Lauren Thomas
Professor Saunders
ENGL 231
October 23rd, 2014
The Theme of Love in “Rappaccini’s Daughter” Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story “Rappaccini’s Daughter” holds the theme of love at its forefront. The story delineates the struggles, both internal and external, that Giovanni Guasconti faces when courting a young woman named Beatrice Rappaccini. Beatrice’s love of a plant and her father’s love of science are conflicts that also highlight the theme of love. Along with these conflicts, Hawthorne uses the theme of love to pose the question of whether or not love is worth fighting for as well as critiquing a tragic flaw in romantic relationships. These elements combine together to make a compelling argument that love is simply not worth the struggle it imposes. The first conflict that arises in the short story is the internal conflict of Giovanni. Giovanni moves from his home in order to study at the University of Padua and sees Beatrice Rappaccini underneath the window of his new home. The conflict Giovanni faces stems from his affection and blooming love for Beatrice. Giovanni sees Beatrice’s beauty as “brilliant, so vivid in its character, that she glowed amid the sunlight” (pg. 7). However, her beauty is rivaled by her horror. Whenever a creature is near her breath, it dies. Giovanni begins questioning whether or not loving Beatrice is a wise decision. Her horror keeps him at bay while her beauty and her personality draw him in closer. The second conflict that
William Shakespeare’s “Sonnet 116” and Edna St. Vincent Millay’s “Love Is Not All” both attempt to define love, by telling what love is and what it is not. Shakespeare’s sonnet praises love and speaks of love in its most ideal form, while Millay’s poem begins by giving the impression that the speaker feels that love is not all, but during the unfolding of the poem we find the ironic truth that love is all. Shakespeare, on the other hand, depicts love as perfect and necessary from the beginning to the end of his poem. Although these two authors have taken two completely different approaches, both have worked to show the importance of love and to define it. However, Shakespeare is most confident of his definition of love, while Millay seems
Nevertheless, both Giovanni and Beatrice are similar in many ways regarding isolationism. In “Rappaccini’s Daughter” Giovanni and Beatrice are both led into isolation by older figures. Giovanni is led into the garden, which is an isolated area, by Lisabetta. Equally important, Hawthorne uses Rappaccini’s garden to isolate Beatrice from society. Beatrice has also been under the influence of her father, which in return further separates her from others: “You have heard of this daughter, whom all the young men in Padua are wild about, though not half a dozen have ever had the good hap to see her face” (Hawthorne para. 27). Alternatively, Giovanni and Beatrice are poisoned, which acts as a barrier separating them from humanity. Giovanni is affected
As singer-songwriter, Eric Burdon says, “Inside each of us, there is the seed of both good and evil. It's a constant struggle as to which one will win. And one cannot exist without the other.¨ Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “Rappaccini's Daughter” is a short story about a young student called Giovanni who falls in love with a girl called Beatrice. Will Weaver’s “WWJD?” is about suzy who is a very religious sixteen year old girl. She is a transfer student to Riverfolk high school, she is often bullied by Eddie and his gang. Both pieces of literature share a lot of similarities and differences. One main theme that stands out between the two pieces is corruption.
“Every time a woman stands up for herself without knowing it possibly, without claiming it, she stands up for all woman” -Maya Angelou. A story that shows a similar content is titled, “Only Daughter” by Sandra Cisneros. It is a story about a girl with six brothers yet tells herself that the is an only daughter. Cisneros has had hardships of her own when she was growing up with her family because she thought that she wasn’t being recognized by her father as much. Corresponding with the story, “N.O” is a song that’s been written, preformed, and sung by BTS. Their video was released on September 10, 2013: just a few months after their debut. It shows the struggles students face in society and that they try to fit in, and yet they discover that there’s more that they can achieve. The video and book are both have similar themes that are presented differently.
Some of Hawthorne’s works are parallel in many aspects as in “The Birthmark” and “Rappaccinis Daughter” with a common obsession of scientific beauty and manipulation, the death. Both men have the obsession of science where Aylmer wants to help mankind unlike Rappacini’s work to destroys mankind “Rappaccini “cares infinitely more for science than for mankind”” (Roy R. Male, 1954). Georgiana’s is manipulated with her self-esteem easily convince her of the birthmark’s discouragement to her beauty “Life is but a sad possession to those who have attained precisely the degree of moral advancement at which I stand. Were I weaker and blinder, it might be happiness” (Bunge, 1993 ) Rappacini merely manipulates Beatrice with lies. Georgiana is clear to see that for Aylmer to achieve perfection, it will cost her life “She attributes this self-destructive attitude to the inspiring influence of Aylmer’s high standards and urges him to continue his noble work, at any cost” (Bunge, 1993 ) Rappaccini’s payment was the loss of a child when Beatrice took her life; diminishing the
Since the beginning of human existence love has earned a meaning of pure bliss and wild passion between two people that cannot be broken. Through out time the meaning of love has had its slight shifts but for the most part, maintains a positive value. In the poem “Love Should Grow Up Like a Wild Iris in the Fields,” the author, Susan Griffin expresses that this long lost concept of love is often concealed by the madness of everyday life and reality. In the poem, Griffin uses many literary elements to help convey the importance of true love. The usage of imagery, symbolism, and other literary techniques really help communicate Griffins’ meaning
Throughout “Love Should Grow up Like an Wild Iris in the Fields” Susan Griffin provokes the readers to think twice about why they consistently enslave themselves with the burden of daily monotony, instead of enjoying the simplicity of love. Griffin uses two metaphors in her poem when describing love, as a flower, as well as the iris of an eye. Her comparisons are both interesting as well as accurate.
They cannot publicly show their affection, but there is more hope for them than there was for Paul. Giovanni’s room acts as a place of refuge and as cover from the judgement of the outside world. It is a safe haven where David can be his true self because the privacy allows Giovanni and him to live a life that would be impossible outside of the room’s boundaries.The affection that happens in Giovanni’s room is not something that can happen in the public eye. The room enables the possibility of homosexual love, but it also contains it inside the four walls.When Giovanni thought he heard people coming he would stiffen and remain silent until “whatever seemed to threaten our safety had moved away” (Baldwin, 86). For a time, David and Giovanni are able to experience a relationship, but it only occurs in the confines of the dark. Eventually David feels frustrated by the limited future of the relationship questioning, “What kind of life can we have in this room?–this filthy little room. What kind of life can two men have together, anyway?” (Baldwin, 142) For a time, the room helps the two transgress societal norms that define what their relationship should be: a friendship. Instead, it gives them the opportunity to experience love, even if only because of the dark. David can finally experience the thoughts and emotions he has had to deny everywhere else and becomes so
His love is so great it would, ?grow vaster than empires? (11-12). Although Marvell tries to equate his love for his mistress to plants, his argument is undermined by a plant?s biological incapableness of contemplation and reciprocal physical affection. Nevertheless, the speaker continues his praises of love, but points out that there is not enough time for further praise because time is passing quickly.
Nathaniel Hawthorne, an American novelist, whose works show a deep consciousness of the ethical problems of sin and punishment. In “Rappaccini’s Daughter," Hawthorne uses science and symbols to narrate the story of a student called Giovanni Guasconti, who falls in love with Beatrice. Beatrice is a beautiful and mysterious young woman whose touch and breath becomes poisonous by the experiments of her father, the scientist Giacomo Rappaccini, and is unable to be a normal young woman. Through a series of experiments, Hawthorne uses science to drive the entire story and show the boundaries of ethics and morals in science by the use of literary devices of mood and symbolism to create an association with the tale of Adam and Eve in the Garden of
In the beginning of the story, Rappaccini is described as having an”emaciated, sallow, and sickly” face that “could never, even in his more youthful days have expressed much warmth of heart” (Hawthorne 3). The scientist is portrayed as having little regard for anything except his craft, even though he interactions with his flora are described as having “no approach of intimacy” (Hawthorne, 3). From a Romantic artist’s point of view there is little worse than having an emotionless connection to one’s work, which is why Hawthorne uses this detail to further revile Rappaccini’s character and his work. Near the end of the story Beatrice reveals her father’s inhumane experiment and tells the main character, Giovanni, that because of it she, too has become poisonous and is therefore unable to love him; She then swallows an antidote and tragically commits suicide (Hawthorne 27). By making Rappaccini the despised antagonist of the story, Hawthorne manages to villainize the subject of science as a whole as well as all of those who study
Hawthorne 's books are inspired and fascinate to read. They are full of science fiction and tail of fantasies. The female characters have to face many challenges in their lives due to their natures. The human morals and man ambition are clear in "The Birthmark" and "Rappaccini 's Daughter" on which the two stories are similar in away. The two stories appear to be similar because innocence characters have to suffer. The hiding meanings are deep within each character and in each story. The two stories maybe different; however, the moral behind the two stories are closely related. The female characters are pure at hearts and innocence just like nature. However, the male characters are like the devil that creeping upon what is natural and pure and destroy it. It is very clear to see that Hawthorne’s stories embrace the female characters and their beauties. On other hand, he reviews the males’ evil ambitions; they are only seeking for their own glories by using science in created and change nature. Indeed, without any doubt, each of the stories, the male characters caused their love ones to parish due to their evil ambitions.
Summary Baglioni comes to Giovanni to warn him of Beatrice and gives him an antidote to make her nonpoisonous. Baglioni also plants a seed of distrust for Beatrice in Giovanni’s brain. Giovanni bought flowers to bring to Beatrice then, seeing the healthy flowers had wilted in his hand, realized he too was poisonous. His distrust and anger for her grows, but when he confronts her about it she claims she just wanted to love him.
“Being only a daughter for my father meant my destiny would lead me to become someone’s wife”, like Sandra Cisneros illustrates in her essay “Only Daughter”, many women in the Mexican-American culture used to not have other choice in life, but to eventually become someone’s wife. Cisneros focuses on the lives of first and second generation Mexican American females. In her essay, she brings the reader her own life story to support the struggle that many Mexican-American women had to experience at the time the essay was written, and that can still be seen in modern society. In her essay, Cisneros effectively convinces her reader of the difficulties of growing as a female, more specifically, as an only daughter in a Mexican-American family of nine.
“Rappaccini’s Daughter,” written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, is a short story about how beauty is within and not just physical. When Hawthorne was four years old his father was in an accident and died on the scene, leaving his mother to raise him and his siblings alone. Thus, leading him to have respect for all women, and it is reflected in the story. For instance, the main character Beatrice is this aesthetic, sweet, and a naïve woman and Giovanni is just focused more on her beauty rather than anything else. Moreover, when Giovanni first sees Beatrice in the garden, he describes her as the most beautiful woman he’s ever seen and is just blinded by her beauty. What he doesn’t know is that her father, Doctor Rappaccini, is a scientist who cares more about science more than anything else. The place where Beatrice and Giovanni spend all their time together is in the garden, which represents loneliness’, and unfortunately one of the main characters will learn that the hard way. When Giovanni meets Professor Baglioni, a professor of medicine—who is Rappaccini’s rival— he helps him get Beatrice, or at least that’s what Giovanni thinks. However, what Giovanni does not know is that “the love of his life” isn’t who he thinks she is.