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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 …show more content…
“The Birth Mark” is a story of an elusive search for perfection when an alchemist named Aylmer who is committed to his work, and is married to a beautiful woman named Georgiana, attempts to remove his wife’s birthmark. Aylmer brings up the topic of her birthmark soon after their marriage and says that she would be perfect if it were removed. This statement completely destroys Georgiana’s self-image, and now believes that she is ugly since her husband believes the same. Georgiana is so devoted to her husband that she views herself utterly through his vision of …show more content…
Societal constructs of bodily perfection have a massive influence on both genders and on all ages. If you look at any magazine, you will see women constantly being compared to each other, whether it is in the “who wore it better” section or in the “do’s and don’ts” part of the magazine, comparing body images and overall appearances. All parts of the media that encompasses our daily lives are especially dangerous for young and impressionable teens because they see people being torn down for trying to express themselves, and are thus taught to not only don’t look like “don’ts”, but also look like the “do’s”. This is dangerous in that women in the magazine set very high standards that teens want to emulate, no matter the cost to themselves or their health. Celebrities have the benefit of media to make them appear perfect: Photoshop and makeup artists conceal the imperfections that are often too apparent to the naked eye. Viewing celebrities as exhibiting the ideal look or as idols will, in most cases, only damage the confidence of both young teens, and adults, and warp the reality of what true “beauty” really is. It makes teens never feel truly content with themselves because they will be aiming for an ideal that is physically impossible to attain and one that doesn’t exist in the real
In the short story, “The Birthmark”, Nathaniel Hawthorne tells the story of Aylmer, a man devoted entirely to science, who marries Georgiana, a beautiful young woman with a single imperfection. Georgiana’s imperfection is merely a birthmark on her cheek that bears the resemblance of a tiny crimson hand. Still, this mark 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.” Aylmer succeeds in removing the birthmark; however, he unfortunately causes his wife’s death in the process. Through his skillful use of diction, foreshadowing, symbolism, irony, paradox, allusion, and antithesis, Hawthorne warns of the consequences of man having the desire and power to control and alter nature, and suggests that nothing paradisiacal can exist on this earth; that being imperfect is just part of being human.
The Birthmark by Nathaniel Hawthorne is a short story originally published in the 1843 edition of The Pioneer. The story looks at the obsession people have with human perfection. The main characters in the story are Aylmer, the intelligent and well-known scientist, and his beautiful new wife Georgiana, whose only imperfection is the birthmark on her cheek. The symbols such as the birthmark itself used in Hawthorne’s story are not only used to represent objects, they are also used to depict the themes within the short story. The symbolic significance of the birthmark ties into the theme of human dissatisfaction with perfection. It is nature's will to set natural boundaries that prevent man from achieving perfection. In order to be human, you must have some type of flaws and imperfections.
The two motifs of morality and imperfection in “The Birthmark” direct the readers’ attention towards Hawthorne’s belief that one 's instinctive actions represent human nature in a more genuine way than actions influenced by religious laws. In the short story Georgiana’s blemish represents the actuality of human nature and not the false pretense of perfection that people thrive so hard to achieve. However, Georgiana herself represents the general population in society. Because Georgiana dies after the author portrays her as completely perfect, one can imply that perfection cannot be achieved and is only an idea fabricated by society’s leaders or governmental bodies. In “The Birthmark” the government is embodied within the character Aylmer, whom is married to Georgiana. Kary Meyers Skredsvig agrees that Aylmer exhibits characteristics similar to those of the government when she write, “Aylmer...is consistently associated throughout the story with the highest of intentions, standards and worth” (Skredsvig 99). The marriage between the two characters indicates the correlation between the government’s superior influence and human behavior. Even Georgiana expresses her inferiority to Aylmer when she describes her own level of intellect as “simple” (Hawthorne 1). Aylmer 's strong yearn to eliminate the blemish upon Georgiana’s face
In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s, The Birthmark, he uses unperfected beauty to confirm that if God’s creations are meddled with the product is harmful. A scientist, Alymer is married to a beautiful women named Georgiana whose only flaw is a birthmark on her left cheek.
that leaves the successes of his laboratory to find the perfect wife. His pursuit finds her and blindly he does not take notice any of nature?s flaws that Georgiana has. However, Aylmer ideology of perfection consumes him once he discovers the birthmark. All of his attention is on this small mark that is unchanged when there is a shift in her emotions. His next question gives foresight into the depths of Aylmer?s pursuit to rid this small imperfection. Aylmer asks Georgian, his wife, "has it never occurred to you that the mark upon your cheek might be removed?" He continues to say the mark makes her imperfect: ?No, dearest Georgiana, you came so nearly perfect from the hand of Nature that this slightest possible defect, which we hesitate whether to term a defect or a beauty, shocks me, as being the visible mark of earthly
Most men consider Georgiana's birthmark attractive in contrast to women that think it messed up a perfect face. Georgiana has always liked it until Aylmer brings up the topic; he thinks the birthmarks is Georgiana only flaw, so he wants to remove it. After noticing the mark on the cheek, Aylmer started hating it; his hatred was so intense that he showed physical reaction when he sees it "when they sat together at the evening hearth his eyes wandered stealthily to her cheek, and beheld, flickering with the blaze of the wood fire, the spectral hand that wrote mortality where he would fain have worshipped"(Hawthorne 306).Due to Aylmer continuous reaction to the mark, Georgiana herself started to react to his reaction"Georgiana soon learned to shudder at his gaze"(306). The charming birthmark view by Georgiana started to become uglier; one day she even called it odious "...odious hand"(306). Georgiana wants to please her husband, so she asked him to remove the birthmark at any cost"'let the attempt be made at whatever risk"(307). Georgiana went from a good life to a burdened one because of Aylmer pressure "while this hateful mark makes me the object of your horror and disgust,--life is a burden"(307). Aylmer pressured her wife through tricks to receive an operation that she will not be able to survive. Aylmer represents society which pressures people, Georgiana, to conform to a specific standard, perfection or removal of the
The media and how it affects our society has changed tremendously over the past few decades. Our population of children who spend a lot of time in front of the television or on social media continues to increase, creating a superficial view of themselves and who they should be. This superficial outlook has been created by the media because it preaches to our society that looks matter. Not only are there millions of advertisements saying to lose weight and buy certain products to be beautiful, but there has been a specific standard of beauty set for models and actresses to obtain. These standards include big eyes, volumino...
The story’s tone is one of romantic controversy, a dilemma at a high level of existence. The scientist’s love for his craft competes very intensively with his newfound love for his wife. It is also very psychological, strictly dealing with the raw mind of its subjects as if the ominous narrator told the story from inside their mind, rather than observe it from the outside. He describes the processes that one may take to reach a certain degree of knowledge and to find the elixir of life, which is described in this story as the ultimate goal of the scientific community. Also, the narrator is very opinionated about events in the story.
She is the wife of a science-obsessed man, she is alone and placed second to his first love. That alone is a dangerous situation. I believe that she might be internally fighting for first place once she realizes that the only thing that will please him is removing the birthmark from her cheek. She is almost immediately aware of the potential consequence of removing the birthmark, “"Aylmer," resumed Georgiana, solemnly, "I know not what may be the cost to both of us to rid me of this fatal birthmark. Perhaps its removal may cause cureless deformity; or it may be the stain goes as deep as life itself.”” (Hawthorne 215). Aylmer tries to reassure her that he has thought this through many times and that nothing bad would happen. I am not sure if she quite trusts him as much as she wants to please him and hear him stop speaking of her birthmark in such a negative way. Georgiana becomes repulsed of herself due to her husband 's incessant need to perfect what has no fatal
While Alymer professes a great love for Georgiana, his true love is for science and the god-like sense of power that it brings him. Alymer’s past experiments, his dream and all of his surroundings tell him that his desires will be fatal to Georgiana, and yet he continues. The Birthmark is a sad tale of a man’s desire to perfect his wife rather than love her and the consequence of this desire is that she ends up perfectly dead. The many layers of conflicts, internal, interpersonal, social, in this short story climax together to show the tragedy of the pursuit of perfection and the folly of trying to cheat mortality.
Analysis of The Birthmark by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Although “The Birthmark” by Nathaniel Hawthorne was written in the mid-1800s, its themes and ideas are still a part of society today. The 19th century was a time of change, just like this, the millennium, was a time of great change. Hawthorne’s ideas about science, beauty, and life still play a major part in our lives, despite many improvements.
Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Birth-Mark” is a short story about mankind’s rocky journey for perfection. The story analyzes the relationship between Aylmer, an educated scientist, and his nearly flawless wife, Georgiana. Unfortunately, no matter how beautiful Georgiana is, Aylmer continuously strives for her to be even more beautiful regardless of consequences. Stuck on a single imperfection, Aylmer cannot look past one blemish on her face, ultimately ignoring the beauty Georgiana still has. Nathaniel Hawthorne uses symbolism, irony, and point of view within “The Birth-Mark” to portray the negative effects of gaining absolute perfection and science versus nature.
If a teenager or pre-teen is focused on particular celebrities and their goal is too look like them, it is not difficult to slip into acting like them as well, or at least being influenced by their behavior and perceived attitudes. The media abounds with bad examples of celebrity behavior, from Justin Bibber driving recklessly to Miley Cyrus parading around scantily clothed, and although every celebrity is not a terrible role model, a disproportionate amount of them can be found to have shaky morals and seem to have let the attention that they receive affect their behavior. In addition, the perfect bodies that most of them display are not realistic and in some cases not even naturally attainable, thanks to the modern tools of plastic surgery, augmentations, liposuction, and other cosmetic surgeries. The media too contributes to the unreal portrayal of models and famous people by using airbrushing on pictures and other editing that lead regular people to compare their bodies to images that are not even humanly possible. The Barbie-like models that girls compare themselves to and the ripped and muscled men that boys compare their bodies to are often completely unnatural and the people who have somehow attained them are,
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
In American culture today, society's view of beauty is controlled by Hollywood, where celebrities are constantly in the lime-light. The media watches Hollywood's every move, and is quick to ridicule “A-listers” whenever they dare to gain a few pounds or to let an uncontrollable pimple show. The media has created a grossly distorted mental image of what should be considered beautiful, and with almost every junior high and high school-age girl reading and viewing this message, the idea has been instilled in them as well. This view of beauty is causing many teenage girls to become obsessed with a highly problematic and unattainable goal of perfection.