Nathaniel Hawthorne's "The Birth-Mark"

This short story is about Alymer, a genius scientist, and his wife Georgiana. Georgiana was born with a birth-mark on her cheek that resembled a hand. I was left curious to why he waited until after they were together and proposed marriage to bring up his trouble with the birth-mark. You'd think if it is that obvious he would have said something sooner. Was he able to separate science and the love of his life from each other for a little while, but the scientist in him linked them back up? In the beginning the birth-mark was described as this tiny, little imperfection, but as I kept reading it seemed as if the birth-mark was growing and I imagined it covering her whole cheek. That's like any imperfection we see now, especially with ourselves, the more we focus on it, the larger it gets. It always seems to stick out more with the added attention we give that "little" imperfection. I was a big boy, and I mean big, all through high school. I eventually lost 85 pounds because I was sick of the imperfection of being another overweight person. Life was great for a little while, but then you notice the next imperfection that was never on the radar before, and then the next. I think there are always going to be things we want to change, superficial or not, but more times than not we have to learn to accept the things we cannot change.
In the beginning, Georgiana believed the birth-mark to be a charm, or at least that is what she told herself to accept having the mark on her face. By the end, Alymer convinced Georgiana that it is the most hideous thing, and neither life nor death should stop them from removing it. It's neat to read stories with timeless life lessons like this. These are issues we read about all the time. Models being airbrushed to cover any imperfections for ads, because anything less than perfect is not acceptable. Bullies convincing other kids that their glasses make them a geek. It's a valuable lesson that no one is perfect, no matter how close someone may come to perfection, everyone has their "birth-mark."