Rappaccini's Daughter And The Birthmark

“Rappaccini & Aylmer” In the short stories “The Birthmark” and “Rappaccini’s Daughter”, failed attempts to gain perfection are a frequent subject. They both have male protagonist who have fascinations to recreate a woman into their own view of perfection. Yet at the end the women are completely destroyed. The two stories teach a moral lesson. That moral lesson is to accept things the way they are and value them, people should be satisfied with what they are given by nature, not try to change anything because trying to change things to the way we would like them to be, can often destroy them. Georgiana, in “ The Birthmark” is nearly perfect but has one defect, the birthmark on her cheek. This birthmark drives Aylmer crazy and he wants to remove it from her cheek, so he makes a potion. If Aylmer succeeds, he would create something almost inhuman; a perfect human. He wants

Rappaccini poisoned his daughter Beatrice with the plants from his garden which are filled with poison. He poisoned her so she can become perfect and stronger than everyone else. Beatrice's breath kills flowers and bugs, and eventually she infects her lover, Giovanni with her poison. Rappaccini doesn't treat his daughter like the human she is. Just like in “The Birthmark” Rappaccini reduces Beatrice to an object of an experiment. Rappaccini repeats all of Aylmer’s mistakes but unlike Aylmer who purposes are driven by human mortality and appearance, Rappaccini is just evil. As said in the story “Rappaccini cares more for science than he does for human beings.” Rappaccini thought of his daughter as an opportunity to perfect nature, instead of a human being with emotions. Rappaccini’s need to perfect his daughter and his use of her in his experiment led to her death. Once again, trying to perfect something that didn't need be perfected sacrificed what could've been a happy, loving