Rappacinis Daughter

'Rappacinis Daughter' by Nathaniel Hawthorne is a different kind of love story, a story that often we won't read from other author's. There is a combination of supernatural, science, fairy tale and a strong connection to nature, in this story.

Hawthorne explicitly delivers garden scenery and a large portion of the story revolves around natural items, such as flowers and shrubs. This passage is one of Hawthorne's first presentation's of nature. Hawthorne continues on further describing the scene, but for the sake of time and space, just a few sentences are presented:

"Giovanni still found no better occupation than to look down into the garden beneath his window. From its appearance, he judged it to be one of those botanic gardens which were of earlier date in Padua than elsewherer in Italy or in the world. for there was the ruin of a marble fountain in the centre, sculptured with rate art, but so woefully shattered that it was impossible to trace the original design from the chaos of remaining fragments. The water, however, continued to gush and sparkle into the sunbeams as cheerfully as ever (1150)."

One of the main characters of the story, Giovanni, falls in lust with Beatrice, and becomes slightly obsessed by her presence and beauty. All the while, Hawthorne continues to diffuse nature into the story even when he's describing Beatrice, making comparison's of she to nature. This passage is a good example of this:

"Yet, Giovanni's fancy must have grown morbid while he looked down into the garden; for the impression which the fair stranger made upon him was as if here were another flower, the human sister of those vegetable ones, as beautiful as they, more beautiful than the richest of them, but still to be touched only with a glove, nor to be approached without a mask (1151)."