Analysis and Plot Summary of "Rappaccini's Daughter" by Nathaniel Hawthorne (Pages 1 • 2 • 3 • 4 )

 

Other essays and articles in the Literature Archives related to this topic include : Nathaniel Hawthorne : An Overview of the Author and Thematic Analysis of Works •  Full Summary and Analysis of "The Minister's Black Veil" by Nathaniel Hawthorne  •   Analysis and Plot Summary of "Young Goodman Brown" by Nathaniel Hawthorne    •      Full Plot Summary and Analysis of "The Birthmark" by Nathaniel Hawthorne   •   Allegory in The House of the Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne  •    The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne : The Effects of Sin on the Mind, Body, and Soul  •   Puritan Influences on Modern American Culture and Thought

 

At this point in the plot of "Rappaccini's Daughter" by Nathaniel Hawthorne when the characters of Giovanni and Beatrice finally meet, the two first talk about the plants in a detached and scientific way and allow Giovanni is still very much enamored with the beauty, cannot help himself.  He asks her about wearing the flowers like she did the first time and reaches for the purple blossoms.  She stops him immediately, telling him that is fatal for him to touch them.  She suddenly runs away from him, and sees the figure of Doctor Rappaccini glowering before him in a secret location in the garden.  He goes back to his room, and thinks upon the paradox that is Beatrice. Again he cannot get her off of his mind and ignores any of the aspects of her that bother him. Without much description from the narrator in this story by Nathaniel Hawthorne, the two continue to meet frequently and appear to be quite and love.  However, there's something about Beatrice that Giovanni feels is forever sealed off from him and he cannot help but still speculate on the horrible truth about her.

 

One day Baglioni he shows up at the mansion unexpectedly. He shares a strange story about Indian prince who sent a beautiful woman is a president to Alexander the Great who had been nourished with poison from birth to the present thus making her embrace death. Giovanni scoffs at the story, and Baglioni remarks on the thick smell of flowers in his apartment even though there are no flowers to be seen.  Baglioni states that the smell is like a drug and makes him go.  Still, as the narrator states in one of the important quotes from "Rappaccini's Daughter" by Nathaniel Hawthorne, “the tone in which the professor alluded to the pure and lovely daughter of Rappaccini was a torture to his soul; and yet, the intimation of a view of her character, opposite to his own, gave instantaneous distinctness to a thousand suspicions, which now grinned at him like so many demons” (1328). Baglioni pleads a Giovanni to listen to him and tries to tell him that the fable about the poison woman  Is absolutely true. At this point in Rappaccini's Daughter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Giovanni decides to come up with the test to prove whether or not the professors theory about the poison woman is true. Suddenly, as if awakening, he notices that the flowers in a bouquet from earlier are dead and the spiders spinning its web and dies when Giovanni comes close.

 

At this important moment in the plot of "Rappaccini's Daughter" by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Beatrice calls to Giovanni and despite the fact he is angry, upon seeing her beauty again, he begins to forget.  He does however, ask, where the shrub with the purple flowers comes from. Beatrice simply tells them that her father made it. “I grew up in blossoms with the plant, and was nourished with its breath.  It was my sister, and I loved it with human affection; for—alas hast thou not suspected it? There was an awful doom… which is strangely from all society of any kinds.  Until heaven sent thee, dearest Giovanni” (1331). In other words, the idea that her father is, like the main character in another short story by Nathaniel Hawthorne entitled "The Birthmark" a man of science who, true to his reputation, has little concern for nature's own perfection, the reader begins to understand at this point in the plot summary of "Rappaccini's Daughter" that his daughter may too be a victim of his scientific manipulations of nature.

 

With his worst fears confirmed, Giovanni is thrown into a fit of rage. He calls her a poisonous thing and she says it should rather be dead than live without him.  His anger subsided slightly, and he tells Beatrice at their fates are not entirely doomed.  He hands her a vial of medicine at the professor has given him and says it will cure her she takes it.  He says they should take a together, but she decides to take it first.  Suddenly Rappaccini emerges in the garden and tells his daughter that she is no longer alone.  If Giovanni plucks on the purple blossoms he will be with her for ever.  It will not harm them now. However, future says goodbye and dies. The last lines of Rappaccini's daughter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, depicts Baglioni calling down with a mixture of “horror and triumph” to his scientific rival, “Rappaccini Rappaccini is this the upshot of your experiment?” (1333). This is the end of the plot summary for "Rappaccini's Daughter" by Nathaniel Hawthorne and the analysis of themes in "Rappaccini's Daughter" can be found on the next page.

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