Perfect In Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Birthmark

Society longs for a perfect model to show how humanity should be. Throughout history, perfection has been looked for in gods and other-worldly beings, yet never in humans. Perhaps this is because perfection is subjective and unattainable. Each person can have their own idea of what makes someone perfect, which can make the most ideal person, imperfect. One simple flaw can be seen as imperfect. Despite that, with the advancement of technology and media, people try to become perfect through surgeries and other, more damaging, processes. In “The Birthmark” by Nathaniel Hawthorne, a scientist believes that the removal of his wife’s birthmark can make her perfect, or rather, his idea of perfect. Hawthorne uses symbolism, foreshadowing, and dark romantic ideals to say that while attempting to be perfect, you can be hurting yourself or others.
Hawthorne uses foreshadowing to help tell the reader the message. Aylmer has a dream about attempting to remove Georgiana’s birthmark with a knife, but in the midst of the operation, the knife reaches Georgiana’s heart and kills her. Throughout the story, Georgiana says things like, “Either remove this dreadful hand, or take my wretched life!” (3) and “Remove it, remove it, whatever be the cost, or we shall both go mad!” (9) She gets to the point where she is willing to do anything in order to remove

the birthmark because of her husband’s original insult and suggestion. Ultimately, Georgiana ends up dead because of the desire to remove her birthmark. Though her death is different in her husband’s dream, there is still the same tragic ending. There is so much focus on removing the birthmark that the stories concludes with a fatal removal of it. Georgiana’s birthmark bothered him so much and he spent so much time trying to remove it, “he failed to look beyond the shadowy scope of time… to find the perfect future in the present.” (11)
Georgiana’s birthmark, “the sole token of human imperfection,” (11) was the main symbol to represent Hawthorne’s message. Originally, Georgiana has no problem with her red birthmark, whose “shape bore not a little similarity to the human hand, though the smallest pygmy size.” (2) The shape may represent the fact that no matter how perfect someone can seem, they will always have something that makes them human. Her former lovers found it beautiful and even would have “risked life for the privilege of pressing his lips to the mysterious hand.” For Georgiana, that is the only imperfection she has and when she blushes it fades into the color of her blush. A common source of blushing is being complimented and so when she blushes, this can represent her feeling perfect from these compliments in that moment. This all changes when Aylmer first questions Georgiana about removing her birthmark, she tells him, “...it has been so often called a charm that I was simple enough to imagine it might be so.” (1) Her husband encourages her to remove the birthmark because he thinks she would be perfect without it. His insult to her unique beauty makes Georgiana insecure and she becomes willing to get it removed at any cost. The birthmark on her face is what becomes the focus of Aylmer’s scientific efforts, at an almost obsessive point. From his perspective, he is trying to help her, when all he’s doing is hurting her.
Dark romantics, such as Hawthorne, had common themes of good versus evil and they looked to nature for moral development.

In “The Birthmark,” Aylmer is the force of evil that wants to change Georgiana, who is an innocent character. She eventually comes to believe in his opinions and he corrupts her self-image. Aylmer thinks he can make Georgiana perfect and change what Georgiana got naturally. As previously mentioned, he eventually causes Georgiana’s death with this search for perfection. Hawthorne takes advantage of tying in his ideals with the story to illustrate, once again, that striving for physical perfection can be

damaging.
“The Birthmark” by Nathaniel Hawthorne shows how unrealistic expectations of perfection can hurt yourself or others around you. Georgiana couldn’t help the fact that she had a birthmark on her face. Disregarding the fact that everyone has flaws, Aylmer thought he could remove it. So while he found imperfection in his wife’s physical appearance, his judgement on what is perfect must have been clouded since his personality was far more unbecoming than the birthmark on Georgiana’s face. That being said, perfection will never be achieved in anyone and that’s what Hawthorne believed. This story advises people that trying to achieve it simply isn’t worth it.