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The Inner Diabolism of the Symbolic Meaning in Literature from the New England Tradition:
Rappaccini's Daughter
The New England tradition in literature is greatly influenced by their Puritan background. The Puritan tradition centers on themes like spiritual development, sin, and the presence of God in all creation. The symbolic meanings in literature are found in matters like morality, allegories, religion, and redemption.
Furthermore, in Studies in Classic American Literature, D. H. Lawrence maintains that "[a]ll the time there is this split in the American art and art-consciousness. On top it is as nice as pie, goody-goody and lovey-dovey. Like Hawthorne being such a blue-eyed darling, in life, and Longfellow and the rest such sucking doves. . . . Serpents they were. Look at the inner meaning of their art and see what demons they were. You must look through the surface of American Art, and see the inner diabolism of the symbolic meaning. Otherwise it is all mere childishness" (92-93).
Nathaniel Hawthorne's Rappaccini's Daughter is a great example of New England's stock of literature. On the surface, Hawthorne's Rappaccini's Daughter seems a simple story told in an uncomplicated way, about an impossible love between two people, Giovanni and Beatrice. They are mere pawns of the individual ambitions of two rival professors. The subtle undercurrent, though, reveals a diabolic force behind the characters and behind some events. These diabolic undertones give the story an extra dimension.
Hawthorne draws from New England's Puritan background, and weaves a poisonous garden that mirrors the Garden of Eden, with Rappaccini as its Creator, symbolizing God. By the very act of creating life, the poisonous shrubs and flowers in his garden, Rappaccini creates death at the same time. Here, life symbolizes death, which is a paradox in itself: all the life in this garden consists of growth that owns its essence to procuring certain death by poison, instead of giving life. And death in this form, in this garden, gives life to Beatrice, whose physical system is nourished with deadly poison. She is thereby doomed to a solitary life, since her very breath is fatal to all other life form. This doom, of life that is nourished by death itself, is infused by Rappaccini into his daughter from birth, in an attempt to protect hre from evil, and, doing so, he made her a diabolically dreadful creature, Death in its most beautiful guise.
Her beauty attracts all sorts of young men, and this time also the handsome Giovanni. In order to give Beatrice a companion and end her loneliness, Rappaccini transforms Giovanni into a similar poisonous being, who in his bitter revolt is the cause of Beatrice's downfall in the end. Rappaccini has grown too comfortable with his godly status in his garden, deciding over life, as he has decided over Beatrice's life. Blinded by his power, he is tempted into overreaching himself. He thinks he can also take Giovanni's life in his hands, and this miscalculation costs him the life of his daughter. Giovanni's rebellion, against the course his life has taken, takes Rappaccini by surprise.
Rappaccini, who has the role of God in his little Garden of Eden, is also assigned the role of a diabolic deity who plays with his subjects' lives, steering them this way or that according to his desire. He is described as a cold and heartless person with "a face singularly marked with intellect and cultivation, but which could never, even in his more youthful days, have expressed much warmth of heart" (1231), and also, "[h]is patients are interesting to him only as subjects for some new experiment" (1234). These statements sound true, but on the other hand, he really loves his daughter, despite what Baglioni claims, though Rappaccini shows it in a most wrong way.
Furthermore, he is a god who makes mistakes, who makes misjudgements, and one that has even tasted defeat in his war with his enemy, the Devil. All in all, Rappaccini is definitely contrary to the Christian God. When a god falls from his throne, chaos will reign in Paradise, Heaven will collapse. Such is the fate of Rappaccini. He loses his powers when he loses his daughter to death and Giovanni rebels against him. Since she is his most dearest on the world, his world will also collapse and turn his garden into hell.
Rappaccini is basically a good person, for he has cultivated poisonous plants in order to find cures and he has made Beatrice into a dreadful being only to protect her against evil. His good intentions notwithstanding, yet, Rappaccini turns his daughter's life into a prison, he ruins Giovanni's life, and at last, his scheming causes Beatrice's death. The outcome of everything he does it tainted with evil. His creations are all deadly to nature itself, sheer abominations. In the end he is punished for his trifling with nature.
Baglioni symbolizes the Devil, placing doubt in Giovanni's mind and offering him the silver vase with the accursed antidote, like the serpent offering the fruit of knowledge to Eve. Rappaccini's Daughter is the Genesis Myth retold. Only here Baglioni is triumphing at the end, an event that could only take place in the dark and diabolic world of Rappaccini.
The Devil himself is disguised as a good professor who tries to save Giovanni from Rappaccini's grasp. His seemingly well meant concerns and admonitions towards Giovanni all serve the evil cause of bringing down Rappaccini and his lifework. Baglioni does not recoil even from taking the life of Beatrice, if that is what it takes to achieve his goal. He presents the antidote to Giovanni in a silver vase which suggests the thirty silver ducats that was offered to Judas for betraying Jesus. And like Judas, Giovanni betrays Beatrice.
Possessing such a deadly capacity, Beatrice has become a fearful enemy to whoever intends to harm her. With this in mind, Rappaccini has given her the protection of poison. However, any weapon, however powerful, could fall in the wrong hands. Therefore, professor Baglioni cunningly uses this powerful creation as the instrument to bring down its Creator. He only has to learn how to employ the weapon and the rest follows.
Though Beatrice has been endowed with beauty and a spotless character, being affectionate, natural, simple, innocent, and guileless, she is not free from sin. Her innocence and purity are blemished by a dark side, the poison in her, symbolizing the innate Original Sin, a notion originated from the Puritan tradition. Contrary to the Calvinistic idea of the ability to rise above one's sin and to earn one's salvation, there is but one way for Beatrice to throw off her sin and that is by leaving this life.
Beatrice wears her sin like a cross, imprisoned and estranged from all kinds of society. Whatever life that comes within her range will die horrible, even against her intention and to her great sadness. She is the symbol of the beautiful but unreachable woman, who unintentionally steals the heart of men and leave them yearning, and withering with their hearts broken. She symbolizes the powerless woman, confined to whatever task is given to her by men, in a patriarchal hierarchy.
Giovanni's sin, in contrast, is more subtle. While Beatrice's poison in her body is visible in her deadly touch and her fatal breath, Giovanni's poison is psychological, as Beatrice calls out with her last breath: "Oh, was there not, from the first, more poison in thy nature than in mine?" (1248). The poison in Giovanni's diabolic nature is still as deadly as hers, and similarly, it has seeped through his whole system, on the psychological level though.
He has never been faithful in his heart and mind to Beatrice, because his vanity and selfishness stood in the way, poisoning everything and killing the love that could have blossomed. Accordingly, everything he touches spiritually he kills the way he has killed the spirit of Beatrice with his poisonous words and with his betrayal.
From the first, Giovanni has had a suspicion of Beatrice's fatal breath, but he had laid that aside entranced by her beauty, owing to his "quick fancy, and an ardent southern temperament, which rose every instant to a higher fever-pith" (1236). Moreover, he is diabolically drawn to her by the mixed feelings of love and horror, hope and dread. He seems to relish the excitement that a possible danger produces. His love, though, is not real love, but only a superficial love. In fact, he has fallen in love with her beauty, and so he reveals how shallow his own character is.
How easily his love sways, when he discovers that he is transformed by Beatrice's poison. He, then, shows his true character and turns into the devil that he is. He breaks her heart, accusing her of trapping him. Instead of taking responsibility for his own actions, for his disregard for what he knew to be true of Beatrice's nature, he lays all the blame on her. He throws bitter and hateful words that are fed by the mental poison brewing in him at her.
Because Beatrice is conscious of the harm she could cause, she constrains herself, and lives a reclusive and confined life. As a result, she is in fact as harmless, like the toadstool that grows harmless in the woods, and harms only when it is eaten. Giovanni, however, is not aware of his harmful ways, and will stay on his destructive path. At last, Beatrice dies, and Rappaccini will soon follow out of grief. Only the Devil and his minion remain, celebrating their diabolic triumph.
Reading closely reveals a richness, and adds depth to the story. Altogether, the inner diabolic meanings of the symbolisms are revealing a world of tensions, duplicity, and hidden emotions. A look through the surface makes the stories a lot interesting and worth reading.
Work cited
Freeman, Mary E. Wilkins. "Old Woman Magoun." The Oxford Book of American Short Stories. Ed. Joyce Carol Oates. New York: Oxford UP, 1992.
Hawthorne, Nathaniel. "Rappaccini's Daughter." The Norton Anthology of American Literature. Eds. Nina Baym, et al. Vol. 1. 4th ed. New York: Norton, 1994. 1230-48.
Lawrence, D. H. Studies in Classic American Literature. New York: Doubleday, 1953.
Works Consulted
Feidelson, Jr., Charles. Symbolism and American Literature. Chicago: Chicago UP, 1953.
Lawrence, D. H. The Symbolic Meaning: The Uncollected Versions of Studies in Classic American Literature. Ed. Armin Arnold. London: Centaur Press, 1962.
Murdock, Kenneth B. Literature & Theology in Colonial New England. New York: Harper & Row, 1963.
Copyright © 1997 Jill Li. All Rights Reserved.
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