Corruption in Rappaccini’s Daughter In the short story, “Rappaccini’s Daughter,” Nathaniel Hawthorne demonstrates how the drive to perfect the imperfect leads to corruption and ultimately death. Rappaccini’s main focus of perfection lies in his daughter and garden. His corruptions involved experiments that resulted in death. He corrupts the balance of nature by achieving a highly destructive kind of perfection that destroys any and all life that wanders near it. Rappaccini’s beautiful daughter, Beatrice, was one of the deadly poisonous science experiments along with his beautiful garden. Not only does Rappaccini selfishly use his scientific skills to recreate Beatrice into his own view of a perfect woman, but wants to recreate a world of …show more content…
With this, Hawthorne warns the reader that scientific perfection can be achieved by understanding nature rather than manipulating it. Although Rappaccini sees himself as a man of science, he does not completely understand what he is attempting. Much like Mary Shelly’s, “Frankenstein,” Dr. Frankenstein was persistent on creating the perfect experiment that he created a monster. Because of his appearance and people shunning him, he became corrupt. Like Frankenstein, Rappaccini’s experiments caused corruption and ultimately his downfall. In the end, he no longer had a daughter or a perfect experiment but instead, he was left with nothing. Throughout the story, the theme of corruption is played out like a cancerous disease. The first act of corruption is noted when Rappaccini plays God and defies nature by creating a dark “Garden of Eden” thriving with poisonous plants. Within the text, Lisabetta makes reference to these “strange flowers” (para 7). The flowers grow in the garden and the narrator references “plants that crept serpent-like along the ground” (para 9). The theme of corruption in the garden continues as Hawthorne