Symbolism has an exceptionally important role in the short story "Rappacini's Daughter" by Nathaniel Hawthorne. While reading the story, it seems that every object represents a different feeling or mood. Hawthorne has an incredibly unique way of establishing relationships between objects and people and it makes everyone want to keep reading. And they do.
             One of the most significant symbols in "Rappacini's Daughter" is the flowers. The flowers that are "so beautiful and deadly" (p48) have a huge role in this short story. The purple flower is so beautiful and tempting, but really, it is toxic. Signora Beatrice describes the purple flower as "fatal" (p52) when Giovanni reaches for it. The purple flowers are illuminating and draw people towards them. They are incredibly deceiving. In the short story, the flower is not only Beatrice's sister, but ends up being her murderer as well. Beatrice refers to the flower as her sister when she is put in charge of it. She says "Yes, my sister...it shall be Beatrice's task to nurse...thee" (p43). Giovanni remarks on the way Rappacini acts when he is in the garden, and especially when he is near the purple flower. When he walked past the plant "he placed a... mask over his mouth and nostrils, as if all this beauty did but conceal a deadlier malice." (p42) The reality of the "magnificent plant that hung its purple gems beside the marble fountain" (p42) shows another reason why people would be drawn towards the flower. Not only is there a beautiful and inviting flower, but there is a fountain. The fountain gives a pure feeling. Even though the fountain is a ruin, the water in it "continued to gush and sparkle into the sunbeams as cheerfully as ever." (p41) The fountain is described as "an immortal spirit, that sung its song unceasingly..." (p41). The scene of the fountain and the plant together...