Pub #4
Idealism is the practice of forming and pursuing unrealistic ideals and standards. You can see idealism in today’s society in many ways such as, a girl putting on makeup because she doesn’t feel beautiful without it or someone has told her that she can’t be beautiful without makeup. The theme of idealism is shown in Hawthorne’s short story “The Birthmark”, which is about a guy named Alymer who views the birthmark his wife has on her face as an imperfection and he attempts to remove the birthmark.
In “The Birthmark” by Nathaniel Hawthorne, we see Aylmer who believes the birthmark his wife, Georgiana, has on her face is a flaw and if she were to remove it she would be perfect and beautiful Others like Aminadab have seen this birthmark as a blessing and not as an imperfection. Aylmer unable to accept this birthmark states to Georgiana, “No, dearest Georgiana, you came so nearly perfect from the hand of Nature that this slightest possible defect, which we hesitate whether to term a defect or a beauty, shocks me, as being the visible mark of earthly imperfection” (Hawthorne, 291). Georgiana becomes deeply hurt by his declaration about her birthmark and starts to see her birthmark as a defect and starts to lose self-confidence. She tells him, “Let the attempt be made, at whatever risk. Danger is nothing to me: for life, while this hateful mark makes me the object of your horror and disgust” (Hawthorne 293). She believes if she gets the birthmark removed, Aylmer will see her as beautiful again instead of looking at her face with horror and disgust no matter the risk of removing the birthmark. Aylmer starts to become consumed with finding a way of riding Georgiana of the birthmark on her face. He was so focused on the ideal that when he did find a way to get rid of Georgiana’s flaw, it leads to her tragic death.
In today’s world, we can see idealism in magazines. Magazines photo-shop many photos they take of models in clothes or even trying out a product. To them an ideal idea of perfection is a slim body and perfect facial features. Magazines may get called out for what they do but they don’t realize the kind of effect photo-shopping a photo means. For girls especially, they see these photos and are thinking, “I want to be like her because she is beautiful and perfect”, this leads to them changing the way they feel about themselves and they change themselves to be like that model. There is no such thing as a perfect world or even a perfect person. By taking out the flaws of models in photos, it tells people that flaws aren’t good that they should be perfect. A transcendental spirit is someone who believes beyond the physical and is more connected to the extraordinary. They believe that man can only thrive when connected to nature and man. Idealism defies transcendentalism because it believes in a perfect world through unrealistic goals and dreams and believes that only technology and science make transcendentalism possible.
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