The Role Of Plastic Surgery In Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Birthmark

In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Birth-Mark” Aylmer’s faith in science and how he allows it to draw a wedge between himself and his wife, Georgiana, because he views her birth-mark as an imperfection and feels he can use science to remove it and create the perfect wife. Georgiana doesn’t view her birthmark as an imperfection and up until her marriage to Aylmer never considered removing it. In my opinion, Aylmer should not have married Georgiana if he could not accept her for who she was to begin with. In modern times, it is common for someone to undergo plastic surgery, like Georgiana’s, to alter their appearance because they assume they will be more comfortable with themselves after the surgery is complete. While this is usually the case, most …show more content…
Plastic surgery gives them the opportunity to change that negative aspect about them self. “People who are happy with their self-image are more likely to be self-confident, effective in work and social situations, and comfortable in their relationships. Those who are dissatisfied tend to be self-conscious, inhibited, and less effective in activities. Plastic surgery — whether cosmetic or reconstructive — encourages and promotes a strong, positive self-image.” (Psychological Aspects) That being said, everything in life that has positive aspects usually has negatives as well. Plastic surgery can turn from a blessing to a curse for someone quickly. Someone who experiences the “high” of repairing something that requires plastic surgery a lot of times end up looking for other things about themselves to “repair” that do not need to be repaired. They begin fixating on everything that could possibly be viewed as negative and the more they fixate on it the more they feel the need to have it fixed. This leads to someone getting to a point that plastic surgery will no longer help and has in fact caused the problem and there is no reversing most plastic …show more content…
In Georgiana’s case, her surgery resulted in her death. Nowadays these type surgeries aren’t that risky but they are still surgery and with every surgery comes the chance of complications that even doctors can’t always predict or prevent. Georgiana however, knew death was a possibility but in the time when she had her surgery it was more common for people to die during surgery because they didn’t have the technology we have today. But, Georgiana wanted her birthmark gone at any cost because of how Aylmer looked at her in disgust with it still on her