Nathaniel HawthorneÆs ôThe Birthmarkö and ôRappacciniÆs Daughterö both deal with manÆs pursuit of beauty, yet his failure to recognize true beauty when he finds it in nature (Hawthorne). Instead, man always tries to improve on what he has, and often with disastrous results, as is the case in both these stories. At the end of ôThe Birthmark,ö when Georgiana is dying from drinking a potion her husband has concocted to remove a birthmark from her face, she admonishes him:
ôMy poor Aylmer,ö she repeated, with a
more than human tenderness, ôyou have aimed
loftily; you have done nobly. Do not repent
that with so high and pure a feeling, you
have rejected the best the earth could offer.
Aylmer, dearest Aylmer, I am dyingö (Hawthorne 23)
Similarly, in ôRappacciniÆs Daughter,ö the Professor has so desperately tried to protect his beautiful daughter that he has used his skills as a scientist to endow her with special lethal powers to ward off suitors. His efforts eventually lead to her death when a suitor, Giovanni, finds an antidote to the poisons her father has imbued her with. As she is dying after taking the antidote, she says:
ôI would fain have been loved, not feared,ö
murmured Beatrice, sinking down upon the
ground-ôBut now it matters not. I am going,
father, where the evil, which thou hast striven
to mingle with my being, will pass away like
a dream-like the fragrance of these poisonous
flowers, which will no longer taint my breath
among the flowers of Edenö (Hawthorne 59).
In ôThe Birthmark,ö Aylmer cannot bear the birthmark on his wifeÆs beautiful face because he believes it detracts from her beauty, which he deems otherwise perfect (Hawthorne 11). She is beautiful naturally, and needs no enhancement by man. In ôRappacciniÆs Daughter,ö Rappaccini cannot bear to lose his daughter, who is also beautiful naturally, and s...