Beatrice’s love interest, Giovanni, represents Eve. Just as Eve was created to be a companion for Adam, Giovanni was selected as a mate for Beatrice. “My daughter,’ said Rappaccini, ‘thou art no longer lonely in the world. Pluck on of those precious gems from thy sister shrub and bid thy bridegroom wear it in his bosom. It will not harm him now” (Hawthorne, 290) Rappaccini tells his daughter to give Giovanni and poisonous flower because it will not hurt him since he is her bridegroom just as God places Eve in the garden with Adam to be his wife. Also, Eve dealt directly with the devil, Adam never did. In “Rappaccini’s Daughter” Giovanni deals directly with Baglioni, and Beatrice never does (Baglioni represents the Devil in this story). “I know little of Signora Beatrice save that Rappaccini is said to have instructed her deeply in his science” (Hawthorne, 279) Baglioni is talking to Giovanni, expressing his little knowledge of Beatrice, just as the Devil knew little of Adam. Finally, Giovanni is like Eve in the sense that she brought the forbidden fruit to Adam, and he brought the antidote to Beatrice. When the devil temps Eve to eat the fruit off of the forbidden tree, Eve has Adam eat it. Baglioni gives the antidote (which symbolizes the fruit) to Giovanni and has him give it to Beatrice to drink. “Behold this little silver vase. It was wrought by the hand of the renowned Benvenuto Cellini, and is well worthy to be a love gift to the fairest dame in Italy. But its contents are invaluable. One little sip of this antidote would have rendered the most virulent poisons of the Borgias innocuous” (Hawthorne, 287). Baglioni is explaining to Giovanni that that a sip of the antidote will cure Beatrice of all her poisons, it instead kills her. Just as the devil told Eve that the fruit was to make them like God, it instead killed them spiritually. For these reasons, Giovanni represents Eve.
Also in the story, Giacomo Rappaccini represents God. He creates the beautiful garden for Beatrice to live in just as God provided one for Adam. “Here, Beatrice,’ said the latter, ‘see how many needful offices require to be done to our chief treasure. Yet, shattered as I am, my life might pay the penalty of approaching it so closely as circumstances demand. Henceforth, I fear, this plant must be consigned to your sole charge’” (Hawthorne, 278). God created Eden and gave it to Adam to take care of, just as Rappaccini created the garden for Beatrice to watch over. Also, Rappaccini grants Beatrice and Giovanni with a marvelous gift. “Dost thou deem it misery to be endowed with marvelous gifts against which no power nor strength could avail and enemy…” (Hawthorne, 290). Rappaccini is asking Beatrice why she curses her gift when the gift itself is so powerful. Similarly, God gave the gift of everlasting life to Adam and Eve as long as they did not sin. Lastly, the tones Hawthorne use to describe Rappaccini are somber yet reverent. “His figure soon emerged into view, and showed itself to be that of no common laborer, but a tall, emaciated, sallow, and sickly looking man, dressed in a scholar’s garb of black…with gray hair, a thin, gray beard, and a face singularly marked with intellect and cultivation” (Hawthorne, 276). Hawthorne describes as a dark and gloomy figure, but recognizes his intellect and show reverence towards it. Along with reverent tones, Rappaccini symbolizes God for these reasons.
Lastly, Pietro Baglioni represents the Devil. He continually displays a negative and evil image of Rappaccini to Giovanni. “He would sacrifice human life, his own among the rest, or whatever else was dearest to him, for the sake of adding so much as a grain of mustard seed to the great heap of his accumulated knowledge” (Hawthorne, 279). Similarly, the Devil attempts to lure Eve into disobedience by saying, “You shall surely not die! For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil” (Bible, 6). In both instances, Baglioni/Satan tries to create the illusion that Rappaccini/God is acting on his own interests. When Beatrice drinks the antidote and perishes, Baglioni calls out, “Rappaccini, Rappaccini! And this is the upshot of your experiment!” Baglioni is taunting Rappaccini just as the Devil taunted God when his Eden had been destroyed. Finally, unlike Rappaccini, Hawthorne uses unsympathetic tones when describing how other react towards Baglioni. “But Guasconti, finding Baglioni’s pertinacity intolerable, here broke away, and was gone before the professor could seize his arm” (Hawthorne, 282). Giovanni found Baglioni intolerable after he talked ill of Rappaccini. Also, in this next quote, Giovanni was very unhappy to see Baglioni. “A considerable time had now passed since Giovanni’s last meeting with Baglioni. One morning, however, his was disagreeably surprised by a visit from the professor, whom he had scarcely thought of for whole weeks, and would willingly have forgotten still longer. Given up as he had long been to a pervading excitement, he could tolerate no companions except under condition of their perfect sympathy with his present state of feeling. Such sympathy was not to be expected from Professor Baglioni” (Hawthorne, 286). Both of these quotes show Hawthorne’s negativity towards the character. Baglioni, as the symbol of evil in the story, represents the Devil.
“Rappaccini’s Daughter” can be interpreted many different ways. When looked at from an allegorical parallel to the fall of man in Genesis, certain characters from each story are strikingly similar. Giovanni represents Eve, Beatrice symbolizes Adam, Rappaccini parallels with God, and Baglioni compares to the Devil. In this modern retelling of Genesis, Hawthorne realistically portrays one of histories oldest stories in a manner of no other author.
