Rappaccinis Daughter

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Rappaccini's Daughter

In the literal sense, Nathaniel Hawthorn's Rappaccini's
Daughter is the story about the rivalry between two scientists that ultimately
causes the destruction of an innocent young woman. However, when the story is
examined on a symbolic level, the reader sees that Rappaccini's Daughter is an
allegorical reenactment of the original fall from innocence and purity in the
Garden of Eden. Rappaccini's garden sets the stage of this allegory, while the
characters of the story each represent the important figures from the Genesis
account. Through the literary devices of poetic and descriptive diction,
Nathaniel Hawthorne conveys the symbolism of these characters, as well as the
setting. The story takes place in mid-nineteenth century in Padua, Italy and
revolves around two major settings; the mansion of an old Paduan family, and
Rappaccini's lush garden. The mansion is described as, "high and
gloomy…the palace of a Paduan noble… desolate and ill-furnished…"
This description establishes a dark mood throughout the story. Hawthorne writes,
"One of the ancestors of this family…had been pictured by Dante as a
partaker of the immortal agonies of his Inferno…" The allusion of Dante
refers to The Divine Comedy and the Inferno describes the souls in Hell.
Furthermore, Baglioni converses with Giovanni in this mansion chamber and tries
to manipulate him in his attempt to destroy Rappaccini. In a sense, the dark and
gloomy mansion symbolizes the domain of evil. The second major setting is the
garden. The author uses poetic diction to describe Rappaccini's garden.
Hawthorne writes, "There was one shrub in particular…that bore a
profusion of purple blossoms, each of which had the luster and richness of a
gem…seemed enough to illuminate the garden, even had there been no
sunshine…some crept serpentlike along the ground or climbed on high…"
In this passage, the author depicts the liveliness and beauty of the garden in
an almost fantasy-like way, a fantasy too good to be true and destined to end
tragically. Hawthorne directly compares this beautiful garden to Eden when he
writes, "Was this garden, then the Eden of the present world?" Thus,
Rappaccini's garden symbolizes the setting of the initial fall of man. In
Rappaccini's Daughter, the original sinners, Adam and Eve, are represented by
Giovanni Guasconti and Beatrice Rappaccini. Giovanni symbolizes Adam in the
sense that he is shallow and insincere. When Giovanni first sees Beatrice, he is
love struck. H...

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