Imperfection Makes Perfect
Imperfection Makes Perfect ‘It’s these little imperfections that make them perfect for you.’ -- a Singapore public service advertisement Perfection is unattainable. This is one of the greatest and simplest truths of life. Imperfection is what makes us human. To strive for perfection beyond the human and the recognition is fatal, which is well manifested in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Birthmark.
Throughout the story, Alymer tries to perfect his wife Georgiana. The crimson birthmark on Georgiana’s cheek, though deemed adorable by lots of admirers, is an ‘earthly imperfection’ in Alymer’s eyes. This obsession for perfection blinds Alymer to the noble quality of his wife with merely one insignificant flaw, keeps him a prisoner from the joy of life and triggers his insane quest to play God and subvert nature. Nonetheless, perfection, as suggested by Hawthorne, is a province of heaven, and to achieve perfection equals to deny one’s own mortality. The horrible dream, unsuccemssful experiments, the withering flower and the blurry portrait all foreshadow the death of Georgiana. After the removal of the birthmark, Georgiana becomes too perfect in this flawed world.
Alymer is by no means the only hero who tries to pursue perfection ending up in failure and misery. Likewise, Victor in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein also seeks to create a human, an attempt to perfect or subvert nature, but nothing other than a monster is created; Faustus in Christoper Marlowe’s The tragical history of Doctor Faustus, interested in arcane arts, sells his soul to devil and ends up destroying himself in his quest for ultimate knowledge. The delusion of grandeur that men can control nature and achieve perfection is finally shattered because neither is accomplishable in mortal world.
Ridiculously, why do we spend our lifelong time on the pursuit of perfection, something unachievable? For one thing, we are born imperfect, which is a gift of life. The desire
Throughout the story, Alymer tries to perfect his wife Georgiana. The crimson birthmark on Georgiana’s cheek, though deemed adorable by lots of admirers, is an ‘earthly imperfection’ in Alymer’s eyes. This obsession for perfection blinds Alymer to the noble quality of his wife with merely one insignificant flaw, keeps him a prisoner from the joy of life and triggers his insane quest to play God and subvert nature. Nonetheless, perfection, as suggested by Hawthorne, is a province of heaven, and to achieve perfection equals to deny one’s own mortality. The horrible dream, unsuccemssful experiments, the withering flower and the blurry portrait all foreshadow the death of Georgiana. After the removal of the birthmark, Georgiana becomes too perfect in this flawed world.
Alymer is by no means the only hero who tries to pursue perfection ending up in failure and misery. Likewise, Victor in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein also seeks to create a human, an attempt to perfect or subvert nature, but nothing other than a monster is created; Faustus in Christoper Marlowe’s The tragical history of Doctor Faustus, interested in arcane arts, sells his soul to devil and ends up destroying himself in his quest for ultimate knowledge. The delusion of grandeur that men can control nature and achieve perfection is finally shattered because neither is accomplishable in mortal world.
Ridiculously, why do we spend our lifelong time on the pursuit of perfection, something unachievable? For one thing, we are born imperfect, which is a gift of life. The desire