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Definition of Motif
A motif is an element or idea that recurs throughout a work of literature. Motifs, which are often collections of related symbols, help develop the central themes of a book... read full definition
A motif is an element or idea that recurs throughout a work of literature. Motifs, which are often collections of related symbols, help develop the... read full definition
A motif is an element or idea that recurs throughout a work of literature. Motifs, which are often collections of... read full definition
Key Examples in Rappaccini’s Daughter
Rappaccini’s Daughter
Explanation and Analysis—Natural vs. Unnatural:
As Giovanni begins to suspect that Beatrice is poisonous, Hawthorne uses the motif of natural vs. unnatural to trace Giovanni's mounting horror. Giovanni is afflicted with a mixture of conflicting emotions:
It was not love, although her rich beauty was a madness to him; nor horror, even while he fancied her spirit to be imbued with the same baneful essence that seemed to pervade her physical frame; but a wild offspring of both love and horror that had each parent in it, and burned like one and shivered like the other[...] Blessed are all simple emotions, be they dark or bright! It is the lurid intermixture of the two that produces the illuminating blaze of the infernal regions.
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Explanation and Analysis:
The narrator's descriptions of Rappaccini's garden often portray the poisonous plants as if they are people. This use of personification sheds light on the idea that Rappaccini uses elements of the natural world in unnatural ways. When Giovanni sees the garden for the first time, the story includes the following observation:
Unlock with LitCharts A+The strange plants were basking in the sunshine, and now and then nodding gently to one another, as if in acknowledgement of sympathy and kindred.
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Explanation and Analysis—Reason vs. Intuition:
Through its depiction of Giovanni's internal conflict surrounding the question of whether Beatrice is good or evil, the story establishes a motif that pits reason against intuition. Giovanni's gut feeling—that is, his intuition—tells him that Beatrice is just as good and pure as she appears, yet he is plagued by rational doubt, as he worries and suspects that she is colluding with her father to poison him. When he discovers that he has become poisonous through proximity to Beatrice, he makes hurtful claims about her moral character, and these claims ultimately destroy their relationship, since they reveal his suspicion of her and suggest that he sees her as a malicious person. By allowing his rational assessment of Beatrice to override both his intuition that she is good and his love for her, Giovanni effectively engineers his own downfall.
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Related Themes:
Explanation and Analysis—Alienation:
The story uses the motif of alienation in order to convey the destructive impact of Rappaccini's experiment. The narrator repeatedly emphasizes the "solitude" of the garden, most significantly when Giovanni and Beatrice discover that he, too, has become poisonous:
Unlock with LitCharts A+They stood, as it were, in an utter solitude, which would be made none the less solitary by the densest throng of human life.
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