The Birthmark

The Birthmark is a gothic story written by Nathaniel Hawthorne and first published in 1843.

The following story by the author explores the obsession with perfection and the concept of beauty, and how the consequences can lead to tragic ends.

The story follows Aylmer, a brilliant but obsessive scientist, and his beautiful wife Georgiana, who has a small hand-shaped birthmark on her cheek.

Aylmer becomes obsessed with this small blemish on his wife's face, seeing it as the only obstacle to the perfection of her beauty, and decides to convince her to have it removed.

The treatment she must undergo is quite dangerous, but Aylmer is determined and this may end up having fatal consequences for the beautiful Georgiana.

"In the latter part of the last century there lived a man of science, an eminent proficient in every branch of natural philosophy, who not long before our story opens had made experience of a spiritual affinity more attractive than any chemical one. He had left his laboratory to the care of an assistant, cleared his fine countenance from the furnace-smoke, washed the stain of acids from his fingers, and persuaded a beautiful woman to become his wife. In those days when the comparatively recent discovery of electricity and other kindred mysteries of Nature seemed to open paths into the region of miracle, it was not unusual for the love of science to rival the love of woman in its depth and absorbing energy."