Two Mad Scientists a Comparison of Hawthorne’s Short...

Contents Contents 2 1. Introduction 3 2. A Comparison of Hawthorne’s Short Stories â€Å"The Birthmark† and 3 â€Å"Rappaccini’s Daughter† 3 3.1 The Role of the Scientist 3 3.2 The Role of the Wife and daughter 4 3.3 Nature vs. Science 5 3. Conclusion 6 Works Cited 7 Honestly Declaration 8 1. Introduction In the main part of the following paper with the topic â€Å"Two Mad Scientists: A Comparison of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Short Stories â€Å"The Birthmark† and Rappaccini’s Daughter† I will offer a comparison of selected aspects, since the space is limited. First of all I will concentrate on the comparison between Aylmer, the scientist which is presented in†¦show more content†¦Aylmer wants to remove something which is already existent, his wife’s birthmark. In contrast, Dr. Rappaccini modified his daughter with the help of scientific methods from the moment she was born when he connected her life to the poisonous shrub in his garden. 2.1 The Role of the Wife and Daughter Just like the two scientists, the two female characters have several similarities to offer. Both, Georgiana and Beatrice are beautiful women which became victims of the scientific obsession of their husband and father. Georgiana is described as a beautiful woman and also Beatrice is characterized as â€Å"a young girl, arrayed with as much richness of taste as the most splendid of the flowers, beautiful as the day.† After their description of beauty and pureness their ‘mistake’ is revealed. Georgiana carries a hand-shaped birthmark on her cheek, which was loved and cherished by her former lovers, envied by other women but hated by her own husband. Also Beatrice’s dark character treats are revealed when the young Giovanni Guasconti observed her poisonous breath and her relationship to the mysterious shrub. Thus Beatrice can be compared to the flowers in Dr. Rappaccini’s garden; she is beautiful but poisoned. At the end of the short stories both of the young females die and their former beauty and perfection are destroyed. While Georgiana dies after her husband tried to remove her birthmark, Beatrice dies