Beata Beatrix by D.G. Rossetti(courtesy of the Tate Gallery, London)
Excerpts from the story "Rappaccini's Daughter" 1844, 1846 [from Mosses
from an Old Manse 1846, 1854) :
This excerpt introduces Beatrice to the reader
and to Giovanni Guasconti, watching from the hidden shadows of his bedroom
window, as the beautiful, spirited young woman who is obedient to her father
and solicitous of the flowers, moves through the garden.
This excerpt reveals Giovanni's second glimpse of Beatrice, and her dual
nature is revealed. Her physical appearance and her personality are full
of beauty, simplicity, and sweetness. She seems to have purposefully twinned
herself with the "gorgeous shrub" that her father must avoid. On the other
hand, her breath and touch very sinisterly kill or weaken a lizard, an insect,
and the bouquet Giovanni throws to her.
This excerpt describes the tortured delight
that Giovanni feels about Beatrice. Like a youthful suitor, he in infatuated
with her and can think of nothing else. On the other hand, his memory of her
poisoning innocent insects, plants, and animals horrifies him.
This excerpt shows the beginning of the courtship
between Beatrice, delighted to have human contact, and Giovanni, bewitched
by this beautiful, literally untouchable young woman. Beatrice, in an effort
to save him from the touch of the fatal shrub, "leaves a burning and tingling
agony in his hand."
This excerpt describes how Beatrice and Giovanni's chaste reciprocated
love flourishes. This stage of the courtship is
bliss.
This excerpt follows the scene in which Signor Pietro Baglioni continues
his efforts to poison Giovanni's mind and heart against Baglioni's rival Dr.
Rappaccini and his daughter. Giovanni decides to test
Beatrice and determine whether she is pure and innocent or evil and poisonous.
"… now, his spirit was incapable of sustaining itself at the height to which
the early enthusiasm of passion had exalted it; he fell down, groveling among
earthly doubts, and defiled therewith the pure whiteness of Beatrice's nature."
This excerpt follows the scene where Giovanni has discovered that his breath
also poisons innocent flowers and insects. Giovanni rushes to accuse
Beatrice but is momentarily halted by "recollections of many a holy and
passionate outgush of her heart." However, Giovanni destroys Beatrice emotionally,
saying, "with venomous scorn and anger 'And finding thy solitude wearisome,
thou hast severed me, likewise, from all the warmth of life, and enticed me
into thy region of unspeakable horror!'" Giovanni is incapable of recognizing
her innocence.
This excerpt, the conclusion of the story, describes Beatrice's
suicide by taking Dr. Baglioni's antidote. Dr. Rappaccini is incapable
of realizing that he cursed his daughter when he had intended to protect her
from the "condition of a weak woman, exposed to all evil, and capable of none."
Curiously, Giovanni remains silent as Beatrice passes to a better world.
