Rappaccini's Daughter Flower

As humans and inhabitants of this planet, it is our job to take care and protect the environment around us. This is what keeps the world balanced, safe, and in-check. However, everything changes once people start playing the role of “God”, and start to think that they can alter nature or living creatures for their specific needs or benefits. These events sometimes do not end well, as clearly shown when Dr. Rappaccini, in “Rappaccini’s Daughter”, artificially creates an entire garden with a purple flower at the heart of it. Every character describes it as the most beautiful flower, but it is poisonous and dangerous to be around; it kills with its deadly fumes and moisture. In Nathaniel Hawthorne's short story, "Rappaccini's Daughter", the purple
flower in Dr. Rappaccini's garden serves as a symbol of deception that reveals the prominent theme that manipulation of nature has dire consequences.
The purple flower, being the spotlight of the garden, is very deceptive, since it is very beautiful, but is very treacherous and deadly, since it is not created naturally.
When the flower is first introduced, the narrator states, “There was one shrub in particular, set in a marble vase in the midst of the pool, that bore a profusion of purple blossoms, each of which had the lustre and richness of a gem; and the whole together made a show so resplendent that it seemed enough to illuminate the garden, even had there been no sunshine” (2). This being the flower’s introduction is meant to reveal its beauty at first sight. This is exemplified by the use of diction as “profusion” and “resplendent” reveal how captivating it is, foreshadowing its deception. As when Giovanni is studying the plant from his window, the narrator describes, “…it appeared to him, however, that a drop or two of moisture from the broken stem of the flower descended upon the lizard's head. For an instant, the reptile contorted itself violently, and then lay motionless in the sunshine” (9). The flower’s deceptiveness emerges when its outer seal of beauty is broken at the stem, and the “soul” of the plant is revealed. The liquid from within the plant is powerful enough to kill a lizard with just a single drop. Even though the death of the lizard was the first incident and seen as extraneous, this is only scratching the surface of the damage this flower can inflict. Most deceivingly, when Beatrice is telling
Giovanni about the origins of the plant, she explains, “‘I grew up and blossomed with the plant, and was nourished by its breath. It was my sister, and I loved it with a human affection: for alas! Has thou not suspected it? There was an awful doom’” (26). The use of personifying the plant as Beatrice’s “sister” reveals its greatest deception as it made Beatrice believe that it would “nourish” her when, in fact, it was poisoning her. She was unaware of the price she would have to pay for the “sisterhood”. Her life became intertwined with the flower and she could no longer interact with nature. The flower proves to have enslaved her with its poisonous curse. The flower’s deception and power proves to have dire consequences.
The flower damages the lives of the people who live around it, as they are not fulfilling their intimate relationship with nature.
When Giovanni is talking with Professor Baglioni, he says, “‘…that he cares infinitely more for science than for mankind. His patients are interesting to him only as subjects for some new experiment. He would sacrifice human life, his own among the rest, or whatever else was dearest to him, for the sake of adding so much as a grain of mustard-seed to the great heap of his accumulated knowledge’” (6). Dr. Rappaccini’s research focuses on using plants for medicinal cures, but he abandons nature and becomes his own creator. In creating his purple flower he betrays his intimate relationship with nature. His mind alters and detaches from any emotions or relationships with people. It is ironic that his search for cures ends up causing more destruction than benefits for all those around it. Just as when Giovanni is deciding whether to stay with Beatrice or leave her, the narrator states, “Least of all, while avoiding her sight, should Giovanni have remained so near this extraordinary being, that the proximity and possibility even of intercourse, should give a kind of substance and reality to the wild vagaries which his imagination ran riot continually in producing” (10-11). Due to the flower’s villainous power that is transferred to Beatrice, it causes Giovanni’s mind to lose grip on reality. Giovanni is an absolute victim of Rappaccini’s work. Giovanni
is unable to fulfill his intimate relationship with Beatrice since she pays the ultimate price. Beatrice dies in the garden; the narrator states, “…As poison had been life, so the powerful antidote was death. And thus the poor victim of man’s ingenuity and of thwarted nature, and of the fatality that attends all such efforts of perverted wisdom, perished there, at the feet of her father and Giovanni” (30). The flower’s deadly power reaches its highest potential when it kills Beatrice. She first thrives with the poisonous fumes, but then she endures the worst consequence when she attempts to detach from it by taking the antidote. Detaching from the flower is the only chance she has to finally live as nature intended. The use of the paradox of toxic fumes giving life, while the antidote giving death, sends a powerful message of how disastrous and wrong it is to tamper with something as pure as a flower. The consequences are as dire and as irreversible as death.
No matter how tempted people become to start playing the role of “God”, it is important to remember the importance of nature, and that it is best that nature stays in its pure form. However, mankind would never have advanced this far without utilizing nature, so if this action must be done for the greater good, it is important to remember that there is a balance between good and evil. Events will never end well if people create unnatural elements for selfish benefits, or take it too far to the point where the balance is broken and becomes dangerous. Nature is a very powerful, yet essential part, of our lives, and needs to be respected and used responsibly.