Q 01/05

In Hawthorne's "The Birth-Mark", the crimson mark on Georgiana's face is shaped like what?

A) A tiny hand

B) A crescent moon

C) A five-pointed star

D) A single teardrop

Answer · why

A) 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 02/05

What happens to Georgiana as the last trace of the mark fades at the end of "The Birth-Mark"?

A) She goes blind

B) She faints

C) She dies

D) She goes mad

Answer · why

C) 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 03/05

In Aylmer's dream in "The Birth-Mark", the mark sinks deeper under his knife until it reaches what?

A) Her spine

B) Her throat

C) Her skull

D) Her heart

Answer · why

D) 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 04/05

Aylmer proves his final potion in "The Birth-Mark" by curing the yellow blotches on which plant?

A) A rose bush

B) A geranium

C) A lily

D) An orchid

Answer · why

B) 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 05/05

In "The Birth-Mark", Aylmer's servant mutters that if Georgiana were his wife he would do what?

A) Never part with it

B) Cut it out himself

C) Hide it with powder

D) Send her away

Answer · why

A) 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.