Essay on The Theme of Rappaccini’s Daughter -- Rappaccinis Daughter E

Rappaccinis Daughter The Theme In Nathaniel Hawthornes tale, Rappaccinis Daughter, the dominanat theme is the unrighteous at bottom mankind. This essay intends to explore, exemplify and develop this topic. Hyatt waggoner in Nathaniel Hawthorne states Alienation is perhaps the theme he handles with greatest power. Insulation, he sometimes called it which suggests not only isolation but imperviousness. It is the opposite of that osmosis of being that Warren has pen of, that ability to respond and relate to others and the world. . . . it puts one outside the magic circle or the magnetic chain of humanity, where there is neither love nor reality (54). Waggoners theme of alienation does play a part in Rappaccinis Daughter in reference to the doctor and Beatrice, and Giovanni after he has been rendered deplorable by prolonged contact with Beatrice. But alienation is not, in the opinion of this reader, the dominant theme in the tale. The overriding theme would be the evil resi ding within human beings, regardless of how attractive they appear outwardly. Everything he has to say is related, finally, to that inward sphere (McPherson 68-69). Giovannis love for the beautiful daughter blinds him to various indications of her poisonous nature, to the evil nature of her father and to the intent of her father to involve Giovanni as a subject in his sinister experiment. At the climax his blindness is removed and he sees, with Beatrices help, the truth of the situation he sees the evil within man. The tale takes place in Padua, Italy, where a Naples student named Giovanni Guascanti has relocated in order to pursue the medical school there. His modes... ...es Press, 1968. Hawthorne, Nathaniel. Rappaccinis Daughter. ElectronicText Center. University of Virginia Library. http//etext.lib.virginia.edu/etcbin/browse-mixed-new?id=HawRapp&images=images/modeng&data=/texts/english/modeng/parsed&tag=public Kazin, Alfred. Introduction. Selected Short Stories of Nathanie l Hawthorne. New York Fawcett Premier, 1966. McPherson, Hugo. Hawthornes Use of Mythology. In Readings on Nathaniel Hawthorne, edited by Clarice Swisher. San Diego, CA Greenhaven Press, 1996. Waggoner, Hyatt. Nathaniel Hawthorne. In Six American Novelists of the Nineteenth Century, edited by Richard Foster. Minneapolis University of Minnesota Press, 1968. Williams, Stanley T. Hawthornes Puritan Mind. In Readings on Nathaniel Hawthorne, edited by Clarice Swisher. San Diego, CA Greenhaven Press, 1996.