Perfection In Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Birthmark

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Perfection is something that many will obsess over but when has it reached its max. In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s allegory, “The Birthmark, “ we are informed of a young couple, Aylmer and Georgiana. This piece of literature starts when we learn of a newlywed couple. Then soon it transpires into a husband's obsession with his wife's flaw, “The birthmark”. The birthmark is in the shape of a hand and is located on the wife's cheek. The young husband gets too wrapped up in fixing his wife that he forgets to show her attention and love. Incapable of feeling anything but determination to make his wife perfect; he uses a potion to remove the birthmark. The potion successfully begins to fade the birthmark however it also fades his wife's life as well. …show more content…
“The crimson hand expressed the ineludible gripe in which mortality clutches the highest and purest of earthly mould, degrading them into kindred with the lowest, and even with the very brutes, like whom their visible frames return to dust. In this manner, selecting it as the symbol of his wife's liability to sin, sorrow, decay, and death. (8)” Hawthorne deeply describes her flaw by color describing how noticeable and drastic the birthmark is. The birthmark is also a symbol of sorrow and flailer to the husband because his wife is not perfect. This blunt remark by the husband reveals a deep fassination for this symbol. The birthmark represents the wife’s humanity but also her blemishes. Jeffrey Howard from Utah State University once said, “Because of the placement of the mark on Georgiana’s cheek, the head becomes a vital symbol in ascertaining Aylmer’s motivation to remove his wife’s blemish. (134)” This symbol also shows that men try to find and make perfect women, almost as if women must be perfect to have a man in her life. Threw a woman's point of view this can be a symbol of pride and strength. The wife was not ashamed of her birthmark and often thought of it as a charm, but she let her husband try to remove it out of love and respect. This love and respect is ultimately what she leaves her husband with when she dies and the symbol is erased.
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