Coltan Kissler

Professor Oster

2/3/2015

Blog Post 2

Georgiana’s Imperfection

Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Birthmark takes readers on an emotional journey through the lives of a married couple, Aylmer and Georgiana. Georgiana’s beauty has swept away numerous men in her past; however, in the eyes of her husband she has a major flaw. Georgiana was born with a birthmark on her cheek in the shape of a hand, which stunts her perfection. “Some fairy at her birth hour had laid her a tiny hand upon the infants cheek, and left this impress there in a token of the magic endowments that were to give her in such sway over all hearts. Many a desperate swain would have risked life for the privilege of pressing his lips to the mysterious hand.” (Hawthorne, Page 85). With this passage, Hawthorne’s description of the birthmark on Georgiana’s cheek gives the impression that Aylmer does not appreciate her to the potential that he should despite the flaw he sees. 

            An interesting point that was brought up during class was how Aylmer has a quite interesting view on Georgiana and her magnificence. Aylmer is interested in the perfections of life and his wife is no excuse to that theory. Georgiana is considered to be perfect all down to the mark on her cheek. That is where Aylmer has his differences set. With this in mind Aylmer then changes his whole mentality on how he views his wife. He loves her but she does not feel she is good enough for him. Aylmer constantly speaks about how immortality is needed and that there is nothing that science can’t change.

            Georgiana comes to a realization in the chapter that she must change so that her husband will only see the beauty that she holds. She understands that her imperfection is something that can be changed.  Aylmer brings Georgiana to a room where she is able to read through Aylmer’s books where he keeps his experiment records. She has realized that Aylmer has had many experiments that have not gone according to plan and have failed. From this moment on I feel she is extremely hesitant of what will happen next. Shortly after, Georgiana is given a potion from Aylmer that will either kill her or change her into his idea of a perfect woman by removing her birthmark. Unfortunately, Aylmer’s plan failed once again and Georgiana passes away.

            This reading makes it extremely clear that the idea of perfection only exists in ones mind. No one lives without flaws and when one tries to create the “perfect” person, it fails. Aylmer has an image of perfection in his mind and by altering something that is already flawless in the eyes of many, he kills her. I think that this is an important story because it relates to society in my generation.