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             The theme of this tale is human hubris, the conflict between man's thirst for knowledge and power on the one hand and God's commandments as well as human responsibility for the creation on the other hand. .

             I will examine the interrelationship between this theme and the story's setting which on the one hand contains fantastic elements of the fairytale and the legend and on the other hand can be clearly localized in renaissance Italy. I will look into how Hawthorne uses this setting to support the message of his tale. In this context one character deserves closer attention - Giacomo Rappaccini, in the form of whom the points of intersection between the setting and the theme take shape.

             Argumentation.

             1. The Fantastic Elements of the Setting.

             By means of the preface and the opening phrase the reader is put in the right mood for a wondrous story that contains typical, fantastic elements of the fairytale. These elements point to the theme of the tale in various respects.

             1.1. The Preface as a foretaste.

             In the preface to the story, Hawthorne pretends that the tale of "Rappaccini's Daughter" is the work of a certain M. de l'Aubepine, who is in fact none other than Hawthorne himself - Aubepine is the French word for "hawthorn". Another hint of the correspondence of both are the titles of Aubepine's works. They correspond to the titles of the other stories included in Mosses from an old Manse. Apart from that they point to the "fantastic imagery"3 which awaits the reader in the "ensuing tale"(93) of "Rappaccini's Daughter" by referring directly to some of its main fantastic motives. "Le nouveau Pere Adam et la nouvelle Mere Eve"4 (92) anticipates Giovanni's association of Rappaccini with Adam (96) and the shaping of the spatial setting of Rappaccini's garden on the model of the Garden of Eden. This is a first hint to the story's theme of human hubris, personified by Giacomo Rappaccini. He is characterized by the same pride and ambition that caused the Fall of humanity in the Gar!.