In Hawthorne's short story, "The Birthmark," we are
presented with the character of Georgiana, a beautiful woman married to a brilliant
scientist. The only impediment, in Aylmer's mind (the husband) is that his wife has a
birthmark on her cheek. Whereas Georgiana had thought it was a "charm" that she was born
with:
To tell
you the truth it has been so often called a charm that I was simple enough to imagine it
might be so.
Other suitors
felt that it somehow separated her from the masses—made her more alluring—while Aylmer
sees it simply as an imperfection.
The story, then, is
about Aylmer's insistence that the birthmark should be removed to make his wife
"perfect."
"Dearest Georgiana, I have spent much thought
upon the subject," hastily interrupted Aylmer. "I am convinced of the perfect
practicability of its
removal."
The themes
presented in the story include what is real and what is ideal, and which is better.
Where Georgiana was perfectly happy as she was, her husband finally convinces her that
she must have the mark removed.
"If there be the remotest possibility of it,"
continued Georgiana, "let the attempt be made at whatever risk. Danger is nothing to me;
for life, while this hateful mark makes me the object of your horror and
disgust..."
In a sense, she
is giving away the essence of herself, sacrificing it to his
perception of perfection. There is no such thing as perfection, and so Aylmer is
pursuing an ideal, a dream; he loses sight of the beauty of the woman he is married to,
concentrating not on who she is and how lucky he is to have her. He is unsatisfied and
ends up sacrificing her life for something as elusive as a
dream.
Another theme here—which would speak to the age old
battle between the value and evil of science, as opposed to the pure essence of
nature—is found in the conflict of science vs. nature. Like a god, Aylmer sees himself
as one who borders on the divine. Where only God through nature can create a true thing
of beauty, this intellectual, arrogant man believes he has the
power through the power of his mind and science to "fix" what nature has "messed
up."
Another theme may be that one must look within to find
beauty and acceptance, and resist the temptation to listen to others who think they know
what is best and right for someone else. Being unique, by definition, describes
something or someone is like no other. Why is it, then, that so many things in
society—advertisers for make-up, hair color and toothpaste, as well as a youngster's
peers or an adult's friends—feel the need to fix what is not
broken?
According to critics of the story, the birthmark
could be a symbol of "God's blessing" or the devil's curse. This is a point that critics
cannot agree upon. However, I find that it is symbolic of
Georgiana's individuality. Aylmer perceives it as something loathsome—and sadly,
eventually it is not only Aylmer that sees it as a gross
imperfection, but Georgiana comes to believe it as well.
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