Judgment In Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Birthmark

Human nature is the baseline for all of human instinct. Every portion of our life whether it is how we act, feel, or speak stems from human nature. One main behavior which comes from our human nature is our judgement. In some cases such as knowing right and wrong, judgement comes in handy, but other times, judgement can have negative results. A philosophy established by Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung states that, “Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves.” Jung believes that these judgements of others can lead to a deeper understanding of our own personal nature. By noticing these judgements of others, Jung believes that this can lead to us living a better life. However, Nathaniel Hawthorne writes

Becoming consumed by his hatred of Georgiana's birthmark, Aylmer attempts to use his science to remove the flaw. Though Aylmer believes that he is an accomplished scientist, evidence from his workbooks shows that even his “most splendid successes were almost invariably failures, if compared with the ideal at which he aimed” (BM). But despite the evidence which shows that he is not as accomplished of a scientist as he says he is, he continued with the experiment. His obsession of fixing Georgiana’s complexion and ridding her of her birthmark pushes him to experiment on her despite the risks. Unfortunately, because Aylmer did not change or better himself after judging his wife, he continued with the risky procedure which resulted in ending her life. Aylmer was blinded by his obsession with creating the perfect wife to realize that he was actually insecure with his own ability in science. He so badly wanted to prove to the world that he was able to rid his wife of her blemish and reveal her true beauty. Because he was unable to use his judgements to better understand his own true nature, Aylmer destroyed his own chance for