The Birthmark Vs. Perfection

4 Pages 1066 Words

Nature vs. Perfection
The central theme of the short story “The Birthmark” by Nathaniel Hawthorn is perfection. Of all the living creatures on the planet Earth, man is the only one with the capability of rejecting the flaws that are a part of nature. A devoted scientist, Aylmer, marries a beautiful woman with a single physical flaw: a birthmark on her face. Aylmer becomes obsessed with the imperfection and is determined to remove it in order for him to be content with his wife. The tale evolves around his progressive passion to use his scientific skills to render his wife perfect and to save the union that he has with his wife Georgiana. The author tells us that Aylmer “Had devoted himself, however, too unreservedly to scientific studies…” (1130) and, in the secrecy of his own laboratory he devises a potion for Georgiana that results in the disappearance of the imperfection and the death of his experimental subject.
Georgiana is almost a model of earthly perfection according to Aylmer except for the horrid birthmark on her cheek. He found it more and more intolerable with every moment of their united lives. It was a fatal flaw that Nature places purposely on everything it produces. He is successful in removing Georgiana’s birthmark and renders her perfect, but dead. Here, Hawthorn is trying to address that she cannot live and be perfect, hence the impossibility of earthly perfection. “Unrestrained experimentation is a recipe for disaster and goes against God's Plan for Creation” (Current-García 50-1). Georgiana is completely innocent with her birthmark, which represents her innocence. When Aylmer removes the birthmark, not only has her innocence been taken but her life as well. The crimson hand, which Aylmer called the birthmark on Georgiana’s face, expresses the ineludible presence that the laws of Nature laid on all of us. Convinced that his mastery of science will confidently allow him to remove th...