The Pursuit of Physical Perfection

... , an immeasurable amount of time is wasted, and millions of dollars are spent, in the hopes to reach this unreachable goal. In Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Birthmark, he takes readers into a world where the foolishness of trying to achieve physical perfection is discovered. Hawthorne's ongoing theme shows how striving for perfection can wind up being the downfall of mankind. The moral of the story is that there is a high price for the pursuit of perfection. The main character Aylmer wanted ... his wife Georgiana to be free of blemishes. It was mentioned that everything about her ... ...

• Word Count: 1024
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... ideals. Her alleged inferiority to science leads to her death and Aylmer's complete failure as both a scientist and a spouse. From the very start of the story, Aylmer is described as a man with a certain degree of physical finery that alludes to perfection " cleared his fine countenance- (42). He is described as a man with a passionate interest for science; actually, he devotes almost ... his pursuit of happiness, whereas science could be called his first love. He becomes obsessed with the idea of changing his beloved to suit his fancy. Georgiana had a mark on her cheek, hardly a cause f...

• Word Count: 1411
• Approx Pages: 6
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... . It is still common for everyone to keep up their external appearance, so that no one knows the problems they may be hiding. Hawthorne wrote "The Birthmark" which examines the obsession with human perfection. The main character and protagonist, Aylmer, is a perfectionist as he created a potion to get rid of physical flaws. His wife had a birthmark that was disfiguring. "Aylmer's behavior is very manipulative around others. He ... him. He uses his behavior to get what he wants from people. He also manages to eliminate the blemish that marks Georgiana's cheek with a potion concocted in hi...

• Word Count: 2150
• Approx Pages: 9
• Grade Level: High School

... in Death in Venice or Cosimo's escape from rules and regulations by leaving the natural life on the ground, to live beneath the sky yet above the earth, in Baron in the Trees. What is it then, that drives them? Is it the pursuit of perfection, of utmost beauty? The wish to live independently, free from the humdrum routine of an earthbound existence? Or perhaps they are merely engaging in a quest for romance ... , reacted against his father's authoritarianism, and the unfairness of being forced to eat the most gruesome dishes of decapitated snails and other indelicacies prepared by his si...

• Word Count: 1221
• Approx Pages: 5
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... Nathaniel Hawthorne there is an underlying theme of individualism. The character Aylmer is a scientific person. The fact that the whole story is about removing a physical flaw from Georgiana's face when she is obviously beautiful demonstrates the degree of individualism between men and women. Men's lives are public and open to society and the lives of women are private. As the story progresses Aylmer sees the birth mark as progressively more repugnant ... believe that most people are self aware enough to make the distinction between private and public lives. This shows that Aylmer, the ...

• Word Count: 1442
• Approx Pages: 6
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... ; they emphasized individual responsibility for salvation and they preached that people could improve themselves and society. This led to a pursuit for perfection. The Second Great Awakening placed religion in the forefront of politics. Alexis de Tocqueville said that, "I found that Religion was the foremost of the political institutions of the United States." The mediums that the preachers used to spread their messages were mostly large gatherings, where audiences counting into ... were Francis Lieber and Samuel Gridley Howe who promoted basic literacy for prisoners, reduction of painfu...

• Word Count: 2362
• Approx Pages: 9
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... affect everyone who is less than satisfied with their body and image. Eating disorders are also more than just the physical tricking the body into starving it or coughing up the last meal to lose the pounds, they're also psychological. If a person is not happy with their physical state, this should be considered a mental issue and could become very serious if that person loses control ... overly muscular, 'sexy' men make people think that that is what perfection is. "You can never have too much of a good thing." One of the biggest lies in the market today. Of course a person can ha...

• Word Count: 1415
• Approx Pages: 6
• Has Bibliography

... in action; and till action lust Is perjured, murd'rous, bloody, full of blame, Savage, extreme, rude, cruel, not to trust; Enjoyed no sooner but despiséd straight; Past reason hunted, and no sooner had, Past reason hated as a swallowed bait On purpose laid to make the taker mad. Mad in pursuit, and in possession so; Had, having, and in quest to have ... intercourse. As it is usual in Shakespearean sonnets, the first, larger part contains three quatrains, each presenting a new argument, and the last two lines the so called couplet concludes the poem and closes the argument. In this sonnet...

• Word Count: 1353
• Approx Pages: 5
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... . Eros not only concerns thinking about the good and beautiful, but also "requires the active pursuit of it as to possess it. " Eros recognizes a scale of beauty and of good. Diotima tells us of the movement from bodies, to forms, to thoughts, to institutions and law, to science, and to absolute or ideal beauty. Stated in other words, eros moves us from physical things, that is, things that change ... somehow disappears (even if he remains a silent partner) in the overwhelming madness that accompanies the quest for and vision of wisdom. Eventually, though not without difficulty, Augustin...

• Word Count: 857
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: Undergraduate