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Mousa Ahmadian

Mousa Ahmadian

Academic rank: Professor
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9608-8737
Education: PhD.
ScopusId: 37053495200
HIndex:
Faculty: Literature and Languages
Address: Arak University
Phone: 086-33135111

Research

Title
Kantian notions of Feminine Beauty and Masculine Sublimity in Hawthorne’s ‘The Birthmark’
Type
JournalPaper
Keywords
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Year
2012
Journal Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences
DOI
Researchers Najmeh Hafezi ، Mousa Ahmadian ، Fazel Asadi Amjad

Abstract

Abstract: Hawthorne’s ‘The Birthmark’ is one of his short stories whose theme falls among the domain of experimenting human nature in the fields of art, religion, and science. Regardless of the birthmark itself which represents the Original Sin, a conflict between masculine attitude and feminine perspective toward perfection and beauty is artfully manifested in this story. The paper study employs the notions of the beautiful and the sublime according to Immanuel Kant’s Observations on the Feeling of the Beautiful and Sublime in which he puts forward the idea that different sexes possess different perceptions of events and environment. From his viewpoint, women are mostly capable to feel the beautiful and sympathy, while men, with their tendency to perfection, possess and convey the feeling of the sublime. Several events, disputes and descriptions in ‘The Birthmark’, clearly exemplify women’s zeal for beauty and men’s seeking the perfection. Hawthorne proves that oversensitivity to perfection and sublimity can be a destructive force for the beautiful. One should not defy nature to reconcile his or her internal desires. Within the quest to win perfection by means of limited power of science, the only winner is true love.