When does the need for perfection begin to cross a line? In the short story Rappaccini's daughter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, both Giovanni and Rappaccini get lost in their desire to make things perfect, and along their quest they not only hurt themselves, but also those around them. In this story people try to cure other things’ imperfections through misguided ways to fill the human need to be perfect; but almost always end up hurting the things they try to improve. Moreover, while striving for perfection they usually hurt those who get in their way and those looking on get lost in their perfection. Although Beatrice is the closest human being to perfection, both Giovanni and Rappaccini try to change her to cure her imperfections, which only
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In the beginning of the book, Giovanni moves into the apartment above the Rappaccini family and begins to watch them. As he watches Beatrice one day, he sees that, “Beatrice was gazing at the insect with childish delight, it grew faint and fell at her feet; it's bright wings shivered; it was dead”(251). Giovanni knows that he himself cannot achieve perfection, but he sees what he desire so much in Beatrice. He sees her magnificent beauty and realizes that she's the only way that he can achieve perfection, so he decides to chalk up what he saw to a coincidence. One day he runs into his dad’s friend, Baglioni, and they see Rappaccini clearly following him. The friend says, “Signor Giovanni, I will stake my life upon it, you are the subject of one of Rappaccini's experiments”(255). Giovanni is so desperate for this situation that work out for him that, once again, he ignores an obvious reason to stay away from Beatrice. He is so absorbed with Beatrice that he can not even see that Rappaccini is quite clearly using him as a lab rat and that Rappaccini is a very dangerous man. He chooses to see what he wants to see because in life it's just so much easier to live like that instead of accepting reality. Later on in the book, Beatrice and Giovanni take a stroll in the garden and then Giovanni tries to pick a flower for Beatrice. When he attempts this,“she caught his hand and drew it back with the whole force of her slender figure. Giovanni felt her touch thrilling through his fibers”(261). Giovanni is touched not by love, but by poison and yet he still cannot tell the difference. He is caught up in her charade and is not the least bit concerned about a person desperately trying to stop you from touching a flower because he is so committed to the idea of her and her perfection that he cannot come to think of her as anything less
In the beginning of the book, Giovanni moves into the apartment above the Rappaccini family and begins to watch them. As he watches Beatrice one day, he sees that, “Beatrice was gazing at the insect with childish delight, it grew faint and fell at her feet; it's bright wings shivered; it was dead”(251). Giovanni knows that he himself cannot achieve perfection, but he sees what he desire so much in Beatrice. He sees her magnificent beauty and realizes that she's the only way that he can achieve perfection, so he decides to chalk up what he saw to a coincidence. One day he runs into his dad’s friend, Baglioni, and they see Rappaccini clearly following him. The friend says, “Signor Giovanni, I will stake my life upon it, you are the subject of one of Rappaccini's experiments”(255). Giovanni is so desperate for this situation that work out for him that, once again, he ignores an obvious reason to stay away from Beatrice. He is so absorbed with Beatrice that he can not even see that Rappaccini is quite clearly using him as a lab rat and that Rappaccini is a very dangerous man. He chooses to see what he wants to see because in life it's just so much easier to live like that instead of accepting reality. Later on in the book, Beatrice and Giovanni take a stroll in the garden and then Giovanni tries to pick a flower for Beatrice. When he attempts this,“she caught his hand and drew it back with the whole force of her slender figure. Giovanni felt her touch thrilling through his fibers”(261). Giovanni is touched not by love, but by poison and yet he still cannot tell the difference. He is caught up in her charade and is not the least bit concerned about a person desperately trying to stop you from touching a flower because he is so committed to the idea of her and her perfection that he cannot come to think of her as anything less