“No, indeed,” said she, smiling; but perceiving the seriousness of his manner, she blushed deeply. “To tell you the truth it has been so often called a charm that I was simple enough to imagine it might be so.”
“Ah, upon another face perhaps it might,” replied her husband;”but never on yours. 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.”
“Shocks you, my husband!” cried Georgiana, deeply hurt; at first reddening with momentary anger, but then bursting into tears.”Then why did you take me from my mother’s side? You cannot love what shocks you!”
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Our parents send us out into the world feeling “perfect”, being that they prepared us to the best of their abilities. As we enter society with our own personal “charms”, we are suddenly confronted by the criticism of others. We are told that are “charms” are not good enough, and we are basically forced to chance in order to fit into society.
When we are being raised we are taught to value our own opinions and value ourselves. As we enter society we start valuing the opinion of others and start putting more emphasis on what they have to say and what they think.
In this story as Georgiana enters her marriage she is a child. She is a child that lived her life thinking that she herself was good enough. She actually thought that she was better than good enough, she felt that her personal “charm” made her perfect. But when confronted by Aylmer, who represents society, she is told that she’s not good enough after all. Just as society does to us, Alymer gives her the impression that if she were just to change one small thing about herself she was essentially be PERFECT in her entirety. She was obviously happy what her imperfections, but as she was forced to change, she slowly died on the inside and eventually died altogether.
This story was written in 1837, which just goes to show us that for centuries our society has only focused on the aesthetics and the key source of happiness. After entering society our view of happiness is altered, and we are forced to become nothing more than a face in the crowd.
