Scientific Rationalism and Reputation in Hawthorne’s “Rappaccini’s Daughter”

During the 18^th century, the Enlightenment and scientific rationalism flourished throughout the Western world. Their focus on empirical evidence and experimentation was celebrated as a departure from the impractical and unproven myths of centuries before: humans could now know the world as it truly is. Nevertheless, there were soon detractors who argued that the system of thought developed by Enlightenment thinkers was actually destroying mankind. Proponents of the Romantic Movement contended that importance should be placed on essence rather than existence because there is knowledge that cannot be gleaned from observation alone. They decried this senseless pursuit of knowledge that ignored the intrinsic worth of human beings, placing them below science. Nathaniel Hawthorne, a 19^th century transcendentalist, became a strong opponent of the Enlightenment. Hawthorne criticizes the Enlightenment in his short story “Rappaccini’s Daughter” through Rappaccini by suggesting that scientific rationalism did not free modern man but rather chained him to the desire for reputation and in doing so caused the horrors of the world.

Since social man is shackled to reputation, he can never be truly happy because he is always toiling to be viewed as the best. As a consequence of its emphasis on empirics, modern society is based on existence rather than essence: what a person appears to be like is what he or she is seen to be. Thus, the treatment of people in society is based on reputation, and not the true nature of each person.  This inevitably requires that the primary goal of individuals be to either uphold or better their reputation so that they can improve their social standings. Jean-Jacques Rousseau explores this idea in his work, A Discourse on Inequality. As Rousseau contends, “…this universal desire for reputation, honours, and promotions…devours us all” (133). Man is obsessed with maintaining his social status. However, modern human beings are never satisfied with their lot: “Civil man…being always active, sweating and restless, torments himself in search of ever more laborious occupations” (Rousseau 136). Apply this to their achievements, and they will continually strive to become more and more respected, disregarding any cost that would prevent them from advancing in the reputation which puts them in the realm of civilized society.

Modern man is comparable to the philosopher king in Plato’s Parable of the Cave in that he sees himself as enlightened and freed from the chains of savagery. After the development of scientific rationalism, man believes that knowledge is only attainable through experimentation. Once man obtains knowledge of the world, “he will then proceed to argue that this is he who gives the season and the years and is the guardian of all that is in the visible world, and in a certain way the cause of all things which he and his fellows have been accustomed to behold” (Plato 226). The people of modern society, like the philosopher king, believe that because they have unraveled the intricacies of the universe, they are superior to natural man because they have been freed from ignorance. As Plato explains, “when he remembered his old habitation, and the wisdom of the den and his fellow-prisoners… he would felicitate himself on the change, and pity them” (226). Not only does the enlightened member of society pity the ignorant, he looks down upon them. Those who know more about the workings of the world are held in higher esteem than those who know less; those who are right are venerated while those who are wrong are scorned as ignorant. The former are the enlightened who have freed themselves from the cave, and the latter are the unrefined savages who are still trapped in the darkness. It is every person’s aspiration to be deemed the most knowledgeable.

In Hawthorne’s “Rappaccini’s Daughter,” Rappacini is chained to his desire to be seen as an authority in his field of botany, stopping at nothing to achieve this goal. Like his fellow man, Rappaccini desires to be viewed as more advanced than his peers. In order for this to be true, he must always outperform his fellow scientists: “[Giovanni] might have taken Baglioni’s opinions with many grains of allowance had he known that there was a professional warfare of long continuance between him and Dr. Rappaccini, in which the latter was generally thought to have gained the advantage” (Hawthorne 68). Thus, Rappaccini is continually experimenting to be at the forefront of botanical studies, taking no notice of any adverse side-effects of his research. As Hawthorne states, “But as for Rappaccini, it is said of him… that he cares infinitely more for science than for mankind… He would sacrifice human life, his own among the rest, or whatever else was dearest to him….” (68). Throughout the short story, he ignores the detrimental effect his experiments have on his daughter, Beatrice, and her lover, Giovanni, until finally Beatrice dies. At the terminal point in the narrative, Rappaccini pays the ultimate price for his research: “Professor Pietro Baglioni looked forth from the window, and called loudly… to the thunderstricken man of science— ‘Rappaccini! Rappaccini! and is this the upshot of your experiment!’” (Hawthorne 92). Beatrice was the only thing Rappaccini loved besides his science, so by sacrificing her for the sake of data, Rappaccini has destroyed his own world. In this way, Hawthorne shows how man, far from being liberated after leaving the cave, actually runs toward the chains of the reputation which compels him to overlook the sufferings of others in order to uphold his reputation.

            After leaving the cave in Plato’s parable, man thinks himself the paradigm of freedom and sophistication because he has discovered the inner workings of the universe, but, in reality, he has boxed himself into his desire to be respected as an intelligent, erudite expert. Society is based on reputation, which, as Rousseau maintains, is based on outside appearances. Man is incessantly seeking to prove himself correct through statistics and hard facts. Rappaccini is, then, the perfect image of man, who in his obsession with attaining admiration through scientific rationalism devastates the world in which he lives. By depicting Rappaccini as modern man, Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “Rappaccini’s Daughter” serves as a dire warning to mankind, alerting it to its alarming fixation on empirics based reputation.