Jan 3, 2010

Rappaccini’s Daughter | Literary Techniques

The original full title of the story was “Writings of Aubépine: Rappaccini’s Daughter,” and it was accompanied by an introduction that explains the story was written by “M. de l'Aubépine,” which playfully alludes to the French name for the hawthorn plant once used by European herbalists for heart disease. Hawthorne continues to play with his audience by commenting that this name “is unknown to many of his own countrymen” and that “he seems to occupy an unfortunate position between the Transcendentalists . . . and the great body of pen-and-ink men who address the...