In Nathaniel Hawthorns" The Birthmark, Aylmer is a man of science that marries the beautiful Georgiana. Shortly after their marriage he asks her if she had ever thought of removing her birthmark. When she tells him that she saw it as a beauty mark, he tells her that in a lesser person it would be, but on her it just hinders perfection. He then begins the quest to find a remedy for her flaw that leads to her death. Ultimately the reader is left with the task of deciding what meaning they should draw from the story. Through examination of the symbols, character analysis and imagery the reader will see the immoral nature science, and the dangers of using it to correct nature.
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Georgiana was a devoted faithful wife that lived to please her husband. When she learned that the mention of her birthmark troubled her husband it began to distress her as well. "At the mention of the birthmark, Georgiana, as usual, shrank as if a red hot iron had touched her cheek."(p.125). She was so devoted to her husbands happiness above her own that she preferred to die then to annoy him. In contrast, Aylmer wanted perfection. He could no longer love his wife because she was flawed. His love of science clouded his judgment and led him to believe he could make her perfect, resulting in her death and another failure for him. .
Georgiana first begins to detest the birthmark after hearing a dream of her husbands. In the dream he visions himself operating on her birthmark as it sinks deeper into her eventually ending at her heart. Hawthorne uses this dream to show the reader what the results of altering nature will be. The birthmark it self represents imperfection. When Georgiana tells Aylmer that she saw her birthmark as a gift he tells her it is the one flaw in her existence.
"Ah, upon another face perhaps it might," replied her husband; .
"but never on yours. No, dearest Georgiana, you came so nearly .
perfect from the hand of Nature that this slightest possible .
