Another way authors use characters is to develop characters that tie into the plot. The husband is a character that we see evolve throughout the story. At first we learn that he wants nothing to do with the blind man because his blindness makes him uncomfortable. Truth be told, although he has never met a blind man and throughout the story we see him begin to question his own unhappiness. An example of this is when the husband states, “I remember reading somewhere that blind people don't smoke because, as speculation. had, they could not see the smoke they were exhaling. I thought I knew that much and that only about blind people. But this blind man smokes his cigarette to the end then lights another” (36). The husband begins to wonder what he thinks of the blind as he begins to realize that he is just like any other human being and that he should not be so uncomfortable around the blind man. He also does this when he and the blind man are watching television and the blind man engages in conversation with him. However, Hawthorne's story is different: Aylmer does not question his discomfort with the birthmark. Aylmer, on the other hand, is so uncomfortable with the birthmark that he causes a misguided tragedy where he accidentally kills his wife. If Aylmer had simply wondered if the