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

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