Every relationship is different. Whether you can be in a relationship with a guy, or just with a friend, is different. Even though they are different, the characters in Nathaniel Hawthorne's “The Birthmark” and Fay Weldon's “IND AFF” have similar relationships. That is, the male is dominant over the female and the woman thinks that the man is her knight in shining armor. At the beginning of "IND AFF" the unnamed woman thinks that her professor, Peter, with whom she is having an affair, is her ticket to making a good thesis and a higher position. Similarly, in “The Birthmark,” Georgiana thinks her husband is her ticket to flawless beauty because he tells her he will remove her birthmark. Obviously, that's not how relationships work in today's society. These two relationships compare and contrast with each other as well as with relationships today. “IND AFF” is set in Sarajevo, where Princip assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife. This is a key aspect of the story because Peter is superb at the story and thinks he knows everything there is to know about the story. Similarly, “The Birthmark” is set in a laboratory. This is where Georgiana's husband, Aylmer, spends most of his free time. Aylmer believes he knows or can discover everything there is to know about science. So, in each story, the man takes the woman to a place he knows more about (and is therefore considered superior to) her. In both stories, the man is seen as intelligent. In “IND AFF” Peter says he is a professor of classical history and has a “first-class mind” (Weldon page 202). In “The Birthmark” Aylmer is called “a man of science” (Hawthorne page 416) and a “genius” (Hawthorne page 423). Like men, women have similarities and differences. For example, at the beginning of both stories, the women seem confident. Then men tell them otherwise. In “IND AFF,” Peter tells the woman that she does not have a first-class mind (Weldon 202). In “The Birthmark” Georgiana accepts her birthmark and in fact comes to think of it as the touch of an angel (Hawthorne page 417). Then, her husband says that her birthmark is the smallest possible flaw in nature (Hawthorne pg 417).