In “The Birth-Mark” by Nathaniel Hawthorne, a scientist named Aylmer becomes obsessed with the small birthmark on his wife Georgiana’s cheek in the shape of a small hand. He barely noticed the birthmark until after their marriage, and pressures her to have it removed due to Aylmer’s growing dislike of the mark and his view of it as a flaw; even going so far as to tell her, “you came so nearly perfect from the hand of Nature” (Hawthorne). After initial hesitation, Georgiana agrees to have the mark removed, not entirely because of her own desire but to satisfy her husband. In the end, the birthmark disappears, and Georgiana dies. Throughout the story, Hawthorne uses foreshadowing, symbolism, and irony to demonstrate the dangers of the pursuit of perfection and humanity’s attempt to beat nature. 

In this short story, there are three moments that foreshadow Georgiana’s death. The first is in a dream that Aylmer had where he and his assistant Aminadab attempt an operation to remove the birthmark, only to end with Aylmer reaching Georgiana’s heart: “The deeper went the knife, the deeper sank the hand, until its tiny grasp appeared to have caught hold of Georgiana’s heart; whence, however, her husband was inexorably resolved to cut or wrench it away” (Hawthorne). Hawthorne employs this line not solely to foreshadow Georgiana’s death but to highlight that her death will be at her husband's hands, which is significant given his tendency to put science above love. The second example is when Aylmer and Georgiana observe a beautiful flower, and Georgiana touches it, only to have it die in her hands, “its leaves turning coal-black as if by the agency of fire” (Hawthorne). An interpretation of this moment could argue humanity's destruction of nature when tampered with and stimulated for one’s own benefit. Lastly, as Georgiana scrolls through Aylmer’s library full of literature by honorable literary and scientific figures, she stumbles upon a folio of her husband's research notes, in which he records his experiments and their outcomes. She realizes that he has experienced more failures than successes: “his most splendid successes were almost invariably failures, if compared with the ideal at which he aimed” (Hawthorne), further foreshadowing her fate. 

Hawthorne uses Georgiana’s birthmark as a symbol to explore human imperfection, scientific ambition, and the hazards of pursuing unrealistic perfection. The birthmark is described as a small, crimson-colored, hand-shaped mark that becomes more pronounced when Georgiana blushes or experiences strong emotion; Hawthorne also appears to present his own characteristic of the birthmark as “a fairy at her birth-hour laid her tiny hand upon the infant’s cheek” (Hawthorne). Hawthorne, with the birthmark, makes efforts to remind readers that Georgiana is human and therefore not perfect, and because the birthmark changes with the color of her emotions, it helps represent the connection between soul and life. As noted, Aylmer has had more failures than successes with his scientific experiments. However, the irony is loud when one of his concoctions yields the results that he hoped for: the eradication of the birthmark, but results in the death of his wife.

Ultimately, Hawthorne's short story utilizes foreshadowing, symbolism, and irony to argue that humanity’s pursuit of perfection is at odds with nature, a struggle sure to end in a grim outcome.