Pub #4

Idealism is the practice of pursuing ideals that are usually unrealistic. Nathaniel Hawthorne and others saw the human spirit cannot only be filled with happiness and peace if it is very connected to nature. In the “Birthmark” is very ironic that Aylmer with all of his intellectual and spiritual qualities, he does not possess the wisdom and therefore he will die without happiness.

Hawthorne was trying to show us in the story that when you are trying to get close to perfection, you will fail at it tremendously. What is given to you from birth is beautiful and it should not be altered, but this unfortunately was ironic in the end. Aylmer was not happy with his wife Georgina because of her birthmark and he wanted it removed. He at all cost tried to find a way to get rid of it and this caused his wife to go into a state of depression. He eventually made a potion that could help remove her birthmark but as soon as she took it her health got worse. As the birthmark started to disappearance, so did her life as it began to slip away.

Perfection as the world sees it today is obscured by social media, with woman at the forefront of this idealist society. With every advertisement people are viewed as what the world is wants them to be and not what they really are. Photoshop is an example of the way models are changed to look the way magazine’s editors want them to be seen as. The ideal female is tan, slender, with no unsightly bumps, bulges or cellulite and with hours of haircare and makeup. This goes against transcendentalism because this is not true beauty through the eyes of the beholder and it is not realistic. This is degrading to woman because in return woman are trying to complete with this unrealistic image that advertisers are conveying. So low and behold this is the world we live in, and until society changes their views of what is really beautiful then we are subjected to this form of idealism.