Book Review Sample on Rappaccini's Daughter: Complete Spectrum of Human Morality

Introduction

In the narrative “Rappaccini’s Daughter,” Hawthorne depicts the complete spectrum of human morality because he portrays Rappaccini to be of ultimate evil. In contrast, Beatrice is shown to be of untainted good. Giovanni and Baglioni are depicted to have inconsistent intentions. Giovanni, Baglioni together with Rappaccini attempt to influence Beatrice to align with their preferences although it becomes apparent that Beatrice embodies naïve goodness that ca hardly endure a setting of inferior morality standards as compared to hers. The death of Beatrice as a result of the immorality of the other characters implies that pure morality like hers can hardly survive in a society corrupted by evil. Therefore, the theme of morality forms the central aspect of the story by Hawthorne besides other themes embodied in the story such as the themes of science, reason and humanity, the themes of love, passion and doubt, the theme of knowledge and sin as well as the theme of gender. The focus of this paper will be to examine some of the pieces conveyed in the allegory by Hawthorne in which he combines various themes to express the idea of post-humanism.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Save 25%

The Theme of Mad Scientist

The theme of the mad scientist is expressed in the allegory by Hawthorn through Rappaccini, who is one of the main characters and a brilliant scientist who treats everything as a scientific experiment, including his daughter. Hence, Rappaccini is the embodiment of the dangers of wicked and self-centred pursuits. The allegory itself is set in the times of the age of enlightenment which was a movement that glorified science and purpose. The parable is comprised of three scientists who hardly use their science to heal others but instead attempt to impact and explore the world (Rosenberry 35). The three scientists include Giovanni, who is a young medical scientist, Baglioni, who is a family friend and fellow doctor to Giovanni together with Rappaccini, who is a famous scientist. All the three scientists use their knowledge in science only in ventures that end up destroying due to their lack of reason to determine the truth hence implying the limitations of science as an approach to explore the world and portray the devastating cost of rationality.

The theme of the mad scientist as portrayed by Hawthorne is embodied in the story of Rappaccini, who illustrates the dangers of science and prudence. Rappaccini is depicted as a “true man of science” whose entire life is based on experimenting on plants which are perceived to be a source of “medicines that are as potent as a charm.” However, the plant-based options that are created by Rappaccini are also rumoured for their sinister effects just as Rappaccini is suspected to embody pertinacious motives. Even Baglioni confirms to Giovanni about Rappaccini that he only cares about science rather than humanity and that Rappacini would even sacrifice human life to make the smallest of scientific achievement (Cote 34). Baglioni does not only emphasize that Rappaccini is sinister, but he also accentuates that science as practised by Rappaccini can be dangerous if it is not strengthened by morality together with human empathy.

Rappaccini is considered the mad scientist because just as he is suspected to be sinister, his scientific practices turn out to harm his only daughter; Beatrice, who tends Rappaccini’s garden. Giovanni realizes as the story progresses that the plants upon which Rappaccini experiments are poisonous to everybody else except for Beatrice. Her body has become immune because she embodies the same poisons from Rappaccini’s designs. Rappaccini can be perceived to be mad towards the end of the story as he confesses his belief that he has endowed her daughter with a beautiful gift by the service he has done to her because she can kill people and even other creatures with her venomous breath (Rosenberry 35). However, Beatrice also feels that her father has irreparably and inexcusably condemned her hence she claims that she would acknowledge being loved than being feared and that death will cleanse her of the evil that Rappaccini has instilled in her. The standpoint of Beatrice can be translated as a condemnation of the scientific experiments of Rappaccini by his patients for being destructive and morally disgraceful.

How Rappaccini to satisfy his sinister intentions is immoral enough even though Hawthorne also depicts that the actions of the mad scientists lead the others; Baglioni and Giovanni to become astray. The influence of the mad scientist on Baglioni makes him consider science as a professional competition other than viewing it as a medium to serve humanity. Hence, Baglioni is motivated by his professional rivalry with Rappaccini even though his initial intentions to keep his counterpart Giovanni away from Rappaccini seemed to have been inspired by his concern for the young man (Cote 34). Hawthorne further depicts the ulterior motives of Baglioni when he gives Giovanni he alleges will cure Beatrice of her evil nature. However, the antidote ends up to kill Beatrice and Baglioni considers it a loophole to overwhelm Rappaccini in their professional competition. The whole motive portrayed by Baglioni is a way which Hawthorne uses to depict the theme of the mad scientist and his practice of science that is driven by jealousy, revenge and the quest of objective knowledge.

Hawthorne also depicts the theme of the mad scientist through Giovanni by the way science leads him to immortality. Even though Giovanni does not appear to be degraded as Rappaccini or Baglioni, he justifies his scientific explorations for arriving at inaccurate and harmful deductions regarding reality. Giovanni doubts the nature of Beatrice after witnessing her venomous effect on insects and flowers despite his original perception that Beatrice is attractive and noble. Giovanni then concludes that Beatrice evil. At the same time, she is hardly evil despite her venomous nature since she is a victim of the experiments conducted by her father-Rappaccini. The false accusations made by Giovanni about based on scientific premises then causes Beatrice to lose her desire to live, and all these events are credited to the driven ventures of her father (Cote 36).

Accordingly, Rappaccini is the one who emerges in the story as the evil character, and it is critical how Hawthorne uses depicts him as the mad scientist consequent to his outrageous scientific ventures. Rappaccini can effectively be referred to as the mad scientist because his absurd scientific explorations do not only affect nature and negatively impact reality but also causes harm to his daughter Beatrice. Besides, it is from the influence of the outrageous scientific experiments conducted by Rappaccini that Baglioni develops the curiosity of professional competition which also leads him to immorality without the temperance of morality or human empathy. The impacts of the outrageous scientific explorations conducted by Rappaccini, who is the embodiment of the theme of the mad scientist, also cause her daughter Beatrice not only harm but also her loss of the will to live. After Giovanni, who believed in her attractiveness and morality has a change of belief that she is evil after witnessing her poisonous impact on the flowers.

Rappaccini Versus Giovanni

Rappaccini is an aged medical scientist who is accomplished with a record of a great work that is considered to be a mysterious animated garden from which he extracts powerful medicines from plants. The flowers harvested from Rappaccini's exotic garden are not just ordinary herbs, but they are instead grown to be poisonous ("Beauty's knowledge: Hawthorne's moral fable "Rappaccini's daughter" "n.p). Rappaccini is the embodiment of the theme of the mad scientist, and even the narrator of the allegory implies that even though his face appears intelligent, even in its younger age did not manifest any sign of the love of humanity. Even Baglioni emphasizes that Rappaccini has a great passion for science for which he can sacrifice anything not to count of human life in the quest to pursue scientific knowledge.

The trait of Rappaccini of being the mad scientist is depicted in the way he expresses his love for his daughter to the extent he put poison in her veins which he claims would protect Beatrice from anyone. However, in deciding to put poison in her daughter, she underestimates the desire that Beatrice has for companionship. Rappaccini can also be considered as the mad scientist in the way he intends to poison the body of Giovanni as well after he sees him visiting Beatrice and they get along well. Rappaccini then pays the price for interfering with nature when his plan to poison Giovanni backfires and her daughter dies after drinking the potion meant to detoxify her body ("Beauty's knowledge: Hawthorne's moral fable "Rappaccini's daughter" "n.p).

Giovanni is also a protagonist in the story, although unlike Rappaccini, he does not have great scientific experience since he just relocated to Padua to pursue his medical studies. Unlike Rappaccini, Giovanni is a man of reason and moral understanding hence his unexpected reaction by fantasizing the beauty of Beatrice when he sees her killing organisms with her touch and breath ("Beauty's knowledge: Hawthorne's moral fable "Rappaccini's daughter" "n.p). Giovanni is the only scientist among the three scientists in the story who upholds his belief in nature and humanity hence his curiosity to determine whether Beatrice is noble as her deportment suggests or if she wicked as implied by her poisonous effect. However, Giovanni suffers the impacts of the mad scientist when he develops the symptoms of being poisonous and the influence is demonstrated in the way he is preoccupied with reason hence ending up missing the truth about Beatrice ("Beauty's knowledge: Hawthorne's moral fable "Rappaccini's daughter" "n.p). Therefore, the difference between Rappaccini and Giovanni is on their perspectives of science because Rappaccini is willing to do anything to acquire scientific knowledge, including sacrificing human life. At the same time, Giovanni believes in the power of science in transforming humanity for the better.

Conclusion

According to Braidotti (13), posthumanism refers to the iconic representation of the symbol of humanism as a principle that syndicates the biological, expansive as well as moral expansion of human abilities into a concept of teleologically ordained, a coherent progress. However, Braidotti emphasizes that the restricted notion of humanism regarding what matters as a human is one of the determinants to having an understanding of how we humans have embraced a posthuman alternative (16). Braidotti further implies that the decline of humanism, which led to the adoption of posthumanism started in the 1960s and '70s consequent to the rise of ideas such as fascism together with communism. Braidotti has sketched a pedigree of the anti-humanism which helps to explain her opinion of the posthuman as the historical moment that dashes a varying conversational framework, seeking more positively towards new substitutes (37). Hence, posthumanism can still be established on the supposition of deterioration of traditional humanism while effectively avoiding the pretentious inconsistencies entrenched in the crisis of man, instead of concentrating on new ways of understanding the human subject.