Nathaniel Hawthorne has created an interesting, egotistical character with Aylmer. Aylmer is married to a beautiful woman with one single physical flaw, a birthmark on her left cheek. Aylmer does not see her beauty, he sees her birthmark. Most men think she is beautiful, that the birthmark is a gift.
“The Birthmark” has several similarities to modern day’s views on beauty. Society has a set standard for what is beautiful: fit, flawless skin, perfect hair, straight white teeth, etc. Georgiana seems to fit the standard for what was deemed beautiful for that era, all except for the birthmark on her cheek. She is still seen as beautiful by most men even with the flaw. In modern day times, she would have been able to put on some makeup and fit in. The women of her day did not care for her looks. Perhaps, they were jealous of her beauty.
Aylmer could be seen as evil; however, I think he is just vain. He has a beautiful wife but all he can see is the birthmark. He eventually makes her feel so terrible about it that she wishes it gone as well. Georgiana would rather die than have the birthmark. The thought of her changing her opinion, she originally was okay with it, to hating the birthmark, bothers me. Aylmer has made a beautiful woman feel self-conscious about a totally natural “problem”. I find it hard to believe that Aylmer actually loves Georgiana. Love sees past flaws. If everyone was as vain as Aylmer, then there would be no marriages, no relationships, which ultimately would lead to the end of our creation.
When Aylmer is demonstrating some of his creations, it begins to worry me about what will happen to Georgiana. Aylmer’s experiments seem to have a high failure rate; the flower dies and does not leave it’s seeds behind, the photo is blurry but only displays the birthmark. If I were in Georgiana’s situation, I would have to stand up for myself. No matter how much I love and trust my husband, there is no way I’m going to drink any concoction he has created in a science lab.
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