Perfection In Nathaniel Hawthorne's 'The Birthmark'

Georgiana had always lived with the birthmark, and was quite fond of its charm. Many people in the town believe it was a fairy’s handprint left to sway all hearts; to them the mark only magnified her appeal. The mark’s charm had rarely been questioned by anyone other than the jealous women of the town, and its peculiar nature had once intrigued Aylmer and amplified his attraction to Georgiana. He begged for her hand in marriage, but soon after they were wed, he queried whether Georgiana had ever considered having the birthmark removed. She was hurt by the implication that the mark depreciated her and grew upset with her husband. As time passed, Aylmer continued to stare at the mark, unable to keep his eyes from wandering to it. This continued until Georgiana was no longer able to ignore the way his eyes were always fixated on this sole imperfection, the crimson hand that kept him up at night and plagued his dreams. She asked Aylmer to remove the mark, or take her life because she no longer wanted to live if she had to live with the mark. She preferred death to the harsh scrutiny from her husband.

Hawthorne has created a lot of characters that are unlike the Aylmer’s who never leave and have no existence outside of the laboratory. This marriage was a unique but very odd one at that with Mr. Aylmer identifying his wife’s birthmark as an imperfection and then trying to improve her flaws after judging the way she appeared facially. The nineteenth century was known for woman to change their appearances if men did

The Birthmark by Nathaniel Hawthorne is trying to communicate some important ideas about a variety of themes, he articulates a few weighty themes around this brief argument: the struggle between science and nature. In a story full of successful and almost magical scientific experiments, it is intact nature itself that is more powerful than any creation made by man. As is to be expected, this path to perfection also includes the creation of life and the victory over death. In the birthmark Aylmer does not see, like others who pretended Georgiana's hand before him, a singularity that accentuates her immaculate beauty. He sees in that crimson little hand an indication of decay and death. And also of immorality and sin, in tune with the belief

Although love is at often times a great thing, it can blind people and misguide them. The relationship between Aylmer and Georgiana is a scenario of misguided love gone wrong. In “The Birthmark”, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Aylmer expresses his love of science much more than he expresses his love for his wife, Georgiana. This happens despite the extreme love his wife shows him, and her obedience and trust towards him. He ends up ruining her life when turning her into a scientific experiment. His love for science consumes his brain and he is unable to think about the human part of his life and thus, ends up losing it.

In The Birthmark the story begins with the challenge Aylmer is facing. He wants to mix his love for science with the love he has for his wife. The only way he can do this is by removing his wife birthmark that’s holding her back from being perfect. Aylmer oppresses his wife in a symbolic way by making her feel bad about her birthmark. Aylmer begins to speak with Georgiana and asks her “...has it never occurred to you that the mark upon your cheek might be removed?” (1). This the start of him pestering his wife and making her feel about herself. He does this to get her to agree with him about removing the birthmark. To answer Aylmer’s question, Georgiana replies by saying “To tell you the truth it has been so often called a charm that I was

The archetype of Georgiana can be seen as the perfect women, however, her birthmark acts as a symbol of imperfection and mortality that keeps her from fully pleasing her husband. Georgiana is described as beautiful and perfect except for one flaw, the birthmark. “It was the fatal flaw of humanity which Nature, in one shape or another, stamps ineffaceably on all her productions, either to imply that they are temporary and finite, or that their perfection must be wrought by toil and pain” (Hawthorne 220). The hand-shaped birthmark can be seen as her being touched by nature and acts as a symbol of imperfection and mortality in humans. The symbol of the birth-mark standing for mortality can be seen again towards the end

Upon realizing just how much his wife’s birthmark bothered him, Aylmer made it his goal to do whatever was necessary to rid Georgiana of her only “imperfection”. While this story is a work of fiction, the way of thinking is anything but fictional. With the gender dynamic in this story in very centered around the man. The man is the one who makes the decisions, and the woman is expected to go along with them. If the man wants something of the wife, she is expected to do everything in her power to satisfy him. The woman, on the other hand, is often heavily pressured into submitting to this kind of unhealthy relationship. Whether she is blinded by love, afraid of what

Too often in this world does man attempt to perfect nature. Tampering with this sort of element most commonly leads to a disaster to come extent. Because man is never satisfied, he is constantly vying for perfection, regardless of the outcome. Such is the case in Nathaniel Hawthorne's short story, 'The Birthmark.' Aylmer's persistent attempt to perfect nature is the cause of Georgiana's demise and the affirmation that when man tampers with such a powerful component terrible things may occur.

The marriage was based on a mystery. Making the argument if the husband actually loved his wife the way she is. Or does he love science and facts more? "Georgiana," said he, "has it never occurred to you that the mark upon your cheek might be removed?" (par. 3) He is a man of science his background is philosophy, he just believes in facts, and how to solve problems. In his mind, he thinks that her birthmark could be a problem. Consequently, he doesn't see it as a gift. Ordinarily leading to him try and solve it like a math problem, not knowing how she feels about it. "No, indeed," said she, smiling; but perceiving the seriousness of his manner, she blushed deeply. "To tell you the truth, it has been so often called a charm that I was simple enough to imagine it might be so."(par. 4) To make the debate that she thinks of it as a “charm” does he love her or does he love science.

Portrayed as spiritual and intellectual in contrast with his crude laboratory assistant Aminadab, Aylmer becomes disturbingly obsessed with a birthmark on his wife’s countenance. The plot of the short story revolves around the man’s attempt in removing the mark, which results in the death of Georgiana. In the very beginning of the story, the audience discovers through the narration that Aylmer views his wife’s birthmark as more than a congenital, benign irregularity on the skin. In reality, the primary reason why he becomes severely obsessed with the birthmark is because in his eyes, the mark symbolizes something. Aylmer proceeds to further clarify his inner thoughts by replying to his wife, “This slightest possible defect, which we hesitate whether to term a defect or a beauty, shocks me, as being the visible mark of earthly imperfection” (Mays 340). Although Georgiana is initially mortified and even goes as far to question the existence of the marriage between them, the narration later sheds light and explains that the precise reason why Aylmer is excessively bothered with the birthmark is because he regards Georgiana as virtually the embodiment of perfection. As a consequence, perceiving a flaw on his wife’s image that clashes with the concept of her beauty inevitably leads him to feel aggrieved and begin to judge the birthmark as a dangerous blemish residing on her skin.

In Nathaniel Hawthorne's short story "The Birthmark," there are many views on the need for science and its advances. Hawthorne's protagonist, Aylmer, illustrates his own personal assessment of science. The story is based on the idea that science can solve all of humanities ills and problems. Hawthorne believes that science is overrunning life. Aylmer is consumed by his passion of overtake Mother Nature. The story shows how Aylmer's passion leads to not only his downfall but that of his wife Georgiana as well. The belief that science can solve and do anything is one of ignorance because it totally disregards the human element of spirituality.

Such arrogance is the reason why the romance became in tragedy. Aylmer as devote scientist had been influenced by discoveries of the 19th century. For him the nature can be modified through science, nature is flawed and man can improve it. In a deeper sense, human life is imperfect because of the death, also the sin, imperfection is a symbol of the mortal life and one of the purposes of science is prolonging life; so perfection is seen as eternity, symbol of immortality. In the case of Aylmer he is married with a woman he considers almost perfect, according to him she is so perfect that is insupportable see in her the birth-mark in her check, because that just emphasizes just a small imperfection that damages the beauty of a perfect work of art, something that recalled the mortal condition of Aylmer’s wife as the life of any other human, a fact that made of ​​the birthmark a nightmare for the couple as describes the story:

     Because of Aylmer’s belief that culture is superior to nature, the Creator of nature and culture alike chose to punish him. The punishment was not in an effort to be vengeful, but to show him what should have been important to him was not the birthmark on Georgiana’s face, but the beauty that she possessed both inside and out that made him desire to spend the rest of his days with her. “…he failed to look beyond the shadowy scope of Time, and living once and for all in Eternity, to find the perfect Future in the present (Birthmark, 1273);” therefore, he was

Aylmer is an opposite representation of C. JoyBell’s quote because he loses sight of his love of Georgiana for scientific perfection, without any self reflection upon the matter. Moreover, Aylmer’s want to dispel Georgiana's birthmark produces a change in his feelings toward her. When discussing the birthmark and a possible removal with Georgiana, Aylmer said, “‘you [Georgiana] came so nearly perfect from the hand of Nature… as being the visible mark of earthly

Soon after Aylmer tells his spouse that the mark on her face bothers him, she practically begs him to remove it. Aylmer is more than happy to remove the birthmark and has no doubt that he can do so. While discussing the removal on page 316, he tells Georgiana that he “feels fully competent” to “render [Georgiana’s] cheek as faultless as its fellow.” He goes on to describe the sense of triumph he will feel when it is finally corrected. He only cares about the removal of the birthmark and not what may happen to his wife. Even though the mark bothers him, he reveals to Georgiana that “even [he] rejoices in this simple imperfection, since it will be such a rapture to remove it” (Hawthorne 318). This shows that Georgiana is not the love of Aylmer’s life, but rather science. He puts all of his faith directly into it. Barbara Eckstein states that “Aylmer’s study of minute details becomes a system of belief for Aylmer” (517). Even after Georgiana faints on page 317, Aylmer is “without alarm; for he was confident in his science, and felt that he could draw a magic circle round her within which no evil might intrude” (Hawthorne). This seems ludicrous to most people, but Aylmer had absolute faith in