Comparing Artist of the Beautiful, Rappaccinis Daughter, Birthmark and

Comparing Perfection in Artist of the Beautiful, Rappaccinis girl, nevus and Prophetic Pictures In four of Hawthornes stories there is a struggle for power and control as a vehicle to withstand perfection or beauty. In The Artist of the Beautiful, Rappaccinis Daughter, The Birthmark and The Prophetic Pictures the characters are controlled by their desire for perfection in their creations, entirely they do not achieve their goals without establish. In The Artist of the Beautiful Owen is spends long time perfecting his creation. His quest for the Beautiful controls him. His sensitivity to delicate perfection affects him even physically as he is made ill by the large automatic steam engine. Being once carried to see a steam-engine...he turned sentinel and grew sick, as if something monstrous and unnatural had been presented to him. He is as delicate as the stillterfly he creates. For Heavens sake...as you would not drive me mad, do not move it The slightest pressure of your fin ger would ruin me forever. In his obsessive quest of perfection he cuts himself off from the human experience. He builds what he believes he was created for without a thought to what he is sacrificing to achieve his goal. The scarceterfly is mysterious and beautiful, but for all of his effort it is destroyed. Years are sacrificed in the quest for perfection. To Owen the sacrifice may have been well worth it, but considering Hawthornes warnings about the senselessness of separating oneself from humanity in new(prenominal) stories, he may again be saying that Owens quest for mechanical perfection is an empty victory in light of the life and joy he could have had with Annie. In Rappaccinis Daughter the scientist sacrifices his own daughter to bot... ...retched lady...did I not warn you?, You did...but- I lovemaking him Apparently, the artist painted the truth and the fate of Elinors relationship with Walter, but persuaded by love, she chose to ignore his warnings. The power of t he artist is clear. He tried to devil Elinor see her future with Walter clearly. But it was the power of denial (and the power of love?) that Elinor chose to follow. I think Hawthorne may be implying in these stories that perfection is undoable and the quest for it may be unrewarding, even fatal. In these and some of Hawthornes other stories, I believe he is reminding people of the delicate blessings of life. Our pursuit of rapture outside of a connection with other people and our reckless essay to supersede the power of the supernatural may result in evanescent satisfaction, but is ultimately unfulfilling and even dangerous.