The Objectification Of Women And Imperfection In Hawthorne By Nathaniel Hawthorne

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In this short story, Nathaniel Hawthorne shows his view of mankind as insatiable and how this insatiability will eventually lead to our downfall. Critics say the short story is about the objectification of women and others say it is about illiteracy but Hawthorne’s message is about how man tries to correct nature but ends up causing destruction. He expresses this view through Aylmer who wanted to remove the taint on his wife’s cheeks but ends up ruining what he has. In this story, Aylmer is a symbol of the insatiable man and Georgiana is a symbol of the result of man’s attempt to correct nature. We as men try at all cost to remove all taints of imperfection from ourselves. Georgiana was a beautiful and wonderful creature with a birthmark on her left cheek but Aylmer desired to make his wife prettier by removing the birthmark on her cheek. He was so fixated on her small imperfection that he failed to realize the loveliness of his wife. This goes to show how we as men are obsessed with our imperfections and will go to any extent to correct it but what we don’t understand is that we cannot correct nature. Hawthorne said that“This one visible mark of earthly imperfection provides the impetus of anxiety that haunts Georgiana’s husband and Georgiana herself.” The birthmark happens to be …show more content…

“The mark on Georgiana’s cheeks is the external sign of her imperfect conditions.” The mark symbolizes that we are imperfect and these imperfect conditions include our liability to sin, sorrow, death and decay. We all have imperfections such as blemishes, stretchmarks, acne and other worse things but we should learn to accept our flaws. The birthmark on Georgiana’s cheeks was her link to life and also can be seen as a representation of our moral, physical and intellectual limitations as humans. Aylmer does not see it as such rather he goes ahead to call it a

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