Rappaccini's Daughter

A detailed Summary of 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


Though all the narration describes each character and setting in great detail, it teaches us that our nature, and not our senses are best equipped to give us the truth.

The remaining images in the story have a complete resounding correspondence; all of the characters and images in "Rappaccini's Daughter" are not what they appear to be. The garden, though a source of peace and tranquility for Giovanni in the story's beginning, turns out to be a scientist's life work of perversion, each flower and shrub more beautiful then the next. But upon closer inspection, these plants seem too beautiful to be natural (pg 11). Rappaccini himself appears to be feeble old man, spending his final days tending to his garden, caring only for the happiness of his daughter. He too, though, is still a scientist caught up in a bitter rivalry. The biggest masquerade of all being Baglioni's,

Some common words found in the essay are:
Giovanni Guasconti, Rappaccini's Daughter, Giovanni Beatrice, Emerson Rhodora, Garden Eden, , visual description,

Approximate Word count = 588
Approximate Pages = 2 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English

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