Science in Nathaniel Hawthorne's Rappaccini's Daughter

    In Nathaniel Hawthorne's classic The Scarlet Letter, nature plays a very important and symbolic role.  Hawthorne uses nature to convey the mood of a scene, to describe characters, and to link the natural elements with human nature.  Many of the passages that have to do with nature accomplish more than one of these ideas.  All throughout the book, nature is incorporated into the story line. The deep symbolism conveyed by certain aspects of nature helps the reader gain a deeper understanding of the plight and inner emotions of the characters in the novel.

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.

The authors of American Romanticism held a particular disdain for science, which they made visible through the aggressor characters in their short stories. Both aggressors wanted to do away with any imperfections in their environments, as they felt personally threatened by them. The younger man in The Tell-Tale Heart behaves in cold, calculated movements and dismembers the body of the old man like a butcher. In The Birth-Mark Aylmer, “a man of science,” uses science in order to create a concoction that will remove his wife’s birthmark. Of the potion Aylmer declares, “Unless all science have deceived me, it cannot fail,” (Hawthorne 428). The aggressors are severely flawed characters, who act on deranged impulses, but attempt to justify their actions rationally and

In Mary Shelley’s 1818 novel, ‘Frankenstein’, a recurring motif of ambition and the quest for knowledge is present among the characters of Victor Frankenstein, Robert Walton and the creature. Victor’s obsessive ambition is his fatal flaw, ruining his life and leading to the murder of his loved ones and eventually his own death. Robert Walton shares a similar ambition

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

“The Birthmark” is a short story authored by Nathaniel Hawthorne and published in 1848. The story is about Aylmer, a brilliant scientist who is obsessed with science and is planning to use his experiments to remove a birthmark on the face of his wife Georgiana. Aylmer’s love for science made him yearn to obtain control of the entire divinity. His wife was among his victims of science that was stronger in him than the love he had for Georgiana. Aylmer became blind to science to the extent that he could not realize that he was damaging his wife and putting his marriage at risk. It examines the obsession with science and human perfection that often cause problems if not controlled as seen in the story. Hawthorne’s aim with this tale was to warn its readers regarding the dangers of science and knowledge with the story, and this is analyzed below.

Nathaniel Hawthorne's short stories “Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment,” “Rappaccini’s Daughter,” and “The Birthmark,” reflect Hawthorne's beliefs of playing God and changing natural events. In these short stories, these scientists take the experiments too far. Taking these experiments too far would be to lose characters or consequently have the character die. The scientists Dr. Heidegger from “Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment,” Rappaccini from “Rappaccini’s Daughter,” and Aylmer from “The Birthmark” change natural events which lead to the loss of a character.

Thesis: In a world where knowledge is essential, it is often asked just how much intelligence is “safe”. In the story Frankenstein, Shelley expresses the idea that knowledge is power and this is shown through both despair and progress. This can easily be understood through the conclusion that science is almost always left up to chance even though it is thought to be a straight cut subject.

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein explores the concepts of knowledge and science and the dangers involved with the pursuit and investigation of these ideas. The novel conveys Shelley’s attitudes towards science by portraying it as having the capability to exceed the bounds of human restraint. Through the development of her protagonist Victor Frankenstein, the romantic and gothic aspects of her novel, the period of 1818 and the influences of the world she was living in that

In Nathaniel Hawthorne's short story "The Birthmark," there are many views on the need for science and its advances. Hawthorne's protagonist, Aylmer, illustrates his own personal assessment of science. The story is based on the idea that science can solve all of humanities ills and problems. Hawthorne believes that science is overrunning life. Aylmer is consumed by his passion of overtake Mother Nature. The story shows how Aylmer's passion leads to not only his downfall but that of his wife Georgiana as well. The belief that science can solve and do anything is one of ignorance because it totally disregards the human element of spirituality.

Women in today’s world use many scientific measures to look young, beautiful, and perfect. Some women even undergo surgeries to perfect their bodies. True natural beauty comes from within one’s self and not what is on the outside. While critics argue that Hawthorne’s “The Birth Mark,” “Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment,” and “Rappaccinni’s Daughter” stand as an overt commentary on nature vs. science, Hawthorne actually uses these works to explore personal familial connections.

Throughout history, people have made works of art both praising and criticizing the development of science and technology. The novel by Mary Shelley, Frankenstein, shows an older form of this type of work, while the film, Ex Machina, shows the modern version of this. In both of the stories a new being is created, and while in the film the consequences of creating life are somewhat more thought out, both result in the deaths of the creators and others. This paper is going to analyze how different aspects of these two pieces compare including: their characters, their stories, and the themes or morals of the works. Both Frankenstein and Ex Machina involve realizing the complexities of life. They highlight the strengths and weaknesses of man, and warn of the advancements of the sciences. While neither are outright saying that science and advancement is a bad thing, they warn of the consequences of new technologies as well as the lack of understanding and planning. In the end, both of these stories warn and teach the reader or viewer about the shortcomings of mankind.

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

“Here we find nature to be the circumstance which[…] judges like a god all men that come to her.” is one of the first statements by Ralph Waldo Emerson in his essay “Nature”, referring to nature’s role in romanticism. Nature, as well as science, are one of the main topics depicted in writings of the romantic period. Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein can be attached to these writings. Her novel implies many natural and scientific characteristics that approach throughout the novel and finally clash by Victor Frankenstein’s creation of the monster. The following essay states the importance of nature and science in Frankenstein and argues that Frankenstein’s monster is a personalization of the danger involved in connecting both nature and science.

Given the deep ties to nature that Mary Shelley explores within Frankenstein, the principles and methodology of ecocriticism can be applied in many different ways. The interaction of humanity and nature is a concept explored throughout the novel, relating directly to a core tenet of ecocriticism, "directly relat[ing] who we are as human beings to the environment" (Bressler 231). Being as there is no "single, dominant methodology" (235) within ecocriticism, the extent to which we can use ecocriticism to interact with Frankenstein contains considerable depth. However, I will look to a few main methodologies of ecocriticism to look at Frankenstein in detail to uncover how the novel deals with the changing attitudes of humanity and nature in