Beatrice’s Inner Strength: a Feminist Approach to Rappaccini's Daughter

In reading Nathaniel Hawthorne’s dark tale, Rappaccini’s Daughter, one immediately begins to question the seductive relationship between Beatrice and Giovanni, and the loving relationship between herself and her father. Beatrice is an interesting character because she has several distinct female qualities; she is intelligent, beautiful, sinister, maternal, and seductive, all dominant female characteristics not often seen in one character in mid-19th-century literature. Beatrice is also able to guard her emotions well and is careful who she lets into her world but at the same time, she falls for Giovanni very quickly and is willing to sacrifice her life for his. Several times during the reading I questioned Hawthorne’s intent in creating a character like Beatrice. She is vile and sinister yet beautiful and seductive, and, at the same time, I question why Hawthorne created a character like Giovanni, who I consider to be an emotionally weak male that falls for a sinister yet intelligent young woman that is his polar opposite. In researching what critics have said about this triangular relationship between Beatrice, Rappaccini, and Giovanni several arguments have noted that Beatrice can be seen as a woman who is being pulled apart between the love of a father and the love of a man. In addition, she is not able to make her own choices in life because dominant males control her world. This triangular relationship seems to be very sinister because all three people want something out of each other and they would stop at nothing to get what they want. For example, Giovanni creates a relationship with Beatrice when he knows that there will be problems but he still wants to covet Rappaccini’s beautiful daughter. While Rappaccini, on the other hand, wants eternal happiness for his daughter but at the same time has made her poisonous that she cannot experience true happiness with other men. Beatrice plays a duel role, first as a seductress trying to find love in an enclosed

Cited: Baym, Nina. "Thwarted Nature: Nathaniel Hawthorne as Feminist." In Fritz Fleischmann, ed., American Novelists Revisited: Essays in Feminist Criticism. Boston: G.K. Hall, 1982. 110-111. Hawthorne, Nathaniel. Rappaccini’s Daughter. Photcopy handout. (16-20) Mailloux, Steven. Interpretive Conventions: The Reader In The Study Of American Fiction. Cornell University Press, 1982. 48-49. Millington, Richard. “The Meaning of Hawthorne’s Women.”  Online posting.