Nathaniel Hawthorne --
Rappaccini’s Daughter
Leslie Lin
Eva Hsu
Yulix Chen
Melanie Chen
Nathaniel Hawthorne
Birth Date: July 14th, 1804
Birth Place: Salem, Massachusetts
Family Background:
A descendant of Puritan immigrants;
one ancestor a judge in the Salem
witchcraft trials.
Nathaniel Hawthorne
The classmates of Nathaniel Hawthorne at
Baldwin College later on became
important literary and political figures of
the time, including:
Writer Horatio Bridge,
 Future Senator Jonathan Ciley and Henry
Wadsworth Longfellow
 Future President Franklin Pierce.

The Most Important Work of
Hawthorne
The Scarlet Letter represents the height of
Hawthorne's literary genius; dense with
terse descriptions. It remains relevant for
its philosophical and psychological depth,
and continues to be read as a classic tale
on a universal theme.
Summary of
Rappaccini’s Daughter
Giovanni, the main character of the story, had
noticed the odd deportment of Dr. Rappaccini
and his beautiful daughter, Beatrice.
He then discovered Beatrice’s “secret,”
particularly her sweet fragrant breath, and
visited her often after he had gained access to
the garden.
After some time, Giovanni had turned
poisonous himself.
He got some antidote from Prof. Baglioni to
Beatrice, in order to save her, but that soon
soon became the cause of her death.
Theme
Faith
Breaking of chain of humanity
Presence of morality
Solitude and isolation
The Death of Beatrice
by D.G. Rosetti
Rappaccini’s Daughter
Symbolism
Water in the fountain spirit
Purple shrub (Garden) Beatrice's potential
spiritual perfection & paradoxical state
Reference to the Bible, particularly the Genesis
Different colors (purple, sunlight, black)
Reference to the Bible
Dr. Rappaccini garden = Garden of Eden
Mansion = the domain of evil
Giovanni = Adam
Beatrice = Eve
Rappaccini = God or trying to be
Baglioni = Devil (snake)
Characters
Rappaccini– evil and dominant, yet loving and
protective
Beatrice– combination of good and evil, purity
and corruption
Giovanni– the most ambivalent, sometimes
obsessively love, sometimes selfishly hate
Baglioni– ambitious in triumphing his counterpart
Works Cited
“Survey of Criticism of Rappaccini's Daughter”,1995.
http://www.vcu.edu/engweb/eng372/rappcrit.htm.
“Rappaccini's Daughter Fall From Grace”, 2003.
http://www.freeessays.cc/db/37/pms80.shtml.
“Rappaccini’s Daughter and Its Relationship to the Bible”,
http://www.belmont.edu/Humanities/literature/rappaccini.htm.