Hawthorne’s “Rappacini’s Daughter” and “The Birthmark” have many similar elements, such as the central theme, the main characters, and the story’s ending. However, despite the significant similarities between the female characters of Beatrice and Georgiana, the dynamics and direction of their development differ. This paper will look at the features of the stories and characters of Beatrice and Georgiana to demonstrate their main differences with the same ending of their stories.
Hawthorne’s stories are very similar as they both tell about two ambitious scientists who made their beloved women victims of their experiments. The features of the female characters are also very similar. First, as Elbert notes, Beatrice and Georgiana are both under the supervision of men who restricts their territory and pronounce their judgments in excellent tones (28). Moreover, in both cases, women love and admire their guardians and their achievements in science. Secondly, both women are compared to nature and victims of the dominant men’s influence, since they who objectify them by desire make them perfect (Shelton 9). The only difference is that Georgiana’s husband wants to correct nature’s imperfection, and Beatrice’s father wants to use its forces to make his daughter invulnerable. As a result, both women suffer and die at the hands of men who applied a mechanical view of nature and tried to manipulate its forces to their advantage (Petersheim 39). Thus, the main similarities between Beatrice and Georgiana are their dependent position as objects and their victimization.
Other less significant details, which, however, play a role in the stories, also bring Beatrice and Georgiana together. For example, Beatrice and Georgiana both do not get the love they deserve, which becomes fatal for them. Beatrice has not received enough paternal love since childhood because her father devotes all his time to science and practically does not speak to his daughter and perceives her as an object of experiments (Sugara 26-27). Simultaneously, although Georgiana has a meaning and influence on her husband, for example, he admires her singing and beauty, his obsession with science and aversion to the birthmark makes a woman feel unworthy (Jha 2). For this reason, Beatrice has such strong feelings for the only man who shows love for her, and Georgiana agrees to remove the birthmark to be better for her husband (Hawthorne “Rappaccini’s Daughter” 19-20; Hawthorne, “The Birthmark” 2). In addition, Beatrice and Georgiana were submissive, intelligent, and beautiful women and performed typically feminine roles, since, despite their constant involvement in science, men did not give them much knowledge (Nirwinastu et al. 157). Consequently, these features characterize Beatrice and Georgiana and the position of women in society at that time in general.
However, such key features as the motives to take a treatment that killed Beatrice and Georgiana demonstrate significant differences in their characters’ development. Even though both women died due to the men’s ambitions, the factors that contributed to the ending and the behavior of the heroines were different. Beatrice was born an ordinary beautiful girl and throughout her life became unacceptable to society due to her father’s experiments. In other words, her character was shaped by her father; however, the desire to be part of society was not lost. Moreover, at a young age, after meeting Giovanni, Beatrice realized what love and social relationships meant, which made her oppose her father. The pressure of another man, Giovanni, played a decisive role in Beatrice’s death, since she basically changed the dominance of one man to another. However, the desire to end her father’s experiment was a challenge for the submissive Beatrice and a new step in the development of her character.
At the same time, Georgiana was brought up in an ordinary family and understood the importance of society, love, and feelings in a woman’s life. Georgiana and Aylmer loved each other, and at the beginning of their marriage, Aylmer did not notice his wife’s birthmark, and she did not worry about it. However, Georgiana’s relationship with her husband and his obsession with the birthmark made the woman feel imperfect, ugly, and not good enough for her husband (Hawthorne, “The Birthmark” 2). Aylmer’s influence led to the woman’s self-worth, and belief in her own beauty was replaced by doubt. For this reason, Georgiana drank the medicine that killed her as she did not want to upset her husband with her flaw. Consequently, Georgiana’s story demonstrates a degradation and complete submission to the will of her husband.
Consequently, despite the significant similarities between Beatrice and Georgiana and the same lethal finale of women’s stories, their developmental lines have different progress. Although Beatrice remained a weak and objectified woman dominated by men, she discovered a new side of her personality and resisted her father’s influence. At the same time, Georgiana completely submitted to her husband’s will and died due to his obsession and ambition. Both heroines deserve scorn and sympathy as they have become victims of the dominant men’s influence and obsession with their desires and interests. At the same time, if one considers the historical context of the stories, they will notice that such submission of women was typical at that time and that the behavior of the heroines was not unique, unlike the conditions in which they found themselves.
In conclusion, comparing Beatrice and Georgiana’s female characters demonstrates that the women in both stories share many similarities due to the conditions men have created for them. Psychological and physical influences led both heroines to decisions that brought them their death because of their men’s ambitions. However, Beatrice’s developmental progress was more significant due to her attempts to influence her destiny, while Georgiana completely submitted to her husband’s wishes.
References
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Hawthorne, Nathaniel. Rappaccini’s Daughter. 1844. Public Domain.Web.
Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The Birthmark. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1846. Web.
Jha, Gopal Kumar. “A Thematic Study of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Works: A Review.” Research Chronicler: International Multidisciplinary Refereed Peer Reviewed Indexed Research Journal, vol. VIII, no. VII, 2020, pp. 1-4.
Nirwinastu, Diksita Galuh, Isti’anah, Arina and Wijanarka, Hirmawan. Revisiting Race, Class, and Gender in Literature and Language. A Collection of A.B. Sri Mulyani, Ph.D.’s Articles. Hak Cipta, 2020.
Petersheim, Steven. Rethinking Nathaniel Hawthorne and Nature: Pastoral Experiments and Environmentality. Rowman & Littlefield, 2020.
Shelton, Olivia, “Hawthorne’s Beautiful Women and Hideous Men: Ecofeminism in ‘The Birthmark’ and ‘Rappaccini’s Daughter’. ” Scholars Week 2, 2020. Web.
Sugara, Edwin. Giovanni’s Type of Love Seen Through His Point of View in Beatrice’s Character in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Rappaccini’s Daughter.2013. Skripsi (Bachelor) Thesis. Sanata Dharma University.