Symbolism In Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Birthmark

In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Birthmark,” a couple is faced with an unbalanced since of love. The beautiful Georgiana and her husband Aylmer, the brilliant scientist, are a happy and loved couple, except for one flaw. Well to Georgiana it is not a flaw, yet to Aylmer it is. He finds Georgiana so beautiful and almost perfect, although he believes there is one flaw keeping her away from being flawless, which is her birthmark. Her birthmark is in the shape of a tiny hand on the side of her cheek that goes away when she blushes. Most men find it beautiful, while some woman find that it ruins her beauty. Throughout the story Aylmer tries to find a way to get rid of it, and Georgiana goes along with it to make her husband happy. With the effect of trying to correct her flaws with science experiments and potions he forgets about her overall self and the harm it could do. With this he uses a potion that takes away her birthmark yet in result she dies. Hawthorne uses a unique way to portray the theme, characters, and symbols of this story. All of which are easy to assume and figure out. Although, there are many themes in this story, there is only one that completely describes this story, which is the foolishness of striving for perfection. Aylmer wants perfection so terribly that it turns into a mistaken imperfection. He tries to use
The birthmark symbolizes mortality according to Hawthorne. Everything has a flaw which represents the fact that everything eventually dies. Which is why the author leads us to believe that the reason Aylmer was trying to get rid of her birthmark was to show that he had the power to fight death. Aylmer also believes that her mark is a sin and that if he rids it, that she will no longer be a sinner. Birthmarks, or any flaws are nature’s way of telling us that no one is perfect and that we will all eventually pass, but it is what we leave behind that shows who we really