Arianne Almera Adol

LastName 1 Human's Pursuit of Perfection in Hawthorne's "The Birthmark" Aylmer and Georgiana are the protagonists of Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Birthmark. Georgiana has a birthmark on her left cheek that looks like a little hand and is described as being very attractive. Aylmer, on the other hand, is a man of science and intellect who excels in his studies and pursuits. He is also a driven individual. While he believes that heavenly deeds such as developing man from a human experiment or transforming gold into metal are beyond humanity's grasp, he believes that he can, at the very least, crack such puzzles. They were content, but Aylmer's ambition and dominance destroyed their happiness. We know not whether Aylmer possessed this degree of faith in man's ultimate control over Nature. He had devoted himself, however, too unreservedly to scientific studies ever to be weaned from them by any second passion (Hawthorne 423). When viewed as a whole, the novel has a strong theme regarding man's transcendental quest of what he considers to be ideal. We are often compelled to explore and discover things that will make life easier because of our limitations. This desire is the driving force behind scientists' efforts to learn more about life, the world, and the mysteries that surround them. What people can't do is what makes them flawed, at least in their perspective, and being gods who can do anything is the epitome of perfection. The degradation of the female gender due to patriarchal thinking and acceptance of what is appropriate is another prominent issue in Hawthorne's writing. The first subject is selfevident. Aylmer is the personification of it. His character is a metaphorical depiction of one of humanity's goals: to acquire ultimate knowledge and control over our own fates and environment. LastName 2 Science is an essential part of existence, and scientists' contributions are invaluable. However, there is a blurred line that exists between science and morality, and it's dangerous to stray too close to it (Zanger 365). Aylmer's quest for a cure for Georgiana's birthmark, a natural anomaly, is already an unforgivable sin, not only because of his conceited, intentional or not, act of supremacy and objectification of a person, his wife no less, but also because of his violation of the sanctity of love and its sincerity (Keetley 18). Aylmer's vision of using a potato peeler to remove Georgiana's birthmark from her cheek is clearly violent and repulsive. It sexualizes and objectifies a woman as merely one's creation, a slave to a master (Rong 14). Of course, Aylmer never carried out such acts of violence, but he did use his wife as a test subject for his experiment, which resulted in Georgiana's untimely death. Georgiana, a vibrant and lively little thing, surrendered herself to Aylmer's ambitious attempts out of love and devotion because she couldn't take her husband's contempt and dissatisfaction. As her husband's ambitious and misguided ideals drove him to obsession, she gradually lost her confidence and self-respect. Let the attempt be made, at whatever risk. Danger is nothing to me ... while this hateful mark makes me the object of your horror and disgust, life is a burden which I would fling down with joy (Hawthorne 426). Georgiana's death was tragic because, while Aylmer loved his wife, his love of science and quest triumphed over that love: LastName 3 His love for his young wife might prove the stronger of the two; but it could only be by intertwining itself with his love of science, and uniting the strength of the latter to his own (423). LastName 4 Works Cited Hawthorne, Nathaniel. "The Birthmark." The Norton Anthology of American Literature: Ninth Edition, Volume B, Volume 2, edited by Robert S Levine, Michael A Elliott, Sandra M Gustafason, Amy Hungerford, Mary Loeffelholz, 2017, pp. 418-429. Keetley, Dawn. "Bodies and Morals: Hawthorne's "the Birthmark" and Neil LaBute's the Shape of Things." Literature/Film Quarterly, vol. 38, no. 1, 2010, pp. 16-28. Rong, Chen. "Docile Mind and Subversive Body: A Feminist Reading of Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Birthmark [J]." Journal of Pla University of Foreign Languages 4 (2004): 014. Zanger, Jules. "Speaking of the Unspeakable: Hawthorne's" The Birthmark"." Modern Philology 80.4 (1983): 364-371.