Rappaccini's Daughter by Nathaniel Hawthorne Short Story, Question Answer, Summary Complete Notes for BA English

                                                                 

Q. Discuss the theme of the story.

 

Answer:

 

The theme of the story is man’s inhuman lust for knowledge and power. Scientists work for power through knowledge. They are ambitious to rule over the rulers through their power of knowledge. They do not bother about the human aspects of their work.

 

Prof. Rappaccini is a typical scientist. His lust for power leads him to experiment with poisons. The result of his work is a horrible variety of deadly poisons. The poisonous herbs developed by him make his garden a zone of death2. Some of the herbs are so lethal that even their smell can kill a man. Breathing the poisonous air of the garden makes the professor and his daughter immune to poison. No poison can kill them. But any antidote can kill them because the poison is the breath of their life. So the professor's daughter dies the moment she drinks a few drops of Baglioni's antidote. The death of the professor's only daughter is the moral lesson of the story.

 

The old Professor learns the lesson at the cost of his only daughter ---- -a very heavy cost, no doubt.

 

Thus the story carries a note of warning not only against too much love for science but also against the selfishness of all kinds.

 

Some critics have pointed out another moral aspect of the story. They say that it is not the professor's love for science but it is his love for his daughter that leads him to his dangerous exploits. He does not like to be separated from his daughter by her marriage. That is why he makes her dangerous for all other human beings. Whatever the case, the story cuts both ways equally well.

 

GIOVANNI’S CHARACTER 

 

Young Giovanni is a voice of reason in the inhuman atmosphere of the story. He is always worried about the danger created by the cruel old professor Rappaccini. He hates the old professor's lust for lethal knowledge. He knows that it is actually lust for power.

Unfortunately (or fortunately?) he falls in love with the professor’s daughter. But he is shocked to discover that the girl‟s breath is poisonous. He tries to cure her and make her a normal human being. But the well-meant attempt ends in the girl‟s death. The cure for poison kills her because the poison was her life.

 

Giovanni acts in love. His failure turns into Professor Rappaccini's punishment for his evil designs. So we can say that Giovanni's humane role brings out the moral lesson of the story. Giovanni deserves respect and pity. He is respectable because he tries to prevent the harm caused by the old professor's love and work for science with a negative purpose. He has a positive and constructive approach to life and love. He deserves pity for the tragic end of his love affair. The irony of his fate is that his well-meant efforts to save the girl (his beloved) end in her death, whereas her father's dangerous experiments with poison had made her life secure against poisons. Young Giovanni also deserves respect for his hard work as a student.

Although he is not the central figure in the story, yet he is a lovable character for these qualities of his character.

 

CHARACTER SKETCH OF BEATRICE

Rappaccini‟s Daughter is a tragic love story, and Beatrice is its heroine. She plays an important role in explaining the theme or background idea of this fantasy. She was the only daughter of Dr. Rappaccini. God had made her the paragon of beauty and physical grace. She was also an embodiment of innocence, sweetness, and purity. Her voice was as enchanting as the “sunshine in the south”. Her sweetness of temperament and magical face had made her famous in the whole town of Padua.

Beatrice is the only daughter of Prof. Rappaccini. She is young and beautiful. Her father‟s inhuman lust for knowledge has turned her into a poisonous human being. Her breath can kill. She hates her father's science but loves him too much to defy him.

So she becomes his agent of destruction by helping him in his work. She looks after the garden. But her father's love for destruction cannot infect her. She remains a deeply human character. She knows her misfortune but wishes to live a healthy normal life. She wishes to be loved but finds it impossible to go against her father's cruel will. She dies a tragic death in trying to test the effect of Baglioni's cure. Her last words reflect her true nature. She is a purely human character in spite of the inhuman teachings of her father. Her innocence and her sufferings make her a lovable character. So, her death comes as a shock.

Beatrice deserves pity not only for her sudden tragic death but also for her love and obedience to her father. She dies by the antidote given by her lover Giovanni, but actually, she is a victim of her father's thoughtless love and jealousy. She is to be pitied more for her unhappy isolation and of her only love affair.

The character of Beatrice inspires love as well as pity. She is a lonely girl deprived of true happiness and love. Her character has a symbolic significance. She stands for the beautiful world of nature that is being corrupted and polluted by science.

 

What is Fantasy?

 

Fantasy: (Also Spelled Phantasy )

 

It is an Imaginative fiction dependent for effect on strangeness of setting (such as other worlds or times) and of characters (such as supernatural or unnatural beings). Science fiction can be seen as a form of fantasy, but the terms are not interchangeable, as science fiction usually is set in the future and is based on some aspect of science or technology, while fantasy is set in an imaginary world and features the magic of mythical beings.

 

Explain The Following Lines

 

 “I would rather have been loved, not feared”, says Beatrice before dying.

 

 

“Believe it though my body be fed with poison, my spirit is God's creature, and needs love as its daily food”

 

EXPLANATION:

Rappaccini's Daughter by Hawthorne is a fantastic Love story that has tragic end. It emphasizes the importance of love in human life. The writer wants to show that love is a spiritual bond between young lovers. It is a spontaneous impulse that makes life charming purposeful and enjoyable.

Beatrice is a love-thirsty girl because her father had kept her secluded from human society. She readily used Professor Baglioni's medicine to assure her lover that she was sincere in her love. Before death she admitted to Giovanni that though her body had been poisoned by her father, yet her soul was God's creation that needed love for its nourishment and growth.

 

The story shows that love of humanity is also essential to keep man truly humane and sensible. Dr. Rappaccini was a loveless man who was more interested in research work than in human beings or human welfare. He wanted to get knowledge of power than the knowledge of service. He committed the mistake of making his daughter dangerous and fearful for others. When her daughter came to know the real intention of her father at the time of her death, she told him, “I would rather have been loved, not feared.” The story teaches the moral lesson that it is better to make oneself lovable and useful for others than to become authoritative and awful.

 

Thus Beatrice serves as the mouthpiece of Hawthorn to convey his moral message that love makes life charming, and that it is better to make oneself lovable and loving than to be dangerous and awful for his fellowmen.