Rappaccini's Daughter Literary Analysis

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.

Fluids from one of the artificial blossoms dripped onto a colored reptile’s head, causing it to contort violently and pass away agonizingly. This imparts how science is able to devise potent materials capable of stripping organisms of their lives. A delicate winged insect was attracted by the heavy perfumes of the artificial flowers and was killed, suggesting that detrimental scientific discoveries can destroy innocence by luring unsuspecting individuals into its pitfall and annihilate them. The psychotic scientist, Giacomo Rappaccini, is described as a sickly, elderly man lacking warmth of hearth and wearing black clothing. This indicates that the process of making scientific improvements itself can be damaging to the scientist and can eliminate them of their morals, as black symbolizes evil which suits Rappaccini due to him seeking human test subjects. Once Beatrice realizes the enormity of the mischief imposed by Rappaccini, she promptly consumed the phial with the antidote and begins to fade away while having a desperate dialogue with Rappaccini and the main protagonist, Giovanni Guasconti. This implies that the disastrous effects of scientific advancement can have such a profound impact on an individual that he considers death or the potential of death as an alternative to escape the horrors of science. The startling descriptions of the negative aspects of

Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Birthmark” and “Rappaccini’s Daughter” are both fictional short stories written in the 1800s. Although these are two different scenarios, both tend to share several similarities. They deal with relationships between a man and woman, experiments, and ironically ends with a twist that readers don’t expect.

His desire for knowledge through scientific experimentation is the central purpose of his life. According to Baglioni "he cares infinitely more for science than for mankind". By binding his daughter to the poisonous garden Rappaccini had used his power as a scientist to take away her freedom. Beatrice has no power, she is helpless. "There was an awful doom...the effect of my father's fatal love of science, which estranged me from all society of my kind".  Unfortunately she is also the victim of Baglioni's quest for power and revenge against her father. Baglioni's power, convincing Giovanni that Beatrice could be saved, conquers even Rappaccini's control. In their obsessive pursuit of knowledge and power as a means of scientific control Rappaccini and Baglioni sacrifice Beatrice (and even Giovanni). They all overstep their boundaries by using her and only when she kills herself does Beatrice reclaim the power over her own life. In the pursuit of knowledge and power great sacrifices are made. But unlike "The Artist of the Beautiful" the person who makes the sacrifice (Beatrice) has no choice. She is punished and the men who would use her as a means of control in life are not.

It causes him to dismiss Beatrice’s deadly intoxication and believe it “an absolute necessity” (9) to pursue her. He enters the Garden of Hell through a secret entrance, “obey[ing] the law that whirled him onward, in ever lessening circles” (9). Giovanni journeys to the lowest level of Hell, where he commits the Original Sin, pursuing the forbidden fruit. He builds a relationship with Beatrice, spending hours with her; “a meeting with Beatrice in the garden was…the whole space in which he might be said to live” (13). He ignores a parabolic warning from Doctor Baglioni, an old friend, who tells him a story of a woman “nourished with poisons from her birth upward” (14), similar to Beatrice.

“Rappaccini’s Daughter” is indeed a unique story that could contain many messages, however, there are more reasons behind Nathanial Hawthorne’s character choice. Authors tend to have a motive or some sort of message behind their story, Hawthorne is not an exception. Another factor to take note of is how the story revolves around Rappaccini as according to Giovanni, his “demeanor was that of one walking among malignant influences, such as savage beats, or deadly snakes, or evil spirits” (Hawthorne 1142). Rappaccini was regarded as a “distrustful gardener” which suggests he was a man not to be trusted. Giovanni questions the suspicious demeanor of Rappaccini himself which suggests Hawthorne is perhaps trying to convey a message about doctors as well.

Nathaniel Hawthorne symbolizes the character ,Beatrice, as temptation in his novel, “Rappaccini's daughter”, through the viewpoint of Giovanni. This symbolism is evident from the start when he uses Giovanni’s view of ,“how much her beauty exceeded his recollection of it; so brilliant, so vivid in its character” to uncover the emotion of lust (Hawthorne 5). Giovanni is preemptively tempted by the beauty of Beatrice prior to their introduction to each other. By bringing forth the idea of Giovanni's lust for Beatrice early ,he introduces this ideology of temptation ,and allows himself to expand on it throughout the remainder. This temptation grows beyond belief in the text and eventually surmounts, “ to the pure and lovely daughter of Rappaccini

Francesca was married to a man named Gianciott, which was Paolo’s older brother. One day Francesca and Paolo where reading a book about a well-known love story. The words in the story where captivating to Paolo and Francesca so captivating that the book lead them to kiss each other. This kiss leads to the two falling in love and carrying on a deeper relationship that they thought was behind Gianciott’s back. Little did Paolo and Francesca know Gianciott saw the kiss and eventually violently killed them both. Francesca notes the fact that Gianciott is in a much lower part of hell. Paolo and Francesca where true lovers despite the fact that they sinned. After hearing the story Paolo starts to cry which touches Dante, and makes him feel bad for the

Hawthorne’s narrator acknowledges, “Whether Dr. Rappaccini had finish his labors in the garden or that his watchful eye had caught the stranger’s face, he now took his daughter arm and retired (Hawthorne 17).” When he notices Giovanni in the window he does not allow Beatrice out. She sneaks out one evening while her father went out into the garden and checks on the garden.

Famous for creating allegories throughout his works of literature, Nathaniel Hawthorne makes no except for Rappaccini’s Daughter. The plot begins with Giovanni Guasconti traveling to Padua, Italy in order to gain an education from the university there. He becomes a resident in a home next to a beautiful garden owned and cared for by a Signor Giacomo Rappaccini alongside his daughter, Beatrice. Giovanni is entranced by not only the beauty of the garden, but more importantly the beauty of Beatrice; both of which, he later finds out, are poisonous. The two meet in the garden everyday at about the same time. Eventually, Giovanni is informed by Signor Pietro Baglioni - a professor at the university and his father’s old friend - about Beatrice’s

“Rappacini’s Daughter” is a story based on a scientist who experiments on the border of madness and a forbidden love he causes.  Rappacini is a self obsessed scientist who wishes to grow his medical genius abilities  but exceeds the limits and is further seen as complete control and power. He brings disaster into his life when his daughter becomes a victim of the poisonous garden he has built. Giovanni a young student who stays in a lodge that overlooks the garden and falls in love with Beatrice, Rappacini’s daughter, at first sight. Baglioni,  Giovanni’s professor, then warns him of the dangers that come with Beatrice. Beatrice was poison that could kill Giovanni with one touch.  Giovanni could not hold back his love he continuously meets

people through the relationships of the story's main characters. The lovely and yet poisonous Beatrice, the

Though the two previously analyzed parabolic short stories assist in showing Hawthorne’s writing style and goals, the exegesis of his most convoluted and allegorical story, Rappaccini’s Daughter, truly accomplishes this exposition of Hawthorne’s work. In Padua, Italy, Giovanni Guasconti rents a room with a view of Dr. Rappaccini’s garden. He meets professor Dr. Pietro Baglioni, who tells Giovanni that be must be cautious of Rappaccini since he is heartless and cares only about his scientific work. Giovanni notices Rappaccini’s beautiful daughter, Beatrice, as falls in love. They meet with each other several times and Giovanni realizes he has become poisonous, as plants are dying in his hands. Baglioni reveals that Beatrice has grown up constantly exposed to poison and is poisonous herself, so he gives Giovanni a vial of medicine to give to Beatrice as a cure, but when she takes it she promptly dies. Literary critic Roy R. Male introduces the involved nature of the story and expresses, “This complexity manifests itself first in the objects of the garden, the ‘Eden’ of the present world” (Male). Just like The Birthmark, Rappaccini's Daughter tells of death caused by human pride, but this is trivial. The allegorical nature of this story lies in its biblical connection. Rappaccini's garden symbolizes the garden of Eden and the story and its characters directly follow that of the creation of man, the creation of sin and the breakage of worldly perfection. Giovanni represents Adam, Beatrice is Eve, Rappaccini plays God and Baglioni acts as Satan. Giovanni and Beatrice are Adam and Eve since they are two innocent characters who fall victim to the deception and sinful malicious intent of Baglioni. Rappaccini is God because his primary role is to create and construct. Since Hawthorne makes an allegorical link to the Garden of Eden, the story can be perceived in the context of the New Testament. Assuming the reader comprehends Hawthorne's connection, they are then able to interpret a much more involved story with greater insight. Rappaccini's Daughter can be interpreted as a parable, but can also be seen as the more complex allegory that it is. Further, Hawthorne exposes a duality in evil through his allegory. Male

Hawthorne’s short story Rappaccini 's daughter focuses on Dr. Rappaccini, a scientist and researcher interested

Dante, the pilgrim, meets a man in Purgatory named Marco Lombardo, and he explains to Dante how everyone has free will, and that, “intellect” (Dante, Purgatorio XVI. 80) is what frees him “from the heavens’ influence” (Dante, Purgatorio XVI. 81). Lombardo is telling Dante that the more intellectual knowledge one has, the more control one has over their own fate. Lombardo goes on to tell Dante that, “The spheres [are what] start your impulses along” (Purgatorio XVI. 73) and that the soul “turns eagerly to all that gives it pleasure” (Purgatorio XVI. 90). Thus, our souls are drawn towards beautiful and pleasurable things first, and in order to make sure that these beautiful things aren’t coming from a “simple soul” (Purgatorio XVI. 87), which will deceive, one must “guide its love to higher things” (Purgatorio XVI.93). But thankfully Lombardo reassures Dante that he is “headed the right way to reach the stair that leads above” (Purgatorio XVI. 49). By following his desire for Beatrice, he is on his way to the divine. The idea that love is what is leading Dante in the direction of heaven is evident in Lombardo’s words.