Rappaccinis Daughter - Ambiguous Essay example - 1360 Words

Rappaccini’s Daughter - Ambiguous Hawthorne’s Rappaccini’s Daughter is a Gothic romance and a thwarted, almost-allegory with a plethora of ambiguous meanings. As Hawthorne identifies in the previous quote, this story is a blatant parallel towards the story of Original Sin. The issue, then, lies in the representation. Who is playing Adam and Eve? Who is Satan and who is God? At first glance it is easy to assume that the two love birds, Giovanni and Beatrice, are Adam and Eve; while Beatrice’s black cloaked father is Satan, and God is either an omniscient overseer, represented in nature, or absent from the story all together. However, Hawthorne begins the endless possibilities of role assignments by suggesting that Beatrice’s†¦show more content†¦Rappaccini’s Daughter begs to be an allegory of the fall story but will never succeed. Instead, it is a sort of perverse reenactment where the actors and actress could not decide on their roles and properly get into character. Rappac cini is God and Satan/serpent. As God, he has created an immaculate garden and a daughter of the like. Only, his quasi-Eden is filled with the deadliest flowers which nurture his poisonous daughter. It is an evil mockery of beauty. Beatrice, as a sort of noble savage, faces her demise as the result of his hideous and inhumane creation; possibly the tragic result of a man trying to be God. Rappaccini is also Satan in his sinister nature. He chooses experimentation and knowledge over life and has created a deadly anti-nature; a microcosm and it’s heroine that can never be acclimated to the natural world. In doing so, Rappaccini has chosen destruction through creation where there is a complete void of love, only passion for his work of science. The ideas of Rappaccini owning and creating the garden as God or having innately evil intentions as the Devil are more suited towards his nature than Hawthorne’s insinuation of him as Adam. In the garden of Eden, the serpent tempted Eve with the fruit of the tree of knowledge; an apple, of which both Adam and Eve tasted. The garden has already been established asShow MoreRelated Rappaccini’s Daughter - Women Essay2819 Words   |  12 PagesWomen and â€Å"Rappaccini’s Daughter†Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚        Ã‚  Ã‚   What are the attitudes of the young medical school student in Hawthorne’s tale, â€Å"Rappaccini’s Daughter,† toward women; of the author toward women; of   other characters in the story toward women? Are women involved in basic plot development? This essay intends to answer these and other questions about women in the short story.    Beatrice, Dr. Rappaccini’s daughter, is the prime motivating force in the story. Giovanni’s love for the beautifulRead MoreSelf Deception : A To Mankind1816 Words   |  8 Pagesa veil over their own eyes, they see what they want to see, and that this causes them to both destroy themselves, and what they love most. I believe that this theme of self-deception is prominent in Hawthorne’s short stories, particularly â€Å"Rappaccini’s Daughter†, and just as Giovanni ignored the signs and warnings surrounding Beatrice thereby allowing himself to be warped by the cruel and cunning Rappaccini, just as Adam and Eve deceived themselves in the Garden of Eden, all men are susceptible toRead MoreEssay The Allegory of Young Goodman Brown2233 Words   |  9 Pagesmidnight. R. W. B. Lewis states: For Hawthorne, the forest was neither the proper home of the admirable Adam, as with Cooper; nor was it the hideout of the malevolent adversary. . . . It was the ambi guous setting of moral choice, the scene of reversal and discovery. . . . †(74-75). Lewis’ term â€Å"ambiguous† is relected by another critic, who thinks that Hawthorne’s type of allegory is not so clearly and thoroughly presented that it answers all the reader’s questions: Sculley Bradley, Richmond CroomRead More Deep Allegory in Hawthornes Young Goodman Brown Essay2351 Words   |  10 Pagesmidnight. R. W. B. Lewis states: For Hawthorne, the forest was neither the proper home of the admirable Adam, as with Cooper; nor was it the hideout of the malevolent adversary. . . . It was the ambiguous setting of moral choice, the scene of reversal and discovery. . . . †(74-75). Lewis’ term â€Å"ambiguous† is selected by another critic, who thinks that Hawthorne’s type of allegory is not so clearly and thoroughly presented that it answers all the reader’s questions: Sculley Bradley, Richmond Croom