The Birth-Mark
E225228
"The Birth-Mark" is a short story by Nathaniel Hawthorne that explores themes of obsession, perfection, and the dangers of scientific hubris through a scientist's fixation on removing a small flaw from his wife's face.
All labels observed (3)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| The Birth-Mark canonical | 10 |
| The Birth-Mark (1843) | 1 |
| The Birthmark | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T2021571 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: The Birth-Mark Context triple: [Mosses from an Old Manse, hasPart, The Birth-Mark]
-
A.
The Story of an Hour
The Story of an Hour is a widely studied short story by Kate Chopin that explores themes of marriage, freedom, and female autonomy through the emotional awakening of a woman who believes her husband has died.
-
B.
The Minister’s Black Veil
The Minister’s Black Veil is a short story by Nathaniel Hawthorne that explores themes of sin, guilt, and isolation through the mysterious decision of a New England minister to permanently cover his face with a black veil.
-
C.
Mrs. Mallard
Mrs. Mallard is the mother duck character from Robert McCloskey’s classic children’s book "Make Way for Ducklings," known for leading her brood through the streets of Boston.
-
D.
The Snows of Kilimanjaro
"The Snows of Kilimanjaro" is a short story by Ernest Hemingway that explores themes of regret, mortality, and the wasted potential of a writer facing death during an African safari.
-
E.
The Fall of the House of Usher
"The Fall of the House of Usher" is a classic Gothic short story that explores themes of madness, decay, and the supernatural through the eerie decline of an aristocratic family and its crumbling mansion.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: The Birth-Mark Target entity description: "The Birth-Mark" is a short story by Nathaniel Hawthorne that explores themes of obsession, perfection, and the dangers of scientific hubris through a scientist's fixation on removing a small flaw from his wife's face.
-
A.
The Story of an Hour
The Story of an Hour is a widely studied short story by Kate Chopin that explores themes of marriage, freedom, and female autonomy through the emotional awakening of a woman who believes her husband has died.
-
B.
The Minister’s Black Veil
The Minister’s Black Veil is a short story by Nathaniel Hawthorne that explores themes of sin, guilt, and isolation through the mysterious decision of a New England minister to permanently cover his face with a black veil.
-
C.
Mrs. Mallard
Mrs. Mallard is the mother duck character from Robert McCloskey’s classic children’s book "Make Way for Ducklings," known for leading her brood through the streets of Boston.
-
D.
The Snows of Kilimanjaro
"The Snows of Kilimanjaro" is a short story by Ernest Hemingway that explores themes of regret, mortality, and the wasted potential of a writer facing death during an African safari.
-
E.
The Fall of the House of Usher
"The Fall of the House of Usher" is a classic Gothic short story that explores themes of madness, decay, and the supernatural through the eerie decline of an aristocratic family and its crumbling mansion.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (49)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
literary work
ⓘ
short story ⓘ |
| adaptation |
radio dramatizations
ⓘ
stage adaptations ⓘ television adaptations ⓘ |
| antagonist | Aylmer ⓘ |
| author | Nathaniel Hawthorne ⓘ |
| centralSymbol | hand-shaped birthmark on Georgiana's cheek ⓘ |
| countryOfOrigin |
United States
ⓘ
linked to:
United States of America
|
| explores |
ethical limits of scientific experimentation
ⓘ
tension between spiritual and material values ⓘ |
| firstPublicationType | literary magazine ⓘ |
| firstPublicationYear | 1843 ⓘ |
| firstPublishedIn | The Pioneer ⓘ |
| genre |
Gothic fiction
ⓘ
dark romanticism ⓘ science fiction precursor ⓘ |
| hasMoral |
attempts to achieve absolute perfection can be destructive
ⓘ
science without humility and ethics can be fatal ⓘ |
| includedIn | collections of Nathaniel Hawthorne's short stories ⓘ |
| language | English ⓘ |
| literaryMovement |
American Romanticism
ⓘ
Dark Romanticism ⓘ
linked to:
Gothic literature
|
| mainCharacter |
Aylmer
ⓘ
Georgiana ⓘ |
| narrativePerspective | third-person narrator ⓘ |
| periodOfPublication | 19th century ⓘ |
| plotSummary | A scientist becomes obsessed with removing a small birthmark from his wife's face, believing it to be her only flaw, and his attempt to erase it results in her death. ⓘ |
| protagonist | Georgiana ⓘ |
| relatedWorkByAuthor |
Rappaccini's Daughter
ⓘ
The Minister's Black Veil ⓘ
linked to:
The Minister’s Black Veil
Young Goodman Brown ⓘ |
| setting |
Aylmer's laboratory
ⓘ
a unspecified European-style country house ⓘ |
| studiedIn |
American literature courses
ⓘ
courses on science and literature ⓘ |
| supportingCharacter | Aminadab ⓘ |
| symbolizes |
human imperfection
ⓘ
limits of human control ⓘ mortality and original sin ⓘ |
| theme |
conflict between science and nature
ⓘ
control over the human body ⓘ danger of idealization ⓘ mortality ⓘ obsession ⓘ perfectionism ⓘ scientific hubris ⓘ |
| tone |
cautionary
ⓘ
dark ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: The Birth-Mark Description of subject: "The Birth-Mark" is a short story by Nathaniel Hawthorne that explores themes of obsession, perfection, and the dangers of scientific hubris through a scientist's fixation on removing a small flaw from his wife's face.
Referenced by (12)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
linked to: The Birth-Mark
linked to: The Birth-Mark