Rappaccini’s Daughter

In "Rappaccini's Daughter," the character Beatrice’s name is an allusion to the Divine Comedy, a long narrative poem by the Italian poet Dante Alighieri that follows the poet himself as he journeys through hell, purgatory, and paradise. This allusion in "Rappaccini's Daughter" adds some insight into both Giovanni's and the reader's initial uncertainty about whether Beatrice is good or evil. In the Divine Comedy, Beatrice serves as Dante's deceased love interest and guide in the final part of the Purgatorio as well as the Paradiso. In Inferno, she's the one who sends the famous ancient poet Virgil to guide Dante through hell, wanting to make sure he's protected on this leg of the journey so that he can eventually join her in heaven. She is, then, presented as the pinnacle of moral purity, grace, and femininity.

After Baglioni warns Giovanni about Rappaccini’s immorality and his professional stature as a scientist, the narrator uses dramatic irony to foreshadow Baglioni's cruel machinations at the end of the story: 

[Giovanni] might have taken Baglioni's opinions with many grains of allowance had he known that there was a professional warfare of long continuance between him and Dr. Rappaccini, in which the latter was generally thought to have gained the advantage. If the reader be inclined to judge for himself, we refer him to certain black-letter tracts on both sides. 

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