touched only with a glove, nor to be approached without a mask."(pg.259) Beatrice's beauty is as exaggerated and unnatural as that of the flowers. Because she shares the poisonous nature with the purple plant, she is the single person who can safely tend to it.
             When Giovanni Guasconti first lays his eyes on the garden of Giacomo Rappacini, he describes it as " ... one of those botanic gardens which were of an earlier date in Padua than elsewhere in Italy or in the world." Giovanni continues his observations, judging that "... it might once have been the pleasure-place of an opulent family...."(pg.258) This is a powerful reference to the Garden of Eden which, in fact, was the first garden in the world and the pleasurable habitat of a family, Adam and Eve. Rappaccinni's garden is isolated from the rest of Padua and no one except its creator and its dwellers has ever entered it, just like the original Garden. As God's flowers and trees magically grew without human care, Rappaccinni's plants were magical in their exaggerated beauty and poisonous power.
             Some of the thematic points are altered. Where the Garden of Eden is a paradise whose very nature concentrates life, the Garden of Padua is a death-trap for all living forms. Any insect or reptile drawn to the sweet smell of the flowers instantly dies upon entering the garden and inhaling the fatal aroma. Another twist of the original plot is that life in the Garden of Eden meant peace and joy while in the Hawthorne's garden it meant solitude and shame. Adam and Eve were forced to leave their first home after committing their sin while, Beatrice and Giovanni were willing to risk their lives to exit their.
             The role and character of Giacomo Rappaccinni is another thematic point some of whose aspects are retained and some altered. He is the creator of the Garden of Padua and the varieties of plants cultivated in it, making his role ...