... of a Paduan noble desolate and ill-furnished- This description establishes a dark mood throughout the story. Hawthorne writes, "One of the ancestors of this family had been pictured by Dante as a partaker of the immortal agonies of his Inferno- The allusion of Dante refers to The Divine Comedy and the Inferno describes the souls in Hell. Furthermore, Baglioni converses with Giovanni in this mansion chamber and tries to manipulate him ... in his attempt to destroy Rappaccini. In a sense, the dark and gloomy mansion symbolizes the domain of evil. The second major setting is the garden. Th...

• Word Count: 514
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: Undergraduate