The Birthmark

The Birthmark left me torn between thinking Aylmer was a total jerk and admiring his insight. On the one hand he is degrading to his wife because of the slightest of imperfections. On the other hand he makes an insightful speech on the inherent imperfection of humanity.
Of course being a girl he is a frustrating character to me because he is picking out the imperfections of a beautiful woman. Basically, he is implying that she is not good enough because of one tiny imperfection. One would like to think that beauty should not be the only thing that matters to a man; but he is entirely obsessed with how his wife looks. Never once does he mention anything about her personality, but instead implies she is inadequate, saying her birthmark “shocks me, as being a visible mark of earthly imperfection” (2276). It should not matter to a husband whether his wife looks perfect or not, some merit should be placed on her personhood. He drives her to hate herself, shuttering at the birthmarks mention, and even being willing to die if only to be rid of it, telling him “either remove this dreadful Hand, or take my life”(2278)! In the end he is willing to kill her to rid her face of it. On the surface this paints Aylmer as shallow and unappreciative, unable to look past his wife’s physical imperfection to love the real her.
However, Aylmer’s hatred of the birthmark goes deeper than the physical imperfection. Aylmer expresses a deeper meaning of the birthmark as a sign of his wife’s mortality. He says the mark is “the fatal flaw of humanity, which Nature, in one shape or another, stamps ineffaceably on all her productions, either to imply that they are temporary and finite, or that their perfection must be wrought by toil and pain” (2277). It is here that he loses the illusion of perfection. He sees that his wife is mortal and that nothing in life is ever perfect. His attempt to remove the birthmark is a deeply seeded human desire to control. He wants to find a way to control mortality, to control imperfection. Humans fear death because it is out of their control. It strikes inevitably, when it chooses. That scares people. Removing the birthmark is Aylmer’s recognition of the temporariness of life, and his effort to control it.
On the surface the character of Aylmer comes across as shallow, and evokes dislike with the constant criticism of his wife. One would think a husband would be able to look past his wife’s physical attributes and appreciate her for who she is. However, on a deeper look, it is clear Aylmer actually sees the birthmark as a symbol of his wife’s mortality and a reminder that nothing in life is perfect. His attempt to remove it is really his attempt to control that part of life he cannot control. It is a coping mechanism.