is ability to perceive nature’s beauty. In this text, Georgiana and her birthmark represent nature, and culture is represented by Aylmer. Culture has taught men to question the flaws of women that they once found intriguing, therefore Aylmer is challenging nature when he tries to remove it. Aylmer is so wrapped up in this culture that he treats Georgiana as property. Her opinion about the removal of the birthmark was of little concern to him. Therefore, culture asserts that it is not only a separate entity from nature but that it has superior qualities.Because of Aylmer’s belief that culture is superior to nature, the Creator of nature and culture alike chose to punish him. The punishment was not in an effort to be vengeful, but to show him what should have been important to him was not the birthmark on Georgiana’s face, but the beauty that she possessed both inside and out that made him desire to spend the rest of his days with her. “…he failed to look beyond the shadowy scope of Time, and living once and for all in Eternity, to find the perfect Future in the present (Birthmark, 1273);” therefore, he was forced to spend eternity without the one that truly loved him—unconditionally.WORKS CITEDMichelson, Bruce. Norton Anthology of American Literature. The Birtmark, pp1261-73. ...
