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Rappaccini's Daughter

 

            "Was this garden, then, the Eden of the present World?" The short story, Rappaccini's Daughter, by the American romantic, Nathaniel Hawthorne, begins with suggestions that the garden of the hands of Signor Giacomo Rappaccini symbolizes the Garden of Eden. It is in this garden that symbolizes Beatrice as the eve in the Garden of Eden. Beating relates to Eve because she is also a sinner, she is born with original sin, she's poisonous. Beatrice also attracts and persuades Giovanni, who represents Adam. This is one of the ways in which Hawthorne suggests that everyone is said to have committed a sin. Because links can be established between the main characters and sinful acts, it is said that this work of Hawthorne is a puritanical allegory, pointing at the sin in everyone. .
             The "Garden of Eden" is full of plants and flowers, all cultivated by Doctor Rappaccini. Rappaccini offers assiduous care to every plants and herbs, and "he distils these plants into medicines that are as potent as a charm." However, not all of these plants are meant to be used as medicines, and these plants are not ordinary plants. These plants, which are said to be poisonous, are subjects for his new experiment. He "produce[s] new varieties of poison, more horribly deleterious than Nature." Thus Rappaccini creates, something only God is allowed to do. Not only does he create these plants, but also the narrator suggest that Beatrice is also created poisonous by her father. Rappaccini takes on the role in which God is meant to play, thus Rappaccini is a sinner. This act of sin triggers others to also become a sinner, most noticeably, Beatrice. .
             Beatrice is born in the Garden of Eden, and she is raised there. Here, she is subjected to the poisonous environment, the "Eden of poisonous flowers," ever since the early periods of her life. Because Beatrice herself is a subject of one of Doctor Rappaccini's experiments, "her experience of life [is] confined within the limits of that garden.


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