In this lecture, I explore Nathanial Hawthorne's short story "The Birth-Mark" in conversation with Poe's tales of obsession, and with the nineteenth-century critiques of science present in works like Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. Hawthorne's focus on the conflict between human nature and scientific advances is made even more interesting by his depiction of the scientist Aylmer's wife Georgiana, who internalizes the obsession with perfection that drives Aylmer to great—and fatal—lengths. What might this story have to tell us about the relationship between gender, beauty standards, and contemporary society?