Women beware science

In this article it talks about how Aylmer only tries to perfect the physical side of Georgina, and he doesn't care about her character. It also talks about how perfection can not exist. It also says that Georgina reminds Aylmer of what he can not be so because he cant perfect himself he tries to perfect Georgina.

The Story of Pygmalion

The story of Pygmalion is about a sculptor who falls in love with an ivory statue of a woman he has made. Venus, the goddess of love, brings the statue to life, and Pygmalion marries it. Aylmer’s reference to Pygmalion reveals much about his own character. By comparing himself to the sculptor, Aylmer believes that he is clever enough to create the perfect woman. He also reveals a fundamental misunderstanding of his own project. Unlike Pygmalion, Aylmer isn’t creating a woman where none previously existed. He is tampering with a perfectly beautiful woman. The reference to Pygmalion reveals that Aylmer’s self-regard has blinded him to the true nature of his experiment.

A reference to sculpture reveals the narrator’s distaste for Aylmer’s image of himself as a magical creator of life. Before Aylmer refers to Pygmalion, the narrator condemns those jealous women who claim that the birthmark spoils Georgiana’s beauty, saying that making such a claim is as silly as pretending that a tiny blue mark in  in marble would turn a statue of Eve into a monstrosity. It is a small moment, but a revealing one. http://www.sparknotes.com/short-stories/the-birthmark/section3.rhtml

A Psychological Reading of "The Birthmark"

In this analysis, James Quinn and Ross Baldessarini talk of how "obsessed with imperfection in human nature" Aylmer is.  It talks of the conflict Aylmer has between personal idealization and reality--an "obsessional neurotic conflict."  They infer that Aylmer is obsessive-compulsive especially when dealing with the struggle to attain "perfection" in his wife.

"Georgiana commits totally to her husband, even though she knows full well that his experiment will likely fail, just as his prior experiments have failed. She becomes the prototype of the good wife, who is his willing subject, even in the face of death. Aylmer, on the other hand, can be regarded both as a heartless scientist, vainly seeking the impossible, but also as a loving husband who believes his wife deserves nothing less than perfection." Why is it that Georgiana would let her husband perform this experiment on her? Especially after finding that book of failed experiments. As it says, she must have known this experiment would fail too. So why does she allow it? Sounds like Georgiana loved her husband so much that she was willing to let him try to improve her 'imperfetion'; she loved him so much that she was willing to 'be a good wife' and follow the instructions of her husband; she loved Aylmer so much that she was willing to die. I also find it an interesting perspective about Aylmer: that he thinks his wife doesn't deserve anything but perfection, and that's why he did the operation. I always pegged him as heartless also, and that he was being stupid by not appreciating his wife! But maybe he was doing this out of love for his wife? I had never thought about it that way and it stirs up many more questions and theories that one could play off of and use for writing.

Analysis of Major Characters

In 'The Birthmark' Alymer is used as a symbol of intellect and science.  His mind overpowers his sense of decency and he does things that aren't really noraml.  He shows us how when the mind works independent of morality it will result in death or disaster.  Georgiana is portrayed as this beautiful woman who men are just amazed by.  These men also love her birthmark and think it makes her more beautiful, but Georgiana only cares what Alymer thinks of her.  Alymer finds her birthmark ugly and does not like it.  So since she wants to do anything to make Alymer happy, she is willing to risk her life to get rid of the birthmark. 

Hawthorne's "The Birthmark": Science and Romance as Belief

Alymer views science as his religion, and romance is Georgianna's religion. Both of  them would do anything for their favorite subject. It's been recorded in history that man has tried to overcome nature by trying to "create life...without the help of women's childbearing capacity", which is exactly what Aylmer was trying to do. By removing the horrid birthmark from Georgianna's face, Aylmer was willing to kill his wife in order to fulfill a scientific discovery that conquers nature. Sadly, "he is left with another failure to add to his folio." Georgianna, however, thinks the opposite of Alymer. She was willing to prove her love and sacrifice her life for her husband's happiness. It was "better for Gorgianna to die for love and perfect beauty," than to live without romance or her husband's affection.

The Return of the Repressed: Illiteracy and the Death of the Narrative in Hawthorne's "The Birthmark"

This academic article really looked into a deeper meaning and different themes of "The Birthmark."  The author of the article explores the connections between the destruction of the mark and the actual structure of the narrative.  Because of the different viewpoints of the birthmark and the multiple symbols it can represent, the story seems to contradict and diminish itself, similar to Aylmer's desire to destroy the birthmark.  This article also emphasizes the characters' inability to "read" the mark and find the true meaning.  Aylmer and Georgiana see the mark as a flaw instead of seeing the real beauty behind it.  Their "illiteracy" results in the death of Georgiana.  The article also points out other symbols such as Aylmer's obsession with looking and gazing at the mark and the femaleness of the mark that make the mark such an important figure in the story.