Symbolism In Rappaccini's Daughter

Characters within fictional narratives exist in a space that is created through elements such as the time and location, referred to as the setting of the story. These elements help to set the tone that the rest of the story will fall under. Some narratives reveal only minimal details concerning the setting, but given the opportunity, a rich setting can play a significant role in shaping the story and the lives of the characters. Dana Gioia supports this in the following quote: “But often, in an effective short story, setting may figure as more than mere background or underpinning. It can make things happen. It can prompt characters to act, bring them to realizations, or cause them to reveal their inmost natures” (112). Nathaniel Hawthorne emphasized the vibrant garden as the central imagery of the setting in his 1800 short story, “Rappaccini’s daughter”. Austin Clarke repetitively established his setting of a Caribbean island and the almshouse on the island in his short story from )WHATEVER YEAR) “Leaving this island place”. In both of these stories, the setting served both literally and symbolically to emphasize the critical theme of isolation that ran throughout the narrative.
Rappaccini’s daughter was set in Padua, Italy, focusing primarily on two fictional locations within the city. The …show more content…
So internalized were these themes of isolation in him that he feared becoming his father, permanently cut off from society in the almshouse until death. It is for this reason that the island setting holds so much significance to the story, because in leaving the island, the narrator believes he can escape his isolation. In leaving the island setting, “He thinks he will escape the poverty and rejection and death associated with his father” (Dance