He of course strives to condemn the brutal rules of the Puritans by critiquing his Puritan ancestors. .
It may have been Hawthorne's anger about his Puritan upbringing which leads to Aylmer's obsession to remove his wife's birthmark. The removal of the birthmark becomes an obsession of Aylmer, the protagonist of "The Birthmark." The text supports this infatuation with the birthmark when the narrator says, "'Dearest Georgiana, I have spent much thought upon the subject [ . . . ] 'I am convinced of the perfect practicability of its removal'" It is apparent that Aylmer has put a great deal of thought into the removal and that it has overtaken his whole existence. He even dreams of the birthmark at one point. Aylmer remembers his dream in which "He fancied himself with his servant Aminadab attempting an operation for the removal of the birthmark; but the deeper went the knife, the deeper sank the hand, until at length its tiny grasp appeared to have caught Georgiana's heart [ . . . ]" (178). It is during the dream, of the surgical procedure to remove his wife's imperfection, that Aylmer unconsciously expresses his rejection for perfection among society. The fact that the birthmark cannot be removed critiques a sense of rebellion and in turn aids Hawthorne in the shedding of the Puritan society. "The Birthmark" acts .
3.
as Hawthorne's release "a way to lash out against the Puritan society which has structured him tremendously throughout his life. .
Hawthorne spends the years from 1825 to 1837 in his mother's Puritan Salem household, and it is said that "he looked back upon these years as a period of dreamlike isolation and solitude, spent in a haunted chamber, where he sat enchanted while other men moved on" (Biography Research Center). It is during this time, previous to the publication of "The Birthmark," that Hawthorne begins to reflect on his heritage. Hawthorne realizes that not only does he disagree with the Puritan belief system, but that others do as well.
