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What Is Aylmer's Love For Perfection In The Birthmark

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In “The Birthmark” by Nathaniel Hawthorne is based on a scientist, Aylmer, who is obsessed with perfection. Aylmer strives for perfection through science, not nature. He thinks everything can be fixed with science and falls to the temptation to fix his wife's natural imperfection. Aylmer, a man of science, is preoccupied with his profession and just wanted to prove science that science was the only perfect thing that existed. He also wanted to prove that science was perfect unlike nature, which was full of flaws, according to him. Aylmer did strive for perfection and thought science could overpower nature because his love for science was greater than the love he had towards his wife. Aylmer’s confidence towards science was so substantial it blocked his sight on realizing the flaws his wife had was actually made her perfect. Since, he was man of science and his experiments had never failed he thought he could do an experiment towards his wife’s birthmark. He thought he knew more about the world and could find a new way to overpower the “hand of Nature”, …show more content…

Therefore, Aylmer want to use his scientific knowledge to create that perfect physical image. Aylmer’s worries towards his wife’s beauty was not onlyto save her from being nearly so “perfect” but to use her. He wanted to use her in the way to prove he was a better man than nature. She was imperfect in the way that she had a singular mark, deeply interwoven, as it were, with the texture and substance of her face located on the left cheek as it was described in the book. His wife did not only have a flaw he also thought it was a defect on her soul. He wanted to feel powerful and better than nature. His faith was in the power of science to control nature. The obsession of love for science and not his wife was so overwhelming it almost canceled out the romantic he should have actually felt towards

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