Nathaniel_Hawthorne

Nathaniel Hawthorne Nathaniel Hawthorne Hawthorne’s “Rap puccini’s Daughter” is a timeless short story that still easily applies to common fears of today. Like in Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein, Hawthorne uses literature to address the fascination many of us have with science verses religion. When Hawthorne describes Rappuccini’s creations in the garden, our imaginations could compare the likenesses to his daughter as well. He states, “Several, also, would have shocked a delicate instinct by an appearance of artificialness, indicating that there had been such commixture, and, as it were, adultery of various vegetable species, that the production was no longer of God’s making, but monstrous offspring of man depraved fancy, growing with only an evil mockery of beauty” (1296). In this description Hawthorne points out that Rappuccini has destroyed the boundaries of science by acting as a God-like figure. Rappuccini’s creations are evil concoctions that only illustrate his dark genius instead of a father’s or creator’s love. Hawthorne uses science, hawthorne, love, evil, creations, rappuccini’s, daughter, while, short, seems, points, out, offspring, nature, man, god’s, father’s, destroyed, consumed, beatrice, write, words, warn, verses, vegetable, various, using, today, timeless, tell, symbol, surpasses, story, states, sprang