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What is the moral of "The Birthmark" by Nathaniel Hawthorne?
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The moral of "The Birthmark" by Nathaniel Hawthorne is that striving for perfection and attempting to alter nature can lead to disastrous consequences. Aylmer's obsession with removing his wife Georgiana's birthmark, a symbol of human imperfection, ultimately results in her death. The story suggests that human imperfection is inherent and beautiful, and that seeking to eliminate it through scientific means is both futile and dangerous.
Aylmer, a scientist, longs to make his wife, Georgiana, absolutely perfect by removing what he sees as her one flaw: a very small red birthmark, in the shape of a tiny hand, on her cheek. He feels that the birthmark might be charming on another woman's face, but because, as he says, Georgiana "came so nearly perfect from the hand of Nature that this slightest possible defect . . . shocks [him], as being the visible mark of earthly imperfection." Aylmer hits the nail on the head with this rather off-hand comment, one that very much pains his wife. He talks about earthly imperfection, which is appropriate since only the divine can be perfect; human beings, by nature, are imperfect. It is our imperfection that makes us beautiful, as Aylmer's assistant, Aminadab, knows: this is another of the story's morals. When Aylmer successfully removes Georgiana's birthmark, she can no longer survive on earth.
In Nathaniel Hawthorne's story, "The Birthmark," there are several possible morals. Aylmer is a man of science who marries the beautiful Georgiana. Though he doesn't seem to notice or care before they are married, afterwards, he is bothered by a tiny birthmark on her cheek in the shape of a hand. Throughout the story, he is determined to get rid of the offending birthmark, regardless of her wishes. He wants to use science to remove the birthmark and finally, unhappy with what she used to see as a beauty mark, Georgiana agrees to let her husband remove it.
The experiment goes terribly wrong, and ultimately Georgiana loses her life because of her husband's determination to remove the birthmark, something she was born with or as some would say, given to her by God. Thus, Aylmer seeks to make his wife 'perfect', but by tampering with nature, ends up killing her. The moral to the story, then, is that a man cannot play God or attempt to alter nature; in addition, seeking perfection is a dangerous and deadly goal.
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