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Perfection In Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Birthmark

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PERFECTION! In “The Birthmark” the theme is it’s foolish to strive for perfection. In “The Birthmark” Aylmer is disgusted by this mark on his wife’s cheek, and because she’s almost perfect to him, he wants to remove the mark. In the story Aylmer says “No, dearest Georgiana, you came so nearly perfect from the hand of nature…” and “...as being the visible mark of imperfection.” Aylmer even stares at the mark, and has nightmares about it. “...and when they sat together at the evening hearth his eyes wandered stealthily to her cheek..” The narrator says. The nightmare is described as “...attempting an operation for the removal of the birthmark; but the deeper went the knife, the deeper sank the hand, until the at length its tiny grasp appeared …show more content…

She saw it as a charm and beautiful rather than disgusting. In the story Georgiana says “To tell you the truth it has been so often called a charm that I simple enough to imagine it might be so.” Men have even told Georgiana that it was a fairy’s hand, as said in the story “Georgiana’s lovers were wont to say that some fairy at her birth hour had laid her tiny hand upon the infant’s cheek, and left this impress there in token of the magic endowments that were to give her such sway over all hearts.” Then over time Aylmer made her self conscious and made her shudder when he would stare at her cheek. “Georgiana soon learned to shudder at his gaze.” The narrator says on page 2. Over time she finally cracked and wanted the mark removed, at whatever cost. Georgiana says on page 3 “If there be the remotest possibility of it, let the attempt be made at whatever risk. Danger is nothing to me;” When Georgiana was in Aylmer’s lab, she said “I submit, and, Aylmer, I shall quaff whatever draught you bring me…” and “There is but one danger--that this horrible stigma shall be left upon my cheek!”, “Remove it, remove it, whatever be the cost, or we shall both go mad!” When Aylmer finished the ‘surgery’ Georgiana became ‘perfect’ but with a price, that price was that she

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