Imperfection In Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Birthmark

Superior Essays
A Birthmark is Not an Imperfection

Try and think of the most perfect person you have ever met. Think of their hair, their beauty, their athletic abilities, their home life, etcetera. All of this is only what you can see at the surface, but there is even more to a person that you cannot see. Everyone has their own story of heartbreak, pain, and times of inadequacy. Nobody is perfect, not even that person who you have been crushing on for months. With that in mind, humans are more prone to judge what they see rather than getting in to know someone or learn about something as it is easier and less time consuming which can be seen as a flaw in human nature. By judging only what you can see, it can cause the inability to see past the physical
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In “The Birthmark”, the symbolism of Georgiana’s birthmark, the use of foreshadowing, and Georgiana’s dynamic character all reveal author Nathaniel Hawthorne’s primary theme that the world should be happy with what they …show more content…
This is a character, with her imperfection, is one we can all relate to as we each have our own imperfections. One quote from Hawthorne in “The Birthmark” gives a great example to how Georgiana perfectly impersonates a person that we could relate to is, “Airy figures, absolutely bodiless ideas, and forms of unsubstantial beauty came and danced before her, imprinting their momentary footsteps on beams of light. Though she had some indistinct idea of the method of these optical phenomena, still the illusion was almost perfect enough to warrant the belief that her husband possessed sway over the spiritual world" (427). This quote is when Georgiana’s mind is being conformed to the beliefs of her husband and how his opinions had power over her life. Many people come across a situation where a comment or remark transforms the way they think about a specific idea, object, or even person. When Georgiana’s way of thinking was altered in regards to how she saw herself and that her imperfection was something to hate rather than love, she changed her perspective of what was important to her. She began to worry only about what people and Aylmer might think and no longer payed attention to what she truly cared about or how she truly felt. No one should have to feel insecure because of someone else’s opinions and we should be able to focus on the beauty

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