A Selection of Short Stories &

One Act Plays

(Compiled by Irfan Raza & Dedicated to my
beloved father & Nauman Athar)

02: Rappaccinis Daughter by Nathaniel

Hawthorne
General Introduction:

Rappaccini's Daughter" is one of the most famous works of Nathaniel Hawthorne

written in 1844 and published in the Mosses. It is a scientific fantasy in which a
great scientist cares infinitely more for science than for mankind and would
sacrifice human life, his own, or whatever else was dearest to him for the sake of
adding mustard seed to the great heap of his accumulated knowledge.

Main Idea of the Story:

It is suffice to say that like The Birthmark, and The Great Carbuncle
Nathaniel Hawthorne, in the story, suggests that scientists in their intellectual pride
might destroy the natural blessings that God has provided.
Plot Analysis:

Dr. Rappaccini develops a scientific formula by which certain poisons infiltrate his
daughters system and make her immune to them. But at the same time, they
make Beatrice, his daughter, very touch deadly to anyone else. Unaware of this
fact, a young student, Giovanni falls in love with her beauty but happens to watch
her in the garden when she touches the flowers making them wither in her grasp.
Stunned and bewildered, he tries to strengthen a conviction that if there is
something truer and more real than that what we can see with the eyes
and touch with finger.

The Story has a double plot: One of Dr. Rappaccinis myopic fascination with
science through its novel experimentation and his selfish inhuman way of
sacrificing even his daughter and himself to see his experimentation successful.
This has put the natural and innocent up against the inhuman and callous. The
other plot is of the love of Beatrice and Giovanni which displays sincerity,
innocence, and natural emotions. It is a plot in which the lovers meet a tragedy at
the end when Beatrice dies and leaves a powerful sense of compassion to the
reader in the face of the morbidity (An abnormally gloomy or unhealthy state of mind) of the successful
experimentation.

Conclusion:
To conclude we can say that persistent is a dangerous intersection between nature
and man. This persistence of Rappaccini brings a tragic end to a seemingly love
story. Instead of perfecting nature or making it better Rappaccini uses science to
demonize nature just to add to his pride.

Questions: 1) Theme of the story 2) Criticism on Wrong application of science 3)

Moral Lesson of the story 4) Message of the Story 5) Story as a fantasy 6) A tragic
love story 7) This story as an Irony 8) Character Sketch of Beatrice 9) Character
sketch of Rappaccini 10) Character Sketch of Baglioni 11) Incidents of Horror

Answers:

Questions (01 to 07) = (G.I. + Main Idea + Plot Analysis + Conclusion)

Questions (08) = (G.I. + Plot Analysis + Following

Paragraph)

The whole atmosphere of the story is filled with a mysterious feeling full of distrust
and insecurity. The most nave looking girl turns out to be poisonous at the end.
The love destroys the life of the hero and anti-poison kills the poisonous maiden. All
these things embody a deep irony in the story everything looks opposite to what it
really is. The irony and pathos lie in the fact that Dr. Rappaccini, a scientist, should
be working for the philanthropic purposes serving the mankind but instead he is
working for his personal glory. He is interested in the sick people "only as subject of
some new experiment".
Just for Reading
Short Summary:

The story is set in Padua, Italy, in a distant and unspecified past. An outsider young
student, Giovanni falls in love with a young girl, Beatrice who lives in his
neighbourhood. Beatrice father, Rappaccini is a scientist and brings up his
daughter to tend the plants. Beatrice becomes resistant to the poisons, but in the
process she herself becomes poisonous to others. Having become the victim of
Beatrices poisonous company, Giovanni wants to purge her evil disease in order to
be with her. He brings an antidote which subsequently kills Beatrice.
Summary:

The story is set in Padua, Italy, in a distant and unspecified past. From his quarters,
Giovanni Guasconti, a young student of letters, at the University of Padua, looks at
Beatrice, the beautiful daughter of Dr. Giacomo Rappaccini, a scientist who works
in isolation.
Beatrice is confined to the lush and locked gardens, which are filled with poisonous
plants grown by her father. Giovanni notices Beatrice's strangely intimate
relationship with the plants as well as the withering of fresh flowers and the death
of an insect when exposed to her skin or breath. Having fallen in love, Giovanni
enters the garden and meets with Beatrice a number of times, while ignoring his
mentor, Professor Pietro Baglioni, who warns him that Rappaccini is devious and
that he and his work should be avoided.
Giovanni discovers that Beatrice, having been raised in the presence of poison, is
poisonous herself. Beatrice urges Giovanni to look past her poisonous exterior and
see her pure and innocent essence, creating great feelings of doubt in Giovanni. He
begins to suffer the consequences of his encounters with the plants and with
Beatrice when he discovers that he himself has become poisonous. After another
meeting with Baglioni, Giovanni brings a powerful antidote to Beatrice so that they
can be together, but the antidote kills Beatrice rather than cure her of her
poisonous nature.
Forced to omit the following out:

(Definition of) Fantasy is a fiction genre that uses magic or other supernatural
elements as a main plot element, theme, or setting. Science fiction is also a type of
imaginative literature. It provides a mental picture of something that may happen
on realistic scientific principles and facts.

The story gives suggestion to the productive and destructive powers of scientific
discovery, evil against good, love and lust, fantasy and reality. But

He might be wrong but then how can he possibly deny a truth, a beauty, an
innocence, the best and the most powerful values and gifts of life, even though
under the influence of evil so much prevalent on our lives.

"Rappaccini's Daughter" is not only an imaginative fantasy but also a moral bearing
love story that has tragic ending.

Quotes:

I will drink it, but do you await the result. [Love Story - Tragic]

What is this being? Beautiful, shall I call her or terrible? [Love and Hate
Relation]

I would rather have been loved, not feared [Love and Hate relation,
Tragic, Love]

Rappaccini!, Rappaccini! And is this the result of your experiment! [Terror,

Science, Horror]

He care(s) more for science than mankind. [Evil use of Science, Evil
Scientist, Criticism]

Give me your breath, my sister, for I am faint with common air. [Irony &
Fantasy]
My Father, why did you bring this terrible fate upon your child? [Evil
use of Science, Obsession]