thmark on Georgiana’s face symbolizes her mortal imperfection that kept the union between spirituality and mortality. Hawthorne’s critique of science relates with this because it shows the distinctiveness between what science deems as life and how life is seen through the eyes of spirituality. Science sees the birthmark as an imperfection that can be removed. This can be seen in the words of Aylmer, “ ‘I am convinced of the perfect practicability of its removal’ ” (46). This is the scientist’s view of Aylmer that believes man is capable of topping anyone or anything. Spirituality on the other hand views the birthmark as an object of necessity: “some fairy at her birth hour had laid her tiny hand upon the infant’s cheek” (44). The birthmark is the imperfection that keeps Georgiana on the real world and not in the spiritual one. Aylmer’s inability to understand that science cannot overtake spirituality rather than the fact that science only helps to understand the spiritual aspect of life can be best summed up in the passage: “ ‘My peerless bride. It is successful! You are perfect’ ” (55). This perfectly shows that, although science can fix something, it cannot understand that it is repairing. Will science, and the further development of technology suffice to take the place of Nature? Will it replace God in the human mind? Hawthorne leaves these questions open for the reader to ponder. Perhaps, it is the pure simplicity of life that Aminadab suggests in the story that will lead humankind to true happiness. Aylmer pursued seemingly impossible tasks that only further complicated his life, and inevitably destroyed his own spirit through the death of his wife Georgiana. “Alas! It was too true! The fatal hand had grappled with the mystery of life, and was the bond by which an angelic spirit kept itself in union with a mortal frame...
