Rappaccini’s Daughter Essay: The Irony

The Romantic era began in 1770, with its peak being from 1800 to 1850. With emphasis on the imagination and emotion, Romanticism emerged as a result of the Enlightenment period, which heavily placed values upon reason and order. Thus, Romanticism depends heavily on “the practical accomplishments of the prior un-Romantic era— a relationship between material wealth and scientific knowledge on one hand, and personal, spiritual, or emotional transcendence on the other, that twenty-first century Americans continue to manage.” The simplest explanation for what is Romantic is “‘anything but the here and now’ or whatever is not realistic” (“Romanticism”). The

Nathaniel Hawthorne is one of the greatest American authors of the nineteenth century. He published his first novel Fanshawe, in 1828. However, he is widely known for his novels The Scarlet Letter and The House of Seven Gables. His novel, The Scarlet Letter, can be analyzed from historical, psychological and feminist critical perspectives by examining his life from the past, as well as his reflections while writing The Scarlet Letter. In order to understand the book properly, it’s necessary to use these three perspectives.

Elisa not having any attention is in her gardening area when a mysterious man approaches her. Elisa is interested in this man. The man wants to fix something for Elisa but her being so strong she refused. So the man changes the tactics and shows interest in her Chrysanthemums. Elisa not being complemented about her Gardner and now someone says something so she begins to act differently toward the pot mender. She becomes attracted to this man and wants to do more then just be a gardener. The pot mender says something about her flowers and she feels appreciated. The pot mender leaves and her husband is ready to go out with her for diner, she now has confidence to go out.

She can’t fully comprehend why she detests these flowers, and so all she knows is that they “did not make sense to her.” The child in her only has insight into her own world, and not into the worlds of others around her. Despite the marigolds being too troublesome for her to understand, she remains ignorant and does not try to seek any further meaning behind them. With Lizabeth in this naïve state, she has not yet felt the conflict between the child and the woman in her; she’s too ignorant at this point to attempt to develop an understanding for Miss Lottie and her flowers. After Lizabeth and the other kids launch the first attack on the marigolds, invoking great rage in Miss Lottie, Lizabeth feels a sudden urge to antagonize the old woman even further. Chanting vicious phrases at her, Lizabeth feels that she, “lost [her] head entirely, mad with the power of inciting such rage [in Miss Lottie].” Lizabeth has been taken over by a childish sense of pride after provoking Miss Lottie, showing her selfishness and lack of compassion. Being the child that she is, Lizabeth decides to further irritate Miss Lottie, only thinking about herself and how to ease her boredom. She is only concerned about her own little world. This sudden act of cruelty to Miss Lottie reveals

Nathaniel Hawthorne was one of the representatives of the Dark Romanticism genre. The cultural and literal context, stylistic features and main themes of the Hawthorne’s short story The Birthmark will be discussed in this essay.

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.

One of William Shakespeare’s most renown plays, set in Verona where two young star-crossed lovers; Romeo and Juliet met in tragedy as their family feud bound their love within solemn hatred. The Montagues and the Capulets are two families of equal powers who’s prolonged bitter quarrel leads to the tragic death of these two lovers, and by their love reconciled the family’s hatred. Love is a predominant theme within this novel portrayed through the eyes of Romeo and Juliet, however, the maternal endearment between Juliet and her nurse can not be denied.

Rappacini's character shows that he is willing to put science before his family by giving Beatrice to science for the gain of power “Rappacini cares infinitely more for science than for mankind.” (Roy R. Male, 1954) . Both characters have to lust for greater power, which blinds them from their mortal being and flaws that can become of the experiments “The fountain symbolizes man’s potential spiritual perfection, the shattered base his mortal clay.” (Roy R. Male, 1954). Though they are striving for potential perfect Aylmer and Rappacini, both will be destroyed when achieving

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.

Each man only saw what he wanted to see regarding Beatrice, and for Giovanni, it was most complex. Her father probably had good intentions when he caused his daughter to be poisonous. He did it as a means of protection, but this backfired, because the tendency of others to misunderstand Beatrice's complex makeup led them to unintentionally kill her. Each of the three men in Rappaccinni's Daughter wanted to mold Beatrice into something and each had his own idea of her identity, yet none of them looked at her subjectively. This is pointed out by Luedtke on page 188. "When he (Giovanni) was unable to bring Beatrice 'rigidly and systematically' within the realm of his own experience, and unwilling to risk a closer knowledge, Giovanni left the poison-damsel to die in her own pleasure-place." It is interesting to note Luedtke's use of the words "pleasure-place". This suggests that the poisonous garden was not the real problem or prison for Beatrice. An interesting point is revealed by Luedtke as he states, "The author makes a late attempt to intertwine her poison and her purity, but the demonic and the angelic continue to occupy their separate spheres, the former of the body, the latter of the soul. As Baglioni's antidote takes effect, eradicating the poison from Beatrice's system, her physical life is consumed. The soul might be innocent but it has no resting place."(181) If Beatrice's soul had no

Certain rumors spread into town characterize her as a highly educated young woman. We find evidence in that sense from Doctor Baglioni, another character in the story: "Rappaccini is said to have instructed her deeply in his science, and that, young and beautiful as fame reports her, she is already qualified to fill a professor's chair"(Hawthorne 878). But the truth is that, as she confesses later in the story, she knows nothing about the science of botany that her father is involved in; actually, she is only familiar with the flower's "hues and perfumes"( Hawthorne 883). She practically knows as much as a child of small age would; her education also lacks any form of interaction experience with the society. Hawthorne presents her father, Doctor Rappaccini, as her only companion of life. Her reason for isolation is related to her father's overprotective attitude towards his only child. Rappaccini raises her in the neighborhood of poisonous flowers, making her immune to them, but also transforming her into a source of poison. Beatrice is aware of the poison that she exudes; thus she becomes indirectly isolated from the rest of the world by her father. The deadly attribute Beatrice possesses places a social safeguarding wall around her.

In stark comparison to his ancestors, his life was relatively normal; he was married with children and spent his days doing what he loved the most, writing. Hawthorne would often draw from his own personal understandings or beliefs, just as he did when he wrote “but the past was not dead” in “The Custom House”. It was evident that Hawthorne’s Puritan past was alive within him, and even after his death in 1864; it continued to live on forever in the pages of his books.

Hawthorne’s work takes America’s Puritan past as its subject, but The Scarlet Letter uses the material to the greatest effect. The Puritans were

daughter of the scientist Rappaccini, is the central figure of the story, while her neighbor Giovanni becomes the observer, participant, and interpreter of the strange events that transpire within the garden next door. It is Giovanni's inability to understand these events that eventually leads to Beatrice's death. Giovanni sees things that are either all good or all bad. While he is quick to judge Beatrice, he is unable to examine his own motives and thoughts. During the story,

At the beginning of the story, Hawthorne establishes a dark mood when describing the ancestors who were occupying the mansion “pictured by Dante as a partaker of the immortal agonies of his Inferno” (Hawthorne). This allusion refers to the “Divine Comedy” and the Inferno, which tells Dante’s journey through hell. This story also alludes to the tale of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, in which the prominent figures disobey God and they end up being cast out of Eden, the paradise. One of the parts in the story of “Rappaccini’s Daughter” that alludes the tale of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden is when Giovanni thinks “was this garden, then, the Eden of the present world?” about Rappaccini’s botanical garden (Hawthorne). In addition, Beatrice can be associated with Eve because, despite the fact that her body is corrupted by her father and becomes poisonous, her soul always remains pure and clean. With her beauty, Beatrice enamors Giovanni and poisons him slowly unintentionally with her breath and essence of the violet flower. Beatrice does not know that she can poison Giovanni because she is imprisoned in the garden, as Beatrice says to Giovanni, “the effect of my father’s fatal love of science, which estranged me from all society of my kind” (Hawthorne). Giovanni is not really in love with Beatrice because he convinces her to drink the