Rappaccini's Daughter
“If eyes were made for seeing,/ Then Beauty is its own excuse for being” (Ralph Waldo Emerson, The Rhodora).The eyes are not to be trusted. Human beings perceive the world mainly by sight; it is our most trusted sense. In fact, if you try to convince someone (especially an older person) of something spectacular, you will often hear him say, “I’ll believe it when I see it”. Does sight deserve this kind of faith? Human beings can only see what we call “visible light” and yet, our eyes perceive less than one millionth of the electro-magnetic spectrum, and even then, our brain fills in parts we miss and interprets things that are fuzzy or hard to see. Few have had to learn this lesson in a manner that exceeds, in hardship, that of Giovanni Guasconti. His affair with Beatrice began, not with his eyes absorbing her beauty, but with his ears, listening to her “rich and yout
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Giovanni Guasconti, Rappaccinis Daughter, Giovanni Beatrice, Emerson Rhodora, Garden Eden, , visual description,
Approximate Word count = 588
Approximate Pages = 2 (250 words per page double spaced)
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