Rappaccinis Daughter Essay: Allegory of the Garden of Eden

In the literal sense, Nathaniel Hawthorns Rappaccinis Daughter is the story about the rivalry between ii scientists that ultimately causes the destruction of an innocent young woman. However, when the story is examined on a symbolic level, the reader sees that Rappaccinis Daughter is an allegorical reenactment of the original fall from innocence and duty in the Garden of Eden. Rappaccinis garden sets the stage of this allegory, while the characters of the story each represent the important figures from the Genesis account. Through the literary devices of poetic and descriptive diction, Nathaniel Hawthorne conveys the symbolism of these characters, as well as the setting. The story takes place in mid-nineteenth century in Padua, Italy and revolves around two major settings the student residence of an old Paduan family, and Rappaccinis lush garden. The mansion is described as, high and gloomythe palace of a Paduan noble desolate and ill-furnished This description establishes a da rk mood throughout the story. Hawthorne writes, One of the ancestors of this familyhad 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 sweat to destroy Rappaccini. In a sense, the dark and gloomy mansion symbolizes the domain of evil. The second major setting is the garden. The author uses poetic diction to describe Rappaccinis garden. Hawthorne writes, on that point was one shrub in particularthat bore a profusion of purple blossoms, each of which had the luster and richness of a gemseemed enough to light th... ...ce 35 (1989) 43-69. Male, Roy R. Hawthornes Tragic Vision. Austin Texas University Press, 1957. Marder, Daniel. Exiles at Home A Story of Literature in Nineteenth Century America. Lanham University Press of America, Inc., 1984. Norford, Don Parry. Rappaccinis Garden of Allegory. American Literature 50 (1979) 167-186. Phal, Dennis. Architects of the Abyss The Indeterminate Fictions of Poe, Hawthorne and Melville. Columbia University of Missouri Press, 1989. Person, Leland S., Jr. Aesthetic Headaches Women and Masculine Poetics in Poe, Melville and Hawthorne. Athens University of Georgia Press, 1988. Shurr, William H. Rappaccinis Children American Writers in a Calvinist World. Lexington University of Kentucky Press, 1981. Waggoner, Hyatt H. Hawthorne A Critical Study. Cambridge Harvard University Press, 1955.