Rappaccini's Daughter by Nathaniel Hawthorne

The garden is the microcosm in which the action takes place. Finally, she is a lesson emphasizing the necessity of faith in order to survive. Her relationships with the other characters illustrate the “lurid intermixture” found in humanity.

In some ways, she is the epitome of the duality of humanity, containing both vile physicality and divine spirituality. Beatrice, or Rappaccini’s daughter, is an extension of the garden. All these are studied in the microcosm of Rappaccini’s garden. Significant components of existence are included: science, and its relation to God love, its faith, its truth, and its power innocence and maturity and beauty. Good and evil alike are discovered and examined here, evil being the more evident of the two poles. Containing elements of both the sensual and the spiritual, the body and the soul, physical and spiritual reality, this neutral territory is an ideal ground for the exploration of the “commixture” of these dual aspects of humanity. Nathaniel Hawthorne explicates this “lurid intermixture” in several manners throughout “Rappaccini’s Daughter.” With his characteristic ambivalence toward his subject and ambiguous treatment of themes, Hawthorne draws the characters of “Rappaccini’s Daughter” into the “neutral territory” of his Romance. Writing Objective: Write an analysis of a story or topic not discussed in class.īlessed are all simple emotions, be they dark or bright! It is the lurid intermixture of the two that produces the illuminating blaze of the infernal regions (563). Beyond the Limits of Ordinary Experience: Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “Rappaccini’s Daughter” By Ann Sobiech '91

Rappaccini's Daughter by Nathaniel Hawthorne