Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Critique of Gender Roles in Rappaccini’s Daughter

Gender expectations have been rooted in society for generations, creating an image of what the female identity should look like. In the 1800s, women in literature were often depicted solely as domestic caretakers; their sole purpose was to care for their children and husbands. Nathaniel Hawthorne’s writing often falls under this trope, however, with different intentions. His work exaggerates the notion of female inferiority as a method to satirize the general thought of men being the dominant gender. In “Rappaccini’s Daughter,” Hawthorne ridicules the nineteenth century’s perspective of male superiority through themes of female expectations.

From Rappaccini’s first introduction, he is presented as a most intelligent scientist, a man to be feared and respected. Baglioni describes him to “care infinitely more for science than for mankind” (Hawthorne 4). Rappaccini’s only companion is his daughter, Beatrice. Despite sharing the same compassion for botany as her father, he uses her as an experiment against her own free will. By prioritizing his passion for science over Beatrice, he neglected to view her as a human being. Rappaccini is quick to “sacrifice human life [...] for the sake of adding so much as a grain of mustard seed to the great heap of his accumulated knowledge” (Hawthorne 4). Rappaccini objectifies Beatrice, depriving her of her own desires for the sake of his own adoration. He infuses her body with poison, damning her to only touch and care for plants. Rappaccini bereaves her from all qualities that make her human, stealing her ability to love. Hawthorne creates this dynamic between Beatrice and Rappaccini to exemplify the effect of denoting women to nothing more than housewives. Given free will, Hawthorne believes women are capable of greater things.

Similar to Rappaccini, all of the men in the story are characterized by formal educations, where Beatrice must only learn from her experiences. When Giovanni, educated at the University of Padua, first has a conversation with Beatrice, he noted speculations he’d heard of her gardening abilities. Giovanni asks for her to teach him, claiming “I should prove an apter scholar than under Signor Rappaccini himself”. Yet, unlike her father, Beatrice was never given the opportunity of formal education. Despite her father being an intelligent man, he never taught Beatrice of the true nature of his garden, nor shared with her the very knowledge he accumulated from her over the years. Rappaccini used Beatrice as a tool to help him advance academically in his career, yet never considered that she might have an interest in learning herself. Beatrice responds to Giovanni “though I have grown up among these flowers, I know no more of them than their hues and perfumes” (Hawthorne 11). Even in her home environment, she never learned more about the flowers than what her own senses can perceive. She spent an entire lifetime dedicating herself to the garden, yet she never learned apart from her own observations.

Beatrice’s ignorance is representative of the consistent drive of men to marginalize women. Hawthorne’s use of sexism prevails throughout the story in an effort to exaggerate the social differences men place between them and women. Rappaccini refused to see Beatrice as a human being with her own intentions, neglecting her of the education that would allow her to be an individual.

From the beginning of the story, Beatrice is depicted solely as the object of Giovanni’s sex appeal. She is presented as a mysterious beauty, masking something intended to harm Giovanni. Beatrice is described by Giovanni’s initial observations as “more beautiful than the richest of them (flowers)-- but still to be touched only by a glove, nor to be approached without a mask” (Hawthorne 3). From this point, all the Giovanni knows about Beatrice is his attraction to him, yet he feels distraught by this overwhelming presence that she is composed of evil. Throughout the story, he goes to great lengths to characterize her by what he sees and hears, yet never learns her true nature. Most of the narrative is based upon speculations of her potential nefarious nature, yet Beatrice is the only character presented to be genuinely good-hearted. In the end, Giovanni demands them both to take Baglioni’s antidote to “thus be purified from evil” (Hawthorne 19). Beatrice is quick to agree, demanding to take it first. The antidote inevitably leads to her death, showcasing how the men of the story led to her downfall. Giovanni’s pressure for her to be the object of his imagination encouraged her to consume the antidote, while she wouldn’t need to take it if it weren’t for her father in the first place. Hawthorne uses Beatrice’s death to represent how men feel the need to manipulate women to adhere to their own desires. Opposed to being individuals, many men of the nineteenth century depicted women to be accessories to their own lives.

In “Rappaccini’s Daughter,” Nathaniel Hawthorne destroys the notion of female inferiority by exaggerating how ridiculous male expectations are. Rappacinni’s neglect to view Beatrice as anything more than an experiment showcases the male desire to deprive women of their own free will. Similarly, Beatrice’s lack of education is a prevalent example of how women in the nineteenth century were limited in their roles as human beings. When Beatrice drinks the fatal antidote, her death symbolizes how men often manipulate women to act upon their desires. Although Hawthorne’s tone may appear sexist, he was a pioneer in the movement toward treating women as individual human beings.