Love in the Male Dominated Society of the 1800s in Hawthornes Rappaccinis Daughter :: Rappaccinis Daughter Essays

Love in the male person Dominated Society of the 1800s in Hawthornes Rappaccinis Daughter Rappaccinis Daughter is a quaint tale, kind of an early pseudo-scientific short history, that focuses on the life of Beatrice and her bizarre nature. The sequel of a twisted experiment, she must find happiness within the walls of a garden her male parent has created for her. Although her life depends on a fatal poison, she defines her thought as Gods creation, and craves cope as its daily food (2131). This paradox creates a powerful story as the mortal Giovanni falls in love with the deadly Beatrice. Insane love and harsh words end the story with the climactic suicide of a heartbroken girl. I saw this built in bed as being analogous to womens rights at the time. Rappaccinis Daughter was published in 1844, women couldnt vote in the USA until around 1920. This story was written in a time when women were generally victimized by the society they lived in. Rappaccini advisedly introduc es his only daughter to a poison filled, solitary life in the name of love. As he spends his life in achieving a designate (2131) Rappaccini forgets about the miserable doom (2132) he has inflicted upon his beloved daughter. This parallels the inflicted miseries women of the nineteenth ampere-second endured such as arranged marriages as well as more other paternalistic conditions placed in the name of love or safety. Rappaccinis Daughter was written two years after Hawthornes marriage and during the akin year of his first daughters birth. The strange ideas brought forth in Rappaccinis Daughter argon more easily seen when his position is put into perspective. As a father he knew that his daughter would be subject to the very restrictions he so skillfully illustrates in Rappaccinis as well as in The blood-red Letter. Could these stories be the imaginative musings of a frustrated father? perchance they were due to his own feelings after becoming a new groom. In either case b oth stories have a dominating floor of the oppression of womens sexuality, Beatrices poison being that of society. Harsh consequences befall Rappaccini when he tries to sway things he truly cannot, such as love and life. Would the same pass along to Hawthorne is sought to exert as much control? The character of Rappaccini exemplifies utterly the views held towards women in the