“Was this garden, then, the Eden of the present world?--and this man, … was he the Adam?” is a very obvious reference to the biblical story in Genesis. Though this question is asking if Rappaccini himself is Adam, It’s palpable that Rappaccini is playing the god in Hawthorne’s version of Genesis. First off, Rappaccini is the caretaker of these plants, even created a new poisonous plant. Secondly, Rappaccini is never in physical contact with his plants, as God is physically apart from human. In the beginning of the story, Giovanni observes Rappaccini advoiding “their actual touch or the physical inhaling of their odors…” Also, Rappaccini’s “fatal love of science” created a daughter who has become “the deadliest poison.”
In this scenario, Beatrice can be none other than Eve. In the biblical story, Eve was first to eat the ‘poison’ fruit, which eventually lead to her being forced to leave the garden. Though Beatrice never ate anything that caused her ultimate demise, she was the first person to be poisoned by her father’s creation. I think her death could symbolize the leaving of Eden in Genesis.
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Could Baglioni be Rappaccini’s Lucifer? Who would Lisabetta be? I could not find any concrete details within the story that would link Giovanni to symbolically being Adam(besides him being Beatrice’s love