Perfection vs. Morality In the short story “The Birth-Mark” by Nathaniel Hawthorne the writer tells the twisted story of Alymer who aims for ultimate perfection for his wife Georgina. Alymer a scientist and philosopher experiments on his beautiful wife Georgiana, when he finds a particularly flawed red birthmark on her cheek shaped like a tiny-hand. The story provides the reader with the thoughts of each character and contrasts them with each others views of perfection and morality while adequately
satisfaction to the mind, whether arising from sensory manifestations, a meaningful design or pattern. In “The Birthmark”, it is a tragic and upsetting example of what gender, and beauty represent. The book is an example of what society examines towards gender roles and beauty. Georgiana is devoted to making her husband Alymer happy by jeopardizing her life so he would not suffer from considering her birthmark on her cheek. Thus, potential perfection is not worth a life. Analyzing the gender aspect of the story
implies messing with nature is dangerous and should not be done in his story “The Birthmark” however, many scientific discoveries can be made using the mentality that we can change nature for the greater good. In “The Birthmark” Alymer is disgusted with his wife’s birthmark on her face and is determined to get rid of it, using his scientific background to help him. In the end he does manage to remove the birthmark off her face however, she does die in his lab because of his efforts. With her last
prizes, he won fame. One of his most famous short stories was The Birthmark. In this story, the talented scientist who is also Georgiana’s husband, Alymer, is obsessed with perfection for his wife, a goal that is not worth conquering. Our society is always working towards the obsession of physical perfection while trying to twist nature by going to the extreme of procedures, surgeries, etc. Perfection doesn’t exist on planet Earth, but Alymer is convinced that without the hand shaped spot on her cheek