The Birth-Mark
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40 free The Birth-Mark trivia questions with answers — literature quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Birth-Mark (often printed as The Birthmark) is one of the most widely taught short stories in American literature. A brilliant scientist named Aylmer marries the beautiful Georgiana, then finds he cannot stop staring at the one small mark on her face. What follows is part love story, part horror story and part warning about what happens when a clever man decides he can improve on creation. This quiz walks through the whole tale: what the mark looks like and what different people see in it, Aylmer's dream, the strange demonstrations in his rooms, the books Georgiana reads while she waits, the servant who watches it all, and the final experiment. A last group of questions covers the story behind the story, including where and when Hawthorne wrote it and where readers first saw it. It is written for students revising for a class quiz or exam, teachers who want ready-made questions, and anyone who has just read the story and wants to check how much stuck. Every answer comes with a short explanation that points back to the text.
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Q 01In Hawthorne's "The Birth-Mark", the crimson mark on Georgiana's face is shaped like what?
A tiny hand
A tiny hand is what the narrator sees in it, though envious women called it the bloody hand and said it spoiled her looks.
Q 02What happens to Georgiana as the last trace of the mark fades at the end of "The Birth-Mark"?
She dies
She dies the moment the mark vanishes, because it was the bond tying her spirit to her body. Aylmer's cure works and costs him his wife.
Q 03In Aylmer's dream in "The Birth-Mark", the mark sinks deeper under his knife until it reaches what?
Her heart
Her heart is where the mark ends up in the dream, yet Aylmer remains resolved to cut it away. He remembers none of it until Georgiana prompts him.
Q 04Aylmer proves his final potion in "The Birth-Mark" by curing the yellow blotches on which plant?
A geranium
A geranium on the window seat loses its blotches minutes after he pours the liquid on its soil. Georgiana tells him she needed no proof.
Q 05In "The Birth-Mark", Aylmer's servant mutters that if Georgiana were his wife he would do what?
Never part with it
Never part with it is his verdict: the soot-stained labourer sees nothing wrong with the mark that horrifies his refined master.
Q 06Georgiana's admirers in "The Birth-Mark" said which being touched her face at birth to make the mark?
A fairy
A fairy, they said, had marked the baby in token of the magic gifts that would win her so many admirers.
Q 07What happens to the magical fast-growing flower in "The Birth-Mark" the moment Georgiana touches it?
Its leaves blacken
Its leaves blacken as if scorched, and the whole plant is blighted. Aylmer shrugs it off as too strong a stimulus, the first of several experiments to go wrong.
Q 08What does Aylmer do with the blurred metal-plate likeness he makes of Georgiana in "The Birth-Mark"?
Throws it in acid
Aylmer throws it in acid after the plate shows her features as a blur, with only the mark showing sharply where her face should be.
Q 09In "The Birth-Mark", the gold-coloured liquid Georgiana admires in Aylmer's cabinet is really what?
A deadly poison
A deadly poison, Aylmer says, so exact that the dose decides whether a victim lingers for years or drops mid-breath. He also calls it an elixir of immortality.
Q 10At what point in "The Birth-Mark" does Georgiana's mark first begin to trouble the scientist Aylmer?
Soon after the wedding
Soon after the wedding is when it starts; before then he had thought little or nothing of it. Georgiana asks why he took her from her mother's side if she shocks him.
Q 11What is the name of Aylmer's shaggy laboratory assistant in Hawthorne's "The Birth-Mark"?
Aminadab
Aminadab has worked for Aylmer through his whole career, carrying out every experiment without grasping a single principle behind it.
Q 12Hawthorne's "The Birth-Mark" places Georgiana's crimson mark in the centre of which part of her face?
Her left cheek
Her left cheek carries the mark, which the narrator calls deeply interwoven with the texture of her skin instead of lying on its surface.
Q 13Georgiana tells Aylmer in "The Birth-Mark" that she had so often heard her mark called what?
A charm
A charm is what people had called it so often that she half believed them, until Aylmer told her that it shocked him.
Q 21In "The Birth-Mark", Aylmer's servant is said to represent which side of man?
The physical
The physical side of man is the servant's half of the pairing, with his vast strength and grime, while slender, bookish Aylmer stands for the spiritual.
Q 22Muttering at the furnace in "The Birth-Mark", Aylmer calls his assistant a machine and a man of what?
Clay
Clay suits the assistant's heavy, grimy bulk, and Aylmer mutters the insult while the two of them watch the furnace distil the final potion.
Q 23Aylmer shows Georgiana a cosmetic in "The Birth-Mark" that he says will wash away which skin marks?
Freckles
Freckles would rinse off with a few drops, he says, while a stronger dose would drain the blood from a rosy face. He rules it out for her as merely superficial.
Q 14For Aylmer in "The Birth-Mark", the mark on his wife's face becomes the visible sign of what?
Earthly imperfection
Earthly imperfection is what he reads into it: proof that even Georgiana is liable to sin, sorrow and decay like every other mortal.
Q 15What does Georgiana do almost at once after drinking Aylmer's final potion in "The Birth-Mark"?
Falls asleep
She falls asleep within moments, after praising the draught's fragrance and saying it has quenched a thirst that had parched her for days.
Q 16The final draught Aylmer brings Georgiana in a crystal goblet in "The Birth-Mark" looks like what?
Clear water
Clear water is what it resembles: a colourless liquid, yet bright enough, the narrator says, to be the draught of immortality.
Q 17Which recent discovery does the opening of "The Birth-Mark" say made science seem miraculous?
Electricity
Electricity was a novelty in the late 1700s, when the tale is set, and the narrator says a love of science could then rival the love of a woman.
Q 18Promising success in "The Birth-Mark", Aylmer likens his coming joy to that of which figure from Greek myth?
Pygmalion
Pygmalion's statue came alive in the myth, and Aylmer boasts that his own ecstasy at correcting Nature's fairest work will be just as great.
Q 19As Aylmer leads Georgiana into his laboratory in "The Birth-Mark", what reaction of his makes her faint?
He shudders
He shudders at the sight of the mark, though he had only meant to give her a reassuring look. She later tells him she cannot forget it.
Q 20Which sound from Aylmer's servant is heard again at the very end of Hawthorne's "The Birth-Mark"?
A hoarse laugh
A hoarse laugh, the servant's usual sign of delight, sounds as the mark fades and again at the close. The narrator hears in it the triumph of matter over spirit.
Q 24In "The Birth-Mark", Aylmer's journal shows Georgiana that his most splendid successes were mostly what?
Failures
Failures, measured against the ideal he aimed at: his brightest diamonds were pebbles beside the gems out of reach. She loves him more for it, but trusts his judgment less.
Q 25In "The Birth-Mark", Aylmer tells the weeping Georgiana it is dangerous to read whose books?
A sorcerer's
A sorcerer's books, he says with an uneasy smile on finding her in tears over his journal, adding that some of its pages could cost him his senses.
Q 26After catching Georgiana reading his journal in "The Birth-Mark", Aylmer asks her to do what for him?
Sing to him
Sing to him is the request, since he says he came looking for the luxury of her voice. He goes off in boyish high spirits, assuring her the result is already certain.
Q 27In "The Birth-Mark", what does the angry Aylmer leave on Georgiana's arm when she enters his laboratory?
His finger marks
His finger marks stay printed on her arm as he calls her a prying woman and orders her out, afraid the mark will blight his work.
Q 28In "The Birth-Mark", what does Aylmer do to the mark on impulse after Georgiana drinks the potion?
Kisses it
He kisses it once, on a strange impulse, and his spirit recoils even as he does so. Georgiana stirs and murmurs as if in protest.
Q 29In "The Birth-Mark", the mark on Georgiana's face stands out most sharply when she does what?
Turns pale
She turns pale and the mark shows like a crimson stain on snow, whereas a blush hides it completely in the rush of blood.
Q 30How does Georgiana see for herself that Aylmer's potion has nearly erased the mark in "The Birth-Mark"?
In a mirror
In a mirror that Aylmer had set up for the purpose, she sees how faint the mark has become, and a smile crosses her lips.