Dec 30, 2009

Rappaccini’s Daughter | Ideas for Group Discussions

1. Does “Rappaccini’s Daughter” have any qualities of fairy tales? Think about qualities such as a poisonous touch, an evil parent, doomed lovers, and stories in which magical characters who cannot fit within the human world must return to fairy worlds. In what ways does Hawthorne adapt patterns of fairy tales to his own themes?

2. At the end of the story, Beatrice accuses Giovanni of being the real sinner: “Oh, was there not, from the first, more poison in thy nature than in mine?” What sort of poison do you think she might mean here? Are there different types of evil...