Irony In Rappaccini's Daughter By Nathaniel Hawthorne

In many of Nathaniel Hawthorne's short stories, he creates characters with either a malicious or evil feature to relay to the reader a more allegorical meaning. In the story " Rapaccinni's Daughter" he uses Beatrice as a carrier of a deadly poison. Beatrice's relationship with Giovanni is the main plot of the story. To Giovanni, she is the woman who represents death and enslaves him but in reality she is not deliberately harmful to him. She becomes a focus of Giovannis fantasies, fears, and desires, and is credited or punished by him for various evil intentions which in fact stem from his own mind. As Giovanni admires her from afar, meets her, and has a final confrontation with her, we see that he is the one with the poisonous heart.

Giovanni,
Since all that Giovanni has seen has only confused him, he responds with "Bid me believe nothing, save what comes from your own lips" (658). Her reply goes straight to the heart of the story: I do so bid you, Signor!" "Forget whatever you may have fancied in regard to me. If true to the outward senses, still it may be false in its essence. But the words of Beatrice Rappaccini lips are true from the depths of the heart outward. Those you may believe!"(658) At this Giovanni "seemed to gaze into her transparent soul, and felt no more doubt or fear". (658) He finds that the woman that he idealized with "hues of terror" turns out to be "so human". (658) After this meeting Beatrice forgets her purple blossoms for the first time. Beatrice recognizes on a conscious level that she really does like human company, after many years of depravation of it. From this day forward she befriends Giovanni, and enjoys his company. Its apparent that Beatrice is concerned for the welfare of Giovanni and has no evil intentions when he reaches for one of the purple flowers and she tells him "Touch it not!" "Not for thy life! It is fatal!"(659) But he soon forgets her concern for his