interests/daughters in an attempt to gain the upper hand in the battle of the sexes. No productive male-female relationship is observed here, and feminists conclude that this stems from a need to dominate women, probably because men are afraid of women's power. We cannot know what goes on in the minds of these men, but it is certainly interesting to observe the relationships they have with the main female characters. Works Cited: Hawthorne, Nathaniel. "Rapaccini's daughter." The Tales of Nathaniel Hawthorne. Ed. James McIntosh. New York: W. W. Norton and Company, 1987.