Rappaccini's Garden of Allegory

Abstract

N HIS WRY PREFACE to Rappaccini's Daughter, Hawthorne inI dulges in transparent bit of deception, viewing himself in third person and recounting some objections to his work. main one has to do with inveterate love of allegory, which is apt to invest his plots and characters with aspect of scenery and people in clouds, and to steal away human warmth out of his conceptions. M. de l'Aubepine's work, we are told, has little to do with actuality: he generally contents himself with the faintest possible counterfeit of real life, though occasionally a breath of nature, raindrop of pathos and tenderness, or gleam of humor, will find its way into midst of his fantastic imagery, and make us feel as if, after all, we were yet within limits of our native earth.' Much has been written about Hawthorne's conception of romance, and various prefaces to his novels have been examined for what light they shed on his practice. Thus we are familiar with famous passage in The Custom-House in which Hawthorne speaks of artist's need for a neutral territory, somewhere between real world and fairyland, where Actual and Imaginary may meet, and each imbue itself with nature of other.2 Yet as far as I know, preface to Rappaccini's Daughter has been more or less ignored, and relation of story itself to Hawthorne's problems as an artist uncomprehended.