Perfection In Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Birthmark

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In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story, “The Birthmark”, Aylmer, is a scientist that challenges his love for science in combination against his love for a woman. After he dedicates his life to Georgiana, his wife, Aylmer slowly grows more and more disgust for the imperfection of a birthmark on her cheek. The birthmark is a crimson, red-shaped figure that only appears on her face when the natural rosiness of her face vanishes. As the birthmark begins to haunt Aylmer’s mind as the time goes by, he decides to surgically remove Georgiana’s mark from her cheek in his laboratory. As numerous attempts go by, Georgiana is instructed to drink a potion recipe--the birthmark finally disappears from her cheek, and she dies shortly after. First of all, as Alymer recollects his thoughts on his dream about Georgiana’s birthmark, he makes a final decision on …show more content…

Aylmer’s excessive distress on correcting Georgiana’s birthmark and achieving complete perfection begins to reveal his true character of selfishness--he does not seem to care about his wife and strives towards superficial perfection, instead of viewing his wife as perfection in her own manner. He is willing to go to great measures in order to prove that one can perfect Nature through science. Because Georgiana truly loves her husband, she convinces herself that it is necessary to submit to the experiment and risk her own life in order to make Aylmer content. If Aylmer was truly in love with Georgiana, he would not be deeply disturbed by something as insignificant as a birthmark. This proves that Aylmer’s love of science overrules the love for his wife, as he is set in attempting to perfect what Nature has set upon her face. As the story progresses in the laboratory, Aylmer, his assistant, Aminadab, and Georgiana continue to work together in order to accomplish their goal by testing the best method for removing the

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