The Birthmark
This world cannot withstand the concept of perfection. Perfection is something reserved for the boundaries of Heaven and cannot be synthetically created by any human being. Nature is raw, flawed and does not take well to being improved upon. This is why Nature ultimately has the final say in what can and cannot existence. In “The Birthmark”, Hawthorne suggests that nothing and no one is perfect nor has the ability to obtain said perfection. An obsession to surpass Earthly Nature can and will result in the destruction of what was once loved.
Human beings have a natural desire to be perfect, but in reality perfection is unattainable. Throughout “The Birthmark”, Georgiana is constantly confronted with the fact that she bares the “visible mark of earthly imperfection.” Georgiana “came so nearly perfect from the hand of Nature” but was deemed defective by this “singular mark […] that wore a tint of deeper crimson, which imperfectly defined its shape amid the surrounding rosiness.” (pg. 47) Alymer, Georgiana's husband, made his feeling about the birthmark quite clear. He believed that it “destroyed the effect of Georgiana's beauty, and rendered her countenance even hideous.” (pg. 47) And so, Alymer suggested that they remove the mark from Georgiana's cheek. He was extremely confident in his scientific abilities to erase the mark from his wife's cheek and believed that he could fix what Nature had overlooked. What Alymer did not realize is that Nature makes no mistakes, and whatever a man can manufacture will never be equivalent to what is natural and organic. Additionally, “Nature, in one shape or another, stamps ineffaceably on all her productions, either to imply that they are temporary and finite, or that their perfection must be wrought by toil and pain.” (pg. 48) Therefor, despite Alymer's obsession with ridding Georgiana of this mark, Earth would never allow a perfect being to be in existence.
Alymer had a fatal love for his wife. However, Alymer could not stand
Human beings have a natural desire to be perfect, but in reality perfection is unattainable. Throughout “The Birthmark”, Georgiana is constantly confronted with the fact that she bares the “visible mark of earthly imperfection.” Georgiana “came so nearly perfect from the hand of Nature” but was deemed defective by this “singular mark […] that wore a tint of deeper crimson, which imperfectly defined its shape amid the surrounding rosiness.” (pg. 47) Alymer, Georgiana's husband, made his feeling about the birthmark quite clear. He believed that it “destroyed the effect of Georgiana's beauty, and rendered her countenance even hideous.” (pg. 47) And so, Alymer suggested that they remove the mark from Georgiana's cheek. He was extremely confident in his scientific abilities to erase the mark from his wife's cheek and believed that he could fix what Nature had overlooked. What Alymer did not realize is that Nature makes no mistakes, and whatever a man can manufacture will never be equivalent to what is natural and organic. Additionally, “Nature, in one shape or another, stamps ineffaceably on all her productions, either to imply that they are temporary and finite, or that their perfection must be wrought by toil and pain.” (pg. 48) Therefor, despite Alymer's obsession with ridding Georgiana of this mark, Earth would never allow a perfect being to be in existence.
Alymer had a fatal love for his wife. However, Alymer could not stand