Standards of Beauty

The standards of beauty that we know today are at the extremes. You’re either a size 2 and perfect or anything else and flawed. Girls start to develop eating disorders at younger and younger ages. Their self esteem is even lower than before. The need to be perfect in the society we live in is even more prevalent due to the developments of television and printed advertisements shaming girls into going on “that diet”. In “The Birthmark” by Nathaniel Hawthorne, the main character, Aylmer, obsesses over the potential perfection that is his wife. He desires to make her perfect by removing the birthmark that everyone else seems to find charming. Why he couldn’t have just been content with the way she was is mind boggling, but as a man of science, he has a hard time not accepting perfection. Ultimately, his need for the best cost him his wife’s life, taking her away from him forever.

Georgiana, Aylmer’s wife, was born with a birthmark that could only be seen if she had gone pale, which would be described as, “a crimson stain upon the snow” (Hawthorne 85). When she was frightened or sick, it could be seen, but when she was flattered, it would disappear. There could be the assumption that the reason that he hates the mark so much is that he sees it so often, and, if that is the case, he could be trying to hide it from himself. No one wants to know that they’ve truly hurt someone, so when his wife is pale because of his actions, it could have been pretty devastating. Aylmer also likes to ask if Georgiana wants the birthmark gone, since he does see it as a sign of sin in a way. Georgiana finally breaks down and agrees to let him try, which shows that she is a very loyal wife, which Hawthorne seems to like to write about. Georgiana displays her loyalty when Aylmer finally pushes her over the edge. “’If there be the remotest possibility of it,’ continued Georgiana, ‘let the attempt be made at whatever risk…’” (Hawthorne 88) Her dedication to her husband cost her life, but maybe she knew that it would happen from the start.

Aylmer’s need for perfection is a reflection of society and its desire to perfect anything that it can. It is important to recognize this because Aylmer ends up losing his wife because of his ignorance and the fact that he is oblivious to her wants and safety. Society tells women that they need to be perfect for everyone else, but only rarely do women get told to be the best for themselves. In Hawthorne’s time, women needed to be completely loyal to their husbands, be the perfect housewife and support their man. Georgiana fits this description almost perfectly. She allows him to attempt to remove the birthmark, while shortly after, discovering all of his failed attempts at the elixir that would do so. Ultimately losing her life, Georgiana played the perfect wife role through the story, permitting her husband to do as he pleased.

It is hard to kill true beauty, and when humans try to make anything perfect, it usually ends up dying from either the procedure or the complications that would come afterward. Society’s need for perfection is shown through Aylmer’s need for his wife’s birthmark to disappear. As Aylmer decides to “play God”, he loses the thing that is closest to him. Perfection is just a perception based on one’s own opinions and should be seen as having many different requirements rather than a single model to base one’s self off.