Aylmer in the Birthmark by Nathaniel Hawthorne

Aylmer in The Birthmark by Nathaniel Hawthorne fails to reach a "profounder wisdom" in his mission to reach perfection. Aylmer is a scientist who had devoted himself to his study. Aylmer had a beautiful wife, Georgiana, who was almost perfect in every way. Except for a birthmark on her face; which Aylmer thought was the only thing the prevented Georgiana from being completely perfect. Aylmer felt compelled to remove the birthmark; so he convinced Georgiana to let him try an operation/experiment to remove the birthmark and make her perfect. Aylmer made a potion that Georgiana would consume, and the birthmark would be removed forever. However, she dies after consuming the potion. In her last moments of life Aylmer looked at her and said, "My peerless bride, it is successful! You are perfect!" (42). Clearly, Aylmer is failing to see the more profound sense of wisdom of, living today like there was no tomorrow. The words the Aylmer said to Georgiana have such a deeper meaning than he understands. Aylmer calls Georgiana peerless, meaning she had no peers, no friends, nobody in her life except her husband. Also, Aylmer said that it was successful, but what was successful? He had killed his wife! No operation is successful when the result is fatal. Aylmer also said that she was now perfect! Though, He had just killed his wife; that is anything but perfect. Aylmer was so focused on the future and what he wanted Georgiana to look like in the future, he never paid attention to the time he had with Georgian. Aylmer ultimately failed to see who Georgiana really was and failed to see how his blindness for anything but his one goal of perfection killed Georgiana. Now Georgiana is lost forever. She may be without the birthmark but she is dead and all her perfection was laid to rest with her. Aylmer couldn't grasp that his wife was dead, all that seemed to matter was that there was no longer a birthmark, making in his mind, complete perfection, but of his dead wife. Aylmer never cherished today because he was always expecting tomorrow.