Rappaccini's Daugher and the Garden of Eden

“Rappaccini's Daughter” by Nathaniel Hawthorne is filled with many religious ideals pertaining to Hawthorne's beliefs in science going too far. He also has many synchronous themes to the Bible’s Garden of Eden; however, to the opposite effect. Characters are paralleled, as well as plot events; the landmark setting of the Bible’s Genesis are even imitated by Rappaccini’s garden. The garden is very artificial and dangerous, the opposite of God’s comforting and heavenly Eden. The story has a theme of one large battle between Good and Evil, Science and God, and Man versus Man.

Rappaccini’s garden is very much the polar opposite of the Garden of Eden. While Eden is said to be heavenly, and full of innocence and goodness, the garden Rappaccini creates through science is evil, and infecting. Each scene has a Good and Bad, God and Devil. Eden has God as the ultimate bearer of good, whereas the other has Rappaccini as the ultimate bearer of evil through science. Rappaccini shows strong resemblance to the devil himself in just his appearance. In the story, the scientist is described as, “tall, emaciated, sallow,...and dressed in a scholar’s garb of black.”(63) Satan is thought of as ugly, and resembling death itself. In almost all instances, the devil is associated with the color black. These things bring us to believe that Rappaccini himself is like the devil in one way or another. Both gardens have some form of the opposite deity in them. In Eden, it is Satan in the form of a snake luring Eve to eat from the Tree of Knowledge. In Rappaccini’s garden, God is represented by Signor Baglioni, who advises Giovanni to do the moral thing, and stay out of the evil garden. Both gardens revolve around a centerpiece. In Eden, the center of the garden is the Tree of Knowledge, which is an ultimate source of good, but with limitations. The tree’s fruit should not be eaten, which is a temptation. Eve is shown as the temptress, who lures Adam into eating fruit from the tree. However, Eve is influenced by Satan in the form of a snake. In Rappaccini’s garden, the center is the large purple flowering plant near the fountain. It “had the luster and richness of a gem; and the whole together made a show so resplendent that it seemed enough to illuminate the garden, even had there been no sunshine.”(63) The flowers of the plant are tempting enough to want to pick; however, this garden has a temptress of it’s own. Giovanni is shown as the innocent Adam, ever curious about the garden and the temptress within it’s walls. Beatrice, the daughter of Rappaccini, seems to float around the garden, a sister to the plants. She’s of unequaled beauty and is very alluring. Although her father is the creator of the garden, she is still considered to be innocent- the victim of her fathers experimenting. However, she is somewhat prodded by her father into bringing Giovanni into the garden, so that he can be contaminated by the poisonous plants. Just like the Garden of Eden story, both end with the romantic duos (Adam and Eve, Beatrice and Giovanni) in unhappy situations. Adam and Eve were expelled from Eden; Beatrice and Giovanni were separated by Beatrice dying in Giovanni’s last attempt for their happiness, and Giovanni was left with the garden he had once admired so greatly as his prison. Both gardens bear outstanding beauty except that Eden is created from good while Rappaccini’s is created from science, the deliverer of evil.

In the garden that Rappaccini creates in the short story, it is meant to be one of extreme evil of artificial creation. The garden infects those inside of it with poison, and that is Hawthorne’s way of showing that science will be the end of human good and life. Evidence to it being inorganic is expressed throughout the entire plotline of the story, all the way through to the end. There is extreme foreshadowing to the effect that Giovanni should stay away from the garden, for one reason or another. Evidence points to Beatrice as being very dangerous, and deadly. When a insect flies near her breath, it immediately dropped dead to the ground. Normal organic flowers wilted in her grasp. Further on in the story, when Beatrice touches Giovanni’s arm, he wakes up with a large purple mark of a hand on his wrist, but thinks nothing of it. The thriving plants and flowers all over the vast courtyard exhibit qualities of being very artificial, as if the flowers themselves are made of plastic, because they are so beautiful and intricate. The visual provided by the story includes that “some were placed in urns, rich with old carving... some crept serpentlike along the ground or climbed on high, using whatever means of an ascent was offered them.” The descriptive words that Hawthorne uses to let us envision the plants and flowers gives them an almost unreal quality, and even a bit creepy. He continues with, “One plant had wreathed itself round a statue of Vertumnus,