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Hawthorne´s "Rappaccini´s Daughter"

A Renaissance Tale of Human Hubris
On the Interrelationship of Setting, Theme and Characters
in Nathaniel Hawthorne's "Rappaccini's Daughter"



Contents

Introduction.......................................................................................................................... 1
Argumentation...................................................................................................................... 2

1. The Fantastic Elements of the Setting.................................................................. 2

1.1. The Preface as a Foretaste..................................................................... 2
1.2. The Opening Phrase............................................................................... 3
1.3. Rappaccini's Garden.............................................................................. 3

1.3.a. The Garden of Eden and the Fairytale Garden....................... 3
1.3.b. Rappaccini's Garden as a Reflection of his Hubris .................5

2. The Renaissance as Temporal Setting.................................................................. 7

2.1. Direct Hints to the Renaissance............................................................. 7
2.2. The Renaissance as an Age of Radical Changes................................... 8
2.3. Italy as Spatial Setting ...........................................................................8

3. Allusions to the Renaisance by Means of the Characters ...................................10

3.1. Beatrice and the Rebirth of the Antiquity ............................................10

3.1.a. Vertumnus .............................................................................10
3.1.b. The Noble Savage .................................................................10
3.2. Rappaccini as the Boundless Scientist ................................................12

3.2.a. Rappaccini as a Stereotypical Villain...