Symbolism In The Birthmark

In Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Birth-Mark, Aylmer, a scientist tries to use science in order to make his wife perfect. She has a birthmark on her left cheek that to him causes him to believe is the only thing that causes her to not be perfect. Nathaniel Hawthorne is trying to stress how people have this cultural necessity for perfection. That perfection is something people must succeed in achieving be it in a passion or even more visually. And that this sort of idealism can never lead to anything well, because perfection is impossible. Aylmer tries to gain perfection scientifically and in his wife's beauty. In the end she dies due to his trying to achieve perfection. Just to show that perfection is an unrealistic ideal that our culture pushes.
He is said to dislike the fact that his wife's birthmark causes his wife to not be perfect. Georgina herself is beautiful and the red birthmark on her left cheek is something she does not mind. Each time the birthmark is talked about by her husband she goes from being confident to embarrassed by her birthmark. She never really thought perfection until her husband starts to push her into finding a way to remove. He symbolizes how others and society push the idea of perfection onto others especially visually. It has become a part of many cultures to idealize visual perfection. Her husband does just this and convinces her to decide to allow him to remove her birthmark. Without this cultural ideal people would not feel like a birthmark or anything visual is meant to be