Perfection

               Why do we as human strive for perfection? Is it our natural instincts to try to become perfect and do things perfect? Or can we not takes things how they are and live with them as good enough. In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Birthmark, he takes this question and poses it to a man who has it almost perfect and pushes the limits of science, love, and perfection.

               Hawthorne’s main character in the story, Aylmer has it all. He is lucky enough to do what he loves to do, which is experiment in his laboratory as an alchemist, and is married to a beautiful woman. His wife, Georgiana, was envied by both men and women who had the opportunity to meet her. She had one problem though. She had a birthmark on the side of her face which “bore not a little similarity to the human hand, though of the smallest pygmy size.” (Hawthorne 85). Despite the envy that his wife draws from others and how beautiful she is, Aylmer cannot get past the fact that she has that birthmark on her face. It truly bugged him and “he found this one defect grow more and more intolerable with every moment of their lives” (86). He then resolves with Georgiana that he is to remove the mark from her face.  Aylmer is striving for perfection in this aspect of his life but also with his work as he is working with new science. He wants this and “possessed this degree of faith in man’s ultimate control over Nature.” (84). In his attempt to remove the mark from his wife’s face, Georgiana dies. This goes to show that perfection may be something that as a human race we may not be able to accomplish.

               The more that people try to become perfect, the more that they can become flawed. I would much rather be married to an almost perfect wife with a tiny hand shaped birthmark on her face than a perfect wife without a birthmark for a minute who dies afterwards. That is the greediness of human nature. We cannot accept what we have and we always want more. People are so often criticized for one flaw that they might have rather than the many unique abilities and characteristics that they have. One example that I can look at is girls who get extensive plastic surgery done to themselves. They do this to change their looks and appearance to others and possibly for themselves. That surgery may make a person feel better about how they look at themselves but what it can’t do is change your qualities as a person. Georgiana was the same person with or without that birthmark on her face because it did not change her personality or the way that she felt about Aylmer. In this case I think that Aylmer acted very selfishly in trying to fix what he say as a defect in his wife, a person that he married despite the fact that she had the mark on her face. Aylmer, as well as a lot of human being should be thankful for what they have and what they are given in life because there are a lot of people who may envy and want what you have much like Georgiana.

               I think that it is human nature to want the best and to want more. If you are the second wealthiest person in the world, you may want to be the richest or if you have envy as a pretty woman you might want to become even prettier because you feel that you yourself aren’t good enough. I think that we take for granted what we have because there are a lot of people who don’t have the money or beauty that another does and would be so grateful for just a chance to achieve that stature. Because much like the outcome that Aylmer experienced by killing his wife, the pursuit of perfection may be thought of as worth it but the end result may change you forever, leaving you a completely different person.