Nathaniel Hawthorne's "The Birthmark" continues to reflect a reality of science today that believes all things can be improved. Like Aylmer looking at his wife Georgiana and seeing only her birthmark as a flaw to be fixed, scientists today look at nature and humanity and see not beauty or symmetry, but imperfections. We do not like to see blight on our plants, birth defects in our children, the ravages of disease, or the effects of natural disasters. Indeed a scientist's first impulse is to do something about them, to find a cure.
Humans go to extreme measures to become "perfect", we burn ourselves with lasers, cut ourselves with scalpels, and inject ourselves with poison in an effort to become flawless. Aylmer, like scientists today, does not see nature as an incredible wonder at which to appreciate, but as a complex code waiting to be cracked, simplified, and solved.
Aylmer is obsessed with Georgiana's birthmark and he is unable to view the "crimson hand" as something divine as Georgiana does, but instead it is a flaw that mocks his limits as a scientist, if he were truly a great scientist he would be able to make her flawless. And if she were flawless, if he could fix her birthmark today, her wrinkles that would appear tomorrow, the effects of gravity she will develop twenty years from now, in fact she technically need never die. However, after several attempts to "cure" Georgiana of her unsightly disfigurement all becomes clear for Aylmer when he sees in her death that it is Georgiana herself that is the imperfection.
As human beings we are all flawed; it is as much a part of our nature as beauty is. Certainly Aylmer does not consciously recognize that the inevitable cost of eradicating the flaw would be to eradicate Georgiana, but nonetheless the birthmark symbolizes her very human life.
The tragedy of reading this story and living in today's society is that, were Georgiana alive now, Aylmer would only need take her to the nearest plastic surgeon and her "flaw" would be gone with in a matter of hours and a few days of healing, in fact while they are there Aylmer could have her bust size increased, her nose narrowed, her face lifted, and her ass shrunken. It's the ideal one-stop shopping.
In the time of extreme makeovers and science making advances everyday to improve our natural imperfections, society seems destined to fulfill Hitler's dream of a blond haired, blue eyed world, and yet we run the risk of repeating Aylmer's mistake and destroying that which we are trying to improve, humanity.
In the short story, “The Birthmark” Nathaniel Hawthorne uses the characters, foreshadowing, symbolism, and other rhetorical devices to alert people of the consequences of man having the power to control and alter nature. Additionally, through his skillful usage of diction, Hawthorne warns of the effects of seeking perfection through science. In “The Birthmark”, Aylmer, a man devoted entirely to science, marries Georgiana, a beautiful young woman with a single imperfection. Georgiana’s imperfection bears the resemblance of a tiny crimson hand and is visible on her left cheek. The birthmark becomes the object of Aylmer’s obsession and he resolves to use his scientific prowess to correct “what Nature left imperfect in her fairest work.” He succeeds in removing the birthmark; however, he unfortunately causes his wife’s death in the process. Through “The Birthmark”, Hawthorne suggests that nothing paradisiacal can exist on this earth, and that being imperfect is just part of being human.
The words “beautiful” and “perfect” are both vague yet relative concepts as they are defined from person to person. In Hawthorne’s “The Birth Mark,” imperfections perceived by one are also seen as defining in beauty by another. Perfection, as sought by Aylmer, became an obsession which in the end required Georgiana to undergo a process of transmutation to become perfect and therefore a more desirable human being in Aylmer’s eyes. The concept of “bodily perfection” remains the same today as it was in Hawthorne’s time: beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but it is who the beholder is that is of greatest importance when determining the value of the opinion being shared. For Georgiana, Aylmer’s happiness, or lack thereof, defined the way in
In Nathanial Hawthorne’s “The Birth-Mark,” Aylmer, a crazed, “mad-scientist,” seeks to remove the scarlet handprint birthmark from his wife, Georgiana’s cheek. From the opening of the work, the third person narrator describes Aylmer’s obsession with science and the adverse effects it has had on his social life. Aylmer is tied up in this battle within himself and with his assigned association between the natural and the spiritual world. He wishes to have as much control over these colliding worlds as possible, granting himself god-like power and control in the process. In the art of manipulating nature through science, Aylmer believes he is able to alter the spiritual aspects of the natural as well. Aylmer’s focus on spirituality is Hawthorne’s way of commenting on mankind’s fixation on sin and redemption.
################################# Part 3 ######################################## Nature doesn’t intend for things to be perfect, if it was the contrary we wouldn’t be considered humans. Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Birth-Mark portrays the story of a scientist, Aylmer, so self-absorbed, and supercilious in his own power of science that he would go so far as to remove the intentional “imperfect” birthmark that Nature has bestowed upon his wife’s face. “Cannot you remove this little, little mark… Is this beyond your power… Noblest, dearest, tenderest wife… doubt not my power” (216). Hawthorne uses the birthmark as a symbol to represent the imperfection that is within the human species, the mark also draws out the imperfection of those who have encountered it by displaying their tendencies to overlook the flawless beauty of Georgiana and focus solely on her birthmark, “Some fastidious persons… affirmed that the bloody hand… quite destroyed Georgiana’s beauty… Aylmer discovered that this was the case with himself” (214). Nature’s symbol is a paradigm of omnipotence. To simply put, Nature created the grand design of human life, and governs over our society but allows us as people to do as we please with our lives, so long as we do not alter with Nature’s creation, “…Our great creative Mother… She permits us, indeed to mar, but seldom to mend, and like a jealous patentee, on no account to make” (217). Despite Nature’s intention, being the pompous scientist that he is, Aylmer believes himself to be something more than a microcosm of Nature’s creation. In other words, because of his unparalleled ability in the subject science, like other...
Perfection is in the eye of the beholder. Often times scientific advancements attempt to recreate perfection and disregard nature’s way of being. “The Birthmark” by Nathaniel Hawthorne shows the disconnection and battle between science and Mother Nature. Hawthorne creates the character, Aylmer, to show the science side of the spectrum and to show the extent it could go to. The protagonist, Aylmer, believes that with science anything can be done. Aylmer is a very intelligent and famous scientist who has worked in various fields and on various projects. Although he is very successful He is consumed with his idea of scientific perfection and he lets it fog up his vision of his wife. His wife, Georgina, is described as being basically perfect except for a small red mark on her cheek that burdens her husband. The
Aylmer doesnot incorporate his missing characteristics from Aminadab. Although if he would have he would have been able to totally appreciate his wife, and even if he would have portrayed Aminadab’s way of thinking even at the end when she dies he could have learned at least the hard way. But the fact that he did not even learn anything from this expieerence and still has a seperation within himself is the saddest part. If only he had the mentality of his counterpart Aminadab, he wold have realized his wife, Georgiana was in fact a beautiful creature who need not be changed.
It is hard to say that one is human and perfect at the same time. Human beings are not capable of achieving perfection; if that would be so, humans would stop being humans. By nature the human race is full of flaws, some appearing as early as in the womb. From defects in the body, to defects in the mind, to the mistakes that one makes in quotidian life, it is impossible to deny that human imperfection exists. To try to manipulate humans into perfection is not only impossible, but it takes away the very essence of being a human being. The short story “The Birthmark” by Nathaniel Hawthorn, illustrates this teaching through the character of Aylmer, an ambitious and devoted scientist who is appalled by his wife Georgiana’s birthmark, believing it to be a perceivable sign of her human flaws and eagerly waits to remove it from her cheek. This story raises riveting questions such as, what is humanity all about, can human beings ever achieve perfection through science, is Hawthorn attacking science or a wider issue, and more significantly, should science take the place of God. Through the use of symbolism in “The Birthmark”, Hawthorn indirectly implies that imperfection is an essential part of being human and that science should not interfere; thus he is hinting his personal views toward science and its limitations over nature.
“The Birthmark” starts out with an explanation of how the main character, Aylmer, was “a man of science, an eminent proficient in every branch of philosophy”. He cleaned himself up, washing the furnace smoke and acid stains from his hands, left his lab with his assistant, and then seduced a young beautiful woman to marry
A perfect person does not obsess, does not fail, does not sin, and does not exist. The whole universe is imperfect. We fall, rise, and learn. Imperfections are traits that characterized human beings. Flaws make us mortals and imperfect, and we must accept them as part of who we are. Because of our humanity, we cannot change the course of life or actions of our nature. Most of the time, we think of our flaws and imperfections as things we want to get rid of but instead, we must see them as divine gifts of what God gave us. Nathaniel Hawthorne was born on 4 July 1804 in Salem, Massachusetts during the puritan time. Hawthorne’s works reflect his life experiences growing as a Puritan. Puritans believed in utopia, the perfect world, and the perfect life in order to please their God and receive his grace and go to heaven. Although, the protagonists of “The Birthmark” and The Minister’s Black Veil” short stories have obsessions with different type of human imperfections, they are both influenced to achieve perfection.
Our society has many ways of manifesting its obsession with physical perfection. In our society people go to extreme lengths to achieve perfection. The 'Birthmark';, written more than a century ago, is an early version of our modern obsession with physical perfection.
In "The Birthmark," Aylmer sets about the task of ridding his wife of the one imperfection she has. By attempting to perfect her, the readers get the idea that somehow Georgiana is not adequate and this inadequacy lies in her appearance. The message to the readers seems to be that women need to be perfect on the outside as well as on the inside, which Aylmer claims is flawless. Aylmer decides he is going to "fix" Georgiana. Feminists look at this as a male control issue. There are several mentions of Georgiana as being "otherwise so perfect," in both appearance and soul - save for this birthmark. This idea of having to have the most beautiful wife is very degrading view of women. It plants the idea in our minds that men are superior to women, and that men are the ones who can "fix" females in the attempt to bring them up to the level of me...
Every man before has always complimented Georgiana on her sweet imperfection. People would tell her all the time that true beauty was in that little blemish. Aylmer, being the man of Science wanted to change what nature had created. Typically, we all know better than to go against Nature, but not Aylmer. Georgiana finally agreed to let her husband remove the birthmark due to a frightening dream Aylmer had encountered. Aylmer started working on a potion to remove Georgiana 's birthmark. As soon as Georgiana sipped the potion, she suddenly falls into a deep coma-like state. The birthmark magically disappears from Georgina 's face. However, as the birthmark fades away, so does Georgina 's life. Hawthorne uses Georgiana 's character to symbolize beauty in this story. Georgiana is already made perfect in the eyes of Nature and all other men, expect Aylmer. Aylmer, representing Science, tries to change Georgiana 's beauty that Nature has created. Aylmer was successful in removing the birthmark, but unsuccessful in keeping Georgiana alive. Aylmer was too intertwined in Science to realize that Georgiana was perfectly made by Nature. Nature paid Aylmer back for trying to correct Georgiana 's face by taking the life of his beloved
Science, in this particular story, is represented by Aylmer who thinks of himself as a great scientist. He conducts a scientific experiment in the need to remove his wife’s birthmark. He tries everything he knows to create a magical potion to remove Georgiana’s flaw. Georgiana on the other hand represents nature. Georgiana represents the closest state to perfection that man can aspire to, but her husband is still not content. Feeling that it will be the only possible way to save her marriage, she gives in and tells him to prepare the experiment. In the need to impress her husband, she allows him to experiment with the removal of her birthmark regardless of the risk, or the consequence she might face. In this story, the power of nature prevails in the end. Even though Georgiana is unable to impress her husband with her unique mark, her birthmark captivates almost anyone who looks at it. In the desire to control nature, Aylmer kills his wife. The fate of the world, no matter how dark it is, is in the hands of nature, not science or man. Instead of trying to pursue the ultimate power and trying to change the laws of nature through science, one should pursue happiness in
The tone adopted by Hawthorne from the inception of the narrative toward Aylmer urges the reader to respect Aylmer’s scientific ambition—directly his triumph of head over heart, but indirectly his objectification of Georgiana and subsequent attempts to fix something that she never thought was a flaw. Not only is Aylmer’s obsession with getting rid of her birthmark selfish in that he does it for “the sake of giving himself peace” (647) rather than any desire to make his wife happy, he also admits to feeling guilt over his tyrannical treatment of her. For example, his “horror and disgust” in response to her facial blight rarely escapes her notice, and when she reacts poorly to his “convulsive shudder,” he attempts to soothe her and “release her mind from the burden of actual things” (650) as if she is an empty-headed infant in need of a pacifier. Furthermore, in response to her desperate request for its removal, he isolates her from humanity, administers potentially harmful concoctions into her rooms and body without her knowledge, and ultimately—and rapturously—succeeds in shrinking the mark at the cost of her
Everybody adores this mark except Aylmer, who thinks the birthmark is a curse. Shortly after he marries Georgiana. He begins to see the trace of nature’s imperfection on his almost perfect wife. This leads him to the quest of perfecting his wife’s “flaw.” He said to his wife,