Two acronyms to start incorporating with your ELA students are TWIST and TP-CASTT. Both highlight important concepts from the work and will help increase overall literary comprehension!
In the “The Birthmark”, the narrator introduces Aylmer, a brilliant scientist, and his wife Georgiana. Aylmer loves his wife, but she has a small birthmark on the side of her left cheek that he despises. This is a dark and eerie tale of one man’s unhealthy obsession with perfection, leaving readers with thoughts on science, life, and love.
The Birthmark Analysis | Use TWIST to analyze stories!
Storyboard Text
T - TONE
W - WORD CHOICE
I - IMAGERY
S - STYLE
T - THEME
Disgusted: Aylmer has a grotesque fascination with Georgiana’s birthmark. Instead of seeing it as a mark of uniqueness he see’s it as an imperfection.
Degregating, ineludible, sin, sorrow, death, decay, sombre, frightening, trouble, horror.
“The crimson hand expressed the ineludible gripe in which mortality clutches the highest and purest of 6 earthly mould...” The sight of the birthmark reminds Aylmer of Georgiana’s near perfection.
The narrator uses particular imagery and word choice in his description to illustrate Aylmer’s disdain and disappointment in Georgiana’s lack of perfection.
From a Puritan perspective, a possible interpretation for this short passage is that man is flawed and sinful. The lack of perfection he sees in Georgiana is in fact the imperfection in man.