How Does Hawthorne Present Beatrice In Rappaccini's Daughter
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Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “Rappaccini’s Daughter” holds many interpretations, one discussing Beatrice and the three men’s relationship(s). Richard Brenzo’s interpretation states that Hawthorne’s short story is about man and woman’s relationship and how man is over woman causing her to be the victim of his control. In his belief, Beatrice is victimized by the three men: Giovanni, Rappaccini, and Baglioni. While he is neither wrong nor correct, I believe that Beatrice was not the victim, but she was not necessarily the innocent, young woman that she was said to be. That being said, Beatrice is the victim of her father’s poison and not of the three men. Richard Brenzo considers the thought of Giovanni wanting to control Beatrice. This thinking is absurd because Giovanni just wants to get closer to Beatrice, but not in a sexual way . Beatrice is beautiful, and Giovanni knows that, but Beatrice is also Giovanni does love Beatrice, but the only way he expresses his affection for her is by eyeing at her through the window, tossing her flowers which later die by her touch, and conversing with her in the garden. None of which is sexual love, whereas…show more content… While he is correct in the sense of control, Brenzo supposes that Rappaccini wanted to control Beatrice to help himself in his job. Brenzo’s idea is logical, but Rappaccini just wanted control over Beatrice to help her have a happy life without her feeling pain caused by men. Ironic as it is, Rappaccini’s intentions were to help his daughter, not to make her his robot daughter that has extreme power. Rappaccini’s intentions did backfire on him because his daughter did not want to live a toxic life of isolation causing her to later kill herself. Rappaccini did no physical harm towards Beatrice. His intentions with Beatrice were never to only use her for his experiments but to keep her safe from the real world’s horrors and