, along
with Herman Melville, is considered to
be one of the primary novelists of the Romantic movement
in American
literature; Walt Whitman most exemplifies this movement in poetry. Hawthorne's
short
story "" also exhibits many of the characteristics associated with the
Romantic
movement.
First, the story promotes the idea that
the individual is more
important than society. Clearly Doctor Rappaccini
acted in his own self-interest when he
conducted a deadly experiment with his
daughter, Beatrice. Though he tells Beatrice he did
everything to make her
into some kind of super-human being, we understand that she was really
just
part of his grand experiment rather than a daughter he loved.
Second,
in this story nature is used to reveal truth, which is one of the
elements of Romanticism.
Everything in this story is a lie except what the
plants in the garden reveal; though Rappaccini
has...
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