“The Perfection Trap” decries what it calls a “hidden epidemic”

In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story “The Birth-Mark”, a chemist called Aylmer marries a young woman, Georgiana, whose sole imperfection is a red blemish on her left cheek. He considers it a “fatal flaw”; she pleads with him to use his skills to remove it. Stumbling on his journal, however, Georgiana is astonished to find it is a catalogue of scientific mishaps. Might his loathing of her birthmark stem from his professional disappointment? At length Aylmer concocts a potion that has the desired effect—and promptly kills her.