Fetterly says ¨one cannot imagine this story in reverse-that is, a woman’s discovering an obsessive need to perfect her husband and deciding to perform experiments on him…It is woman and specifically woman as wife, who elicits the obsession with imperfection and the compulsion to achieve perfection¨ (pg. 433-434, paragraph two) Her statement is assertive in that it is not characteristic in women to allow a judgmental notion of what they consider a defect or flaw of their respective male partners to overcome their love; or if not love, affection; or if not affection, at least of respect that they hold for their husbands or male partners. This is held to be considerably true for the women of the mid 1800’s, who were thought of as being the submissive sex while men were held to be the dominant, but it is also true of the women today.
There is a term known for its popularity, and it is that of ¨trophy wife¨. What is a ¨trophy wife¨ exactly? It is a wife who is extremely good looking and whose main purpose is to make her husband look good. There is a term for these types of wives or women, but there is not a term that is equally popular for husbands who could serve a similar function, in fact, I am not sure if ¨trophy husbands¨ even exist. It is characteristic of men in general to fall prey to such preconceived idealistic notions as the notion of ¨trophy wife¨ regarding their female partners than it is for women regarding males. This is partly due to the fact that women are generally more sentimental and emotional beings than men; as can be seen with the difference of how men and women view sex. For women, it’s usually an act of intimacy, where emotions and physical pleasure mingle to create a bonding experience between the two individuals taking part in the act. That is not to say that men don’t view sex with their significant others in a different way, but for them, physical pleasure and emotional closeness can be exclusive to each other, while for women they tend to go hand in hand. For men, sex with someone they don’t love is just sex, while for women; it could lead to an emotionally devastating experience. Besides women being more in touch with their emotions than men; when women are in a relationship (that they have chosen to be in, as Georgiana chose to marry Aylmer) it is entirely un-characteristic of them to let something as their ¨love for science¨ or anything like it to harm their significant other; it is true that perhaps they would like to change certain aspects of their partners, but really these aspects are generally personality traits and not physical flaws or defects.
Men are more sight-oriented, that is to say, they prize physical beauty and are tempted by it much more than women are. What tempts women? Praises, compliments, attention, being seduced. All factors that appeal to their emotions. What tempts men? Skin, the possibility of physical pleasure, sensuousness, beauty. All factors that are sight and physical oriented. Women are more susceptible to fall prey to idealistic notions of finding the ¨perfect man¨, or ¨prince charming¨; generous, chivalrous, loving, etc. Men in general are more susceptible to fall prey to idealistic notions of beauty in women… flawless, killer body, physical perfection itself. Of course, neither notion actually exists, everyone is imperfect both personality-wise and physically, because the ideal belongs in the world of ideas, and imperfectness in our sensory world. Aylmer was an idealistic man. A man who strived for perfection in all areas of his life. He was a scientist, or deemed himself so, and performed numerous alchemic experiments trying to find the elixir of life and trying to turn rocks into gold, etc. He had many failed experiments behind him. Of course, he had married Georgiana, a beautiful woman, whom he believed that was ¨fit for heaven without tasting death¨ (pg. 434), for she was kind, and gentle, and nobody could have any moral reproach towards her. But of course, she had one flaw. A birthmark, the size of a fairy hand, in her cheek. Aylmer became obsessed with this birthmark. He deemed it the very sign of mortality, and wished to get rid of it so that Georgiana could be physically flawless and beautifully perfect in his eyes. The same obsession for reaching perfection that dominated him in his scientific investigations (which mostly resulted in failures) now overcame the love he had for his wife, risking her very life, all for the sake of reaching ideal physical beauty. Georgiana becomes ashamed of herself and grows to view her birthmark as extremely unbecoming; a result of Aylmer’s disgust toward her defect. There is a simple truth that explains why Georgiana felt this way. When a woman is attached to a man, she starts viewing herself through the eyes of that man. His opinion is the most important one. Aylmer thought Georgiana’s birthmark hideous, and so she thought it hideous too. He was so un-relentless in his pursuit of perfection, that this pursuit trespassed into another area of his life, his marriage. And since men in general are physically drawn to beautiful women, he thought it of the utmost importance to make Georgiana the very exemplum of beauty. His idealism mixed with his general male characteristics, and resulted in failure, his wives death.
It is highly unlikely that if Aylmer had had a physical defect, Georgiana would have tried to get rid of it, even if she were a crazy scientist as Aylmer was. She could have, perhaps, had she been neurotic and obsessive, become incredibly irritated at all the personality flaws that she observed Aylmer possessed, and may have tried to change his personality and the way he behaved, but how he looked physically would have not been a big issue.
Both men and women have the capacity to become too idealistic; but the fundamental differences between the two genders is what led Aylmer, as a man, to become obsessed with Georgiana’s beauty-not her personality, not her values, not her intelligence- but her physical, palpable beauty, until the point of risking another one of his failed experiments for the sake of its perfection.
