The Lost Eden: An Interpretation of the Biblical Archetypes in Rappaccini’s Daughter

Abstract

Nathaniel Hawthorne was one of the greatest American writers in the 19th century. He pioneered American psychoanalytic novels and was the first writer to create short stories in American literary history. As one of the most representative short stories of Hawthorne, Rappaccini’s Daughter tells about a girl who grew up with her father’s poison falling in love with the hero who was then poisoned by touching the toxic plants during the process of their contact. Finally, the poor girl died in the hero’s relentless condemnation. Studies of Hawthorne and his works first appeared abroad in the 19th century, and in the early 20th century in China. Most researches focused mainly on three aspects: Hawthorne’s life, translation of his works and his literary characteristics. Based on Frye’s Biblical Archetypal Theory, this thesis tries to study and interpret the biblical archetypal narrative structure, the biblical archetypal characters and the biblical archetypal images in this short story.

The thesis consists of three parts. Part one briefly introduces Hawthorne and the short story. Part two expounds the Mythological Archetypal Theory and the Biblical Archetypal Theory. Part three focuses on the biblical archetypes used in the story from the narrative structure, main characters and images so as to further explore Hawthorne’s view on religion and science. 

Key words: Biblical Archetypal Theory; Rappaccini’s Daughter; narrative structure; characters; images