Rappaccini's Daughter Short Story Analysis Essay

📌Category: Literature
📌Words: 1072
📌Pages: 4
📌Published: 20 April 2022

“Rappaccini’s Daughter” is a short story written by Nathaniel Hawthorne that is an allegory of the Genisis story of the Garden of Eden and original sin. This story is about a scientist who is doing experiments on his daughter in an attempt to give her defenses against people who might try to hurt her. But, when she finds a guy that she likes and starts to get closer to him, he is also affected by these experiments as both of them are now poisoned. She does not know that her father has poisoned her and therefore she did this unknowingly and unwillingly. There is an antidote given to them and the daughter says she will take it first to make sure it is safe. Soon after she takes the antidote, she dies and her father is the only one to blame because it is directly the cause of his experiment that she is now dead. Hawthorne uses many examples throughout the work to demonstrate how sinful mankind is and how every person is a sinner. He also represents the Garden of Eden along with Adam and Eve. Hawthorne portrays original sin in this work with Rappaccini’s garden as the Garden of Eden, Giovanni and Beatrice as Adam and Eve, and how all of humankind is sinful. 

In this work, Hawthorne uses Rappaccini’s garden as a symbol for the Garden of Eden. When Giovanni asked Lisabetta about the garden, she told him that it was owned by a famous doctor named Giacomo Rappaccini and that many strange flowers that inhabit the garden. The Garden of Eden likewise had many different variations of fruit in it when God planted it. Each had a forbidden plant in the garden, the plant in Rappaccini’s garden was poisoned by Rappaccini himself, while the forbidden plant in the Garden of Eden was prohibited because God deemed it was. The poison that Rappaccini is experimenting with on his daughter can very closely be related to the forbidden fruit which Adam and Eve ate. The serpent in the Garden of Eden is mirrored in Rappaccini as both are the villains of their respective stories. The serpent is the one who convinces Eve to eat the forbidden fruit, and Rappaccini is the one who is poisoning his daughter. Hawthorne even asks the question in the text, “Was this garden, then, the Eden of the present world?” (408). With all of the similarities that are presented in the work, it is 

very reasonable for the reader to conclude that Rappaccini’s garden is a representation of the Garden of Eden. 

Hawthorne also uses Giovanni and Beatrice to represent Adam and Even in this work. Giovanni embodies Adam as they are both young men who love a young woman and that ends up being the downfall of both. Giovanni notices Beatrice after her father calls for her, “Soon there emerged from under a sculptured portal the figure of a young girl, arrayed with as much richness of taste as the most splendid of the owers, beautiful as the day, and with a bloom so deep and vivid that one shade more would have been too much” (Hawthorne, 408). When Giovanni meets Beatrice, he does not know that she is poisoned and ends up being around her for an extended time. That eventually leads to him becoming poisoned as well because of her father. Adam was alone on the earth until God created Eve and Adam was stunned by her beauty and fell in love with her. Eve ultimately gives Adam the forbidden fruit and he eats it, even though he knows that he is not supposed to. The fact that both loved and trusted women is the reason for their undoing. Beatrice epitomizes Eve because they are both the sweet and innocent women in both stories. While Beatrice and Eve are gentle and beautiful, they are also the reason that Giovanni and Adam get put into poor situations. Beatrice does not know that she is poisoned, so she does not let Giovanni get poisoned on purpose, but it is still because of her that he does. Eve does not know that the fruit is bad, so she gives it to Adam and told him to eat it. While it is not either one’s fault that these instances occurred, they are still the direct reason that they did. Giovanni and Beatrice mimic the story of Adam and Eve very well as they are Hawthorne’s attempt to recreate the Garden of Eden story. 

All of this story illustrates how mankind is sinful and that everyone is a sinner. Rappaccini is sinning in Hawthorne’s work by being selfish and poisoning his daughter as well as Giovanni. Rappaccini tries to explain to Beatrice why he poisoned her by saying, “What mean you, foolish girl? Dost thou deem it misery to be endowed with marvelous gifts, against which no power nor strength could avail an enemy?” (Hawthorne, 425). Rappaccini seeks to justify his sins by alluding that he was just trying to help her, but instead, he handicaps her because nobody can get close to her. He thinks that he knows what is best for Beatrice, but she does not agree and declares, “I would fain have been loved, not feared” (Hawthorne, 425). She is stating that she would rather be loved and be a normal person, rather than be someone that society fears. Everyone on earth sins whether they think they do or not, and Hawthorne displays this with a father who thinks he is only helping his daughter but is instead harming her. Beatrice does not know that she is poisoned and therefore does not know that Giovanni is being poisoned because of her. This is just another example of sinning when one does not mean to or knows they are sinning. 

Hawthorne uses many examples in this work to symbolize the Garden of Eden. From Rappaccinin’s garden as an imitation of the Garden of Eden to Adam and Eve being characterized by Giovanni and Beatrice, Hawthorne’s work shows many similarities to the Genesis story. Hawthorne also utilizes characters to show how mankind is sinful and how sometimes people do not even realize the sins they are committing. With Rappaccini thinking he is benefiting Beatrice he is preventing her from being loved by most, and Beatrice unwillingly poisoning Giovanni, this shows that people can sin without meaning or wanting to.  The setting of both stories is in a garden with a forbidden plant and the two main characters are a man and a woman who love each other, and that leads to their undoing. The plant in Hawthorne’s work is a poisoned flower, while it is a forbidden tree in the Garden of Eden story.  Both stories have villains who are the reason that these acts of sin occur. Hawthorne’s work is an allegory and is modeled after the Garden of Eden story, to show the original sin of Adam and Eve.

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