Word: rappaccini
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...occasions when Mellow attempts a more penetrating analysis, his conclusions are disappointingly banal. In his discussion of Hawthorne's early tales, he paraphrases "Rappaccini's Daughter" at some length, only to prove that the author "was fascinated by the ambiquity and deceptiveness of evil"--an insight which any student would reach after 15 minutes of reading...
...GARDEN of poisonous plants, Dr. Rappaccini plots the second genesis. He has given life to new species of herbs more deadly than hemlock. Each shrub he cultivates is a hybrid of poison and medicinal, each plant developed as a result of his devotion to science, Dr. Rappaccini's most perfect--and most fatal--creation is his daughter, the beautiful Beatriz. She is a symbol of man's inventiveness to rival Pygmalia. The only mother Beatriz can claim is Curiosity; she knows she belongs body and soul to her father. Her breath poison, her tears acid, Beatriz lures the new Adam...
...Rappaccini's daughter embodies all her father's designs and more: innocently guilty, guiltily innocent, she is death in life, life in death; simultaneously poison and antidote. Despite her beauty and naivete, Beatriz is also the perversion of many myths. The forbidden fruit, she is an Italian Beatrice who leads a young man into an inferno, the Christfigure whose father shouts "My child, why have you forsaken me?" This Beatriz not only represents a reworking of past myths, she is also a symbol of moderns. As a solitary prisoner of her condition, she is doomed in her passion for another...
...tilt. Later, behind Beatriz drinking from the vial, the tree looms like a crucifix. The lighting (designed by James Meyer) creates an illusion of transparency as the Messenger blends in and out of patches of light. Although the set (designed by Elizabeth Clark) allows Juan to fall into Rappaccini's garden from his garret, it also places the needlessly realistic bedroom distractingly in the center, at eye level...
...wanders; the set distracts partially because of the acting and staging, partially because of the play itself. Rappaccini's Daughter is very much a play for the ear. The emphasis is on language rather than dramatic development. The play was translated by the production staff with the help of Mr. Paz. Although the English may not be as lush as the original Spanish, the translation is quite smooth except for a few howlers. It's a much happier genesis than any Dr. Rappaccini ever attended...