A Little Review about Rappaccine’s Daughter Rappaccine’s Daughter is a gothic story written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, in 1846. The story has several elements that are important features in Gothic literature such as the “crazy” scientific, the relevance of the emotions, and the mystery place in which the story is develop. First, the scientific part is well exemplified with Rappaccine; he is a scientific who loves science too much that decided to use his daughter Beatrice for experimenting. He does not care the important of humanity; he only thinks in science. The reader can see this in Beatrice’s life style; she lives alone and represents a danger to other living beings with only smelling her or touching her, including the protagonist Giovanni. Also, Rappaccini spends almost his whole life doing experiments because he believes in science as something that has the power to change humanity, drastically. Science represents power and the Scientifics in in those stories pretend to be God creating new living beings; however, at the end the consequences are someone’s death, Beatrice’s death in this case. Second, emotions and feelings are important and well develop during the whole story. Giovanni, the protagonist, falls in love with Beatrice because of her beauty. Due to this reason, he ignores the situation that is happening at that moment, and Giovanni only thinks in Beatrice. Rappaccinni wants to experiment with the protagonist and Giovanni does not think in the danger and consequences of it. He knows that she can hurt him; however, he tries to believe that it is part of his imagination and they can be lovers. As in many stories, beauty in women represents danger; a beautiful woman is a weakness for a man. In this case, Beatrice can kill Giovanni only with her poisonous fragrance. Rappaccini takes advantage of the blind love and start to experiment with the couple. Only at the end of the story, the protagonist is able to realize the truth forgetting all the feelings and emotions he feels for his beloved Beatrice and save himself. In addition, this beauty in women can represent sin as in the bible story of Adam and Eve or danger as in fairytales. The third point is the mystery place is which the story takes place. Rappaccini’s Daughter takes place in a house in the countryside. The place is beautiful, but quieter than normal. This situations gives a powerful mystery to the story. The garden is a place full of magic and mystery, the perfect ingredients for an unpredictable story. The description about the secret road to the garden is very powerful and makes the readers believe in magic and mystery. Additionally, the garden of the story can represent Adam and Eve’s garden, too beautiful and magical in with something bad was the result of disobey the rules of God and nature. Finally, I believe this is a wonderful story in which these features make it into an amazing one. The combination of elements and the way the story is telling is good. Also, I like that the ending of the story is unpredictable; it is totally different to a great number of stories of this genre in which the main character dies. Besides, the fact that the main character does not die and faces the situation makes this story very special and marvelous. This is one of the gothic stories that I liked more because of the plot and its characters.
The author compared Rappaccini's garden with the Garden of Eden, which according to the Christian tradition, is the place where the sin was born in humans. Is it possible to say that the poison represented the sin or anything dark that is inside us and that it is inherent to human life; therefore, there is no human life without that dark side? Is it that the reason why Beatrice died when she drank the antidote for her poison?
Jenyfer's comments about how the motif of the beautiful woman as dangerous is one of the main topics in the story is very accurate. As for the comments on the garden written by both Jenyfer and Arturo, yes, ANY garden setting in literature should make you think automatically about the Garden of Eden and by extension, about issues of temptation and sin. Very good comments from both of you.
Nathaniel describes the nature as divine and sacred in opposition to science which attempts to destroy the natural course. Science is knowledge which seems to be punished with the tragedies by a special power or greater being (God.) Thus, Knowledge is the sin, in my opinion, that is been punished in the story.
Comparing Beatrice with a flower seems a wise use of metaphor. Both of them are beautiful but full of evil (in the story.) The fact of going to extremes represents the way we behave as human beings; it is not easy to maintain a balance. This leads us to think about the idea of good and evil. Are we born good and then we are just part of an experiment? There is nothing that can be so perfect, and this is represented through Beatrice.
A Little Review about Rappaccine’s Daughter
ReplyDeleteRappaccine’s Daughter is a gothic story written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, in 1846. The story has several elements that are important features in Gothic literature such as the “crazy” scientific, the relevance of the emotions, and the mystery place in which the story is develop. First, the scientific part is well exemplified with Rappaccine; he is a scientific who loves science too much that decided to use his daughter Beatrice for experimenting. He does not care the important of humanity; he only thinks in science. The reader can see this in Beatrice’s life style; she lives alone and represents a danger to other living beings with only smelling her or touching her, including the protagonist Giovanni. Also, Rappaccini spends almost his whole life doing experiments because he believes in science as something that has the power to change humanity, drastically. Science represents power and the Scientifics in in those stories pretend to be God creating new living beings; however, at the end the consequences are someone’s death, Beatrice’s death in this case. Second, emotions and feelings are important and well develop during the whole story. Giovanni, the protagonist, falls in love with Beatrice because of her beauty. Due to this reason, he ignores the situation that is happening at that moment, and Giovanni only thinks in Beatrice. Rappaccinni wants to experiment with the protagonist and Giovanni does not think in the danger and consequences of it. He knows that she can hurt him; however, he tries to believe that it is part of his imagination and they can be lovers. As in many stories, beauty in women represents danger; a beautiful woman is a weakness for a man. In this case, Beatrice can kill Giovanni only with her poisonous fragrance. Rappaccini takes advantage of the blind love and start to experiment with the couple. Only at the end of the story, the protagonist is able to realize the truth forgetting all the feelings and emotions he feels for his beloved Beatrice and save himself. In addition, this beauty in women can represent sin as in the bible story of Adam and Eve or danger as in fairytales. The third point is the mystery place is which the story takes place. Rappaccini’s Daughter takes place in a house in the countryside. The place is beautiful, but quieter than normal. This situations gives a powerful mystery to the story. The garden is a place full of magic and mystery, the perfect ingredients for an unpredictable story. The description about the secret road to the garden is very powerful and makes the readers believe in magic and mystery. Additionally, the garden of the story can represent Adam and Eve’s garden, too beautiful and magical in with something bad was the result of disobey the rules of God and nature. Finally, I believe this is a wonderful story in which these features make it into an amazing one. The combination of elements and the way the story is telling is good. Also, I like that the ending of the story is unpredictable; it is totally different to a great number of stories of this genre in which the main character dies. Besides, the fact that the main character does not die and faces the situation makes this story very special and marvelous. This is one of the gothic stories that I liked more because of the plot and its characters.
The author compared Rappaccini's garden with the Garden of Eden, which according to the Christian tradition, is the place where the sin was born in humans. Is it possible to say that the poison represented the sin or anything dark that is inside us and that it is inherent to human life; therefore, there is no human life without that dark side? Is it that the reason why Beatrice died when she drank the antidote for her poison?
ReplyDeleteJenyfer's comments about how the motif of the beautiful woman as dangerous is one of the main topics in the story is very accurate. As for the comments on the garden written by both Jenyfer and Arturo, yes, ANY garden setting in literature should make you think automatically about the Garden of Eden and by extension, about issues of temptation and sin. Very good comments from both of you.
ReplyDeleteNathaniel describes the nature as divine and sacred in opposition to science which attempts to destroy the natural course.
ReplyDeleteScience is knowledge which seems to be punished with the tragedies by a special power or greater being (God.)
Thus, Knowledge is the sin, in my opinion, that is been punished in the story.
Comparing Beatrice with a flower seems a wise use of metaphor. Both of them are beautiful but full of evil (in the story.) The fact of going to extremes represents the way we behave as human beings; it is not easy to maintain a balance. This leads us to think about the idea of good and evil. Are we born good and then we are just part of an experiment? There is nothing that can be so perfect, and this is represented through Beatrice.
ReplyDelete