In
Nathan Hawthorne's The Birthmark
a well-to-do scientist (Aylmer) gives up his preoccupation to take on
a wife (Georgiana) and lead a normal life. Georgiana
was an incredibly beautiful woman who displayed one minor flaw; a
birthmark on her left cheek shaped
like a small hand. Rather than loving his wife and her flaw, or even
just ignoring or seeing past the birthmark, Aylmer soon becomes
obsessed with it. He acknowledges the fact that his wife is
physically attractive, but proceeds to make negative comments about
her birthmark. When she tries to defend the mark as more of a charm,
Aylmer makes such statements as "Ah, upon another face perhaps
it might, but never on yours. No,
dearest Georgiana, you came so nearly perfect from the hand of Nature
that this slightest possible defect, which we hesitate whether to
term a defect or a beauty, shocks me, as being the visible mark of
earthly imperfection." Aylmer's refusal to accept his wife's
blemish could perhaps be compared to modern day societies compulsion
to constantly judge women (often times beautiful women) in terms of
outward appearances alone. It is impossible for a
woman, or even human in general, to be completely
immaculate. Every person has
defects and faults that they work with or even emphasize to create
their own unique persona. A
perfect example of this is Cindy Crawford, an undeniably gorgeous
woman who has a mole between her upper lip and cheek.
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Rather
than allowing people to criticize her for her imperfection, she has
done a rather good job of turning it into her trademark.
As
the story progresses, it is not only Aylmer that becomes infatuated
with the removal of this mark, but Georgiana herself soon becomes
engulfed with the idea. When Aylmer is speaking of the possible
danger of his last experiment, Georgiana exclaims "Danger? 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!”. At this point she is becoming
increasingly
illogical about her self
consciousness that is suffering because of her birthmark. Again, this
bares a striking similarity to a situation in modern society. There
are people that obsess about every feature being so perfect that they
subject themselves to plastic surgery time and time again until they
resemble nothing close to a cartoon character or Muppet (Melanie Griffith and
Donatella Versache both come to mind).
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It
is rather paradoxical that in the effort to achieve the ideal form of human perfection that one can end up looking completely in-human.
In
the end of the story, Aylmer becomes so possessed with ridding his
wife of her blemish that he ends up poisoning her. As she is dying
she tells her husband, “My poor Aylmer, you have aimed loftily; you
have done nobly. Do not repent that with so high and pure a feeling,
you have rejected the best the earth could offer. Aylmer, dearest
Aylmer, I am dying!” Only as the life is slipping from her does
Georgiana's birthmark finally fade. In many ways this is reflective
of the lengths people are willing to go to to shed what they perceive
as deficiencies in themselves. In ridding ourselves of these defects
are we losing ourselves (essentially dying)? Why is it that we are
willing to risk our well being to gain the admiration of others
instead of fulfilling our own personal happiness?
