Perfection & Disfigurement

by Megan Renner

From our discussion of Hawthorne’s The Birthmark, the theme that we seemed to keep coming back to was the perception of beauty and what beauty really means to the individual. The birthmark seems to be defined as an imperfection in Aylmer’s eyes. Interestingly enough, other people such as Georgiana’s previous suitors viewed the birthmark as an addition to her beauty. When taking a closer look at the characters in this story, I perceived Aylmer as a perfectionist and someone who places science and discovery over anything else. His own self-interest seems to cloud his judgment when trying to perfect his wife’s face. Could Aylmer merely be trying to prove to himself that he can “fix” his wife’s face, seeing her as a subject that needs to be tested and experimented on? I think that he sees the “problem” with Georgiana as a challenge and wants to show that his power as a scientist is superior above everyone else.

            After Aylmer marries Georgiana, we as readers can infer that Aylmer feels like he has won himself a prize that other men have tried to pursue. I viewed Aylmer as a very manipulative character who took advantage of Georgiana’s innocence. When asked about getting the birthmark removed Georgiana replies: “Then why did you take me from my mother’s side? You cannot love what shocks you” (Hawthorne 85). As a reader, I sympathized with Georgiana. She just married this man with the intention that he loves her and wants to spend the rest of his life with her, but does is repulsed by a mark on her cheek. If Georgiana did not have the birthmark, would Aylmer finally accept her and view her as beautiful? Or would he merely find something else wrong with her appearance? Aylmer seems to place achieving perfection about everything else in his life.

            What’s intriguing about this short story is the boudoir that Aylmer has constructed specifically for Georgiana. Aylmer seems to find the boudoir a solution to Georgiana’s imperfection. He seems to believe that if he surrounds her with immense beauty, it will distract him from the birthmark. The boudoir is described as: “beautiful apartments not unfit to be the secluded abode of a lovely women” (90). Aylmer is so fixated on perfection that he creates these rooms for his wife that are so exquisite and beautiful in the hopes that it will distract him from the birthmark. While reading this earlier in the week, I was confused by Aylmer’s intentions: did he not notice the birthmark when he met Georgiana, before marrying her? I then realized that maybe because he was influenced by everyone else’s perception of his beauty he did not really notice it until after they were married.

            As the novel continues, Georgiana finds her husband’s works within his library. Each experiment is marked as a success or failure and Georgiana recognizes that “it was the sad confession and continual exemplification of the shortcomings of the composite man” (94). In comparison to the boudoir Aylmer’s scientific library lists all of his successes and failures, and perhaps the “ugliness” that comes with his work. Curiously enough, this makes Georgiana love and “worship” her husband even more due to his ambition and appreciation for science. This twisted relationship reveals than there is disfigurement and beauty in everything; beauty is truly in the eye of the beholder and in Aylmer’s case, beauty is not found in a hand-shaped birthmark.