The Characterization of Beatrice
Beatrice does not have the right to express her feeling. Her father never wants to know what actually she wants to do; he does not want to know her dreams in her
life. Her father also never talks to Beatrice, except about his medicinal plants in the garden. Dr. Rappacini just needs Beatrice when his medicinal plants need her
nurse. It is proved in the quotation: ―I know not how this dearly this physician may love his art; but surely
there is one object more dear to him. He has a daughter.‖ ―But as for Rappacini, it is said of him and I, who know the man well, can
answer for its truth; that he cares infinitely more for science than for mankind. His patients are interesting to him only as subject for some new
experiment. He would sacrifice human life, his own among the rest, or whatever else was dearest to him, for the sake of adding so much as a
grain of mustard seed to the great heap of his accumulated knowledge.‖ p. 185
From the quotation above, it can be seen that her father loves science more than he loves her daughter. Another point that could be inferred from the
quotation is that the narrator sees Beatrice as a human by addressing Beatrice as a subject for Rappacinni‘s experiment. By addressing Beatrice as a victim of her
father‘s experiment, the narrator wants to show that Beatrice has been victimized despite the fact that she is Dr. Rappacinni‘s only daughter. This narrator‘s view of
Beatrice‘s dehumanization, when later is compared to Giovanni‘s view on Beatrice will serve as proof for the narrator‘s more human perspective on Beatrice.
From its omniscient position, the narrator explicitly reveals Beatrice not simply as a physical being, but as a complete human being and woman, capable of feeling
misery and of being reduced to nothing more than a scientific device. As the narrator sees her as a victim, it is shows that the narrator sees
Beatrice as a complete human. The narrator sees that Beatrice doesn‘t deserve
such an inhuman treatment, and made as an object of experiment. In other words, the narrator believes that Beatrice should be treated more affectionately as a
human because she is a human being. A father usually will do anything for his daughter‘s happiness.
Unfortunately, it does not happen in the relationship between Beatrice and her father. Her father just spends all his life for science. While he works with the
plants, Dr. Rappacini let Beatrice alone in the garden, without any friends. Beatrice does not have any friends to play with. As a father, he never does his
responsibilities to serve Beatrice. There is no communication that usually happens in the life of a father and his daughter.
The poor Beatrice is subject to her father‘s experiment. It can be seen in the quotation:
―He is a man fearfully acquainted with the secrets of nature, replied Beatrice and at the hour when I drew breath this plant sprang from the soil,
the offspring of his science of his intellect while I was but his earthy
child.‖ p. 206 The quotation above reveals how that Dr. Rappacini‘s love to his
experiment is so big. From the quotation above the writer of the thesis sees that, the narrator grasps the senses of Beatrice‘s trying to question about her existence.
The narrator shows Beatrice as a human, she is told to be thinking about her existence as if she is ―created‖ by Dr. Rappacinni. The narrator uses the words
―earthy child‖ to make a contrast on how Dr. Rappacinni loves his science and sees Beatrice just as a child, a human child. Earthy in
Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary means: concerned with the body, sex, etc. in an open and direct way
that some people find rude or embarrassing. Earthy have such a negative meaning,
it is more about physic than mind. Beatrice knows she‘s been treated as an earthy child
.
A.1.c. Relationship between Beatrice and the Plants
Dr. Rappacini has educated Beatrice to love plants since she was a child, and it makes her love the plants with all of her affection. It happens until she
becomes a teenager. Beatrice‘s habits in serving and nursing the plants, for a moment replace her father‘s love. Beatrice needs something that can fulfill her
loneliness. She wants someone to love her as her father loves his children commonly. He sacrifices his daughter to create his experiment of science.
Everyday, Dr. Rappaccini asks Beatrice to do some tasks in the garden. Beatrice has some duties to nurse and serve the plants in the garden. Beatrice will serve
everything that is needed by the plants. As a result, Beatrice is even more exposed to being poisonous herself by the poison that sprang from the plants. The poison is
so dangerous for the other human and the other living creature. The poison makes the other living creature dead. It is the result from his father‘s experiment in
science. Beatrice does not have friends to talk to. She only has the shrub in her
father‘s botanical garden to be her friend or her sister. Thus, as a human she often
feels lonely. She then will speak to the flowers to break up her solitude. There is a
mutual relationship between Beatrice and the flowers. The flowers do not only supply their pe
rfume for her, but also becomes her friend because she doesn‘t have any friends. So, Beatrice treats the flowers well. ―Yes, my sister, my
splendor, it shall be Beatrice‘s task to nurse and serve thee; and thou shalt reward her with thy kiss and perfumed b
reath, which to her is as the breath of life.‖ p.183. Beatrice treats the flower tenderly. Her treatment toward them shows that
actually Beatrice is a tender woman. ―Then, with all the tenderness in her manner that was so strikingly expressed in her words, she busied herself with such
attentions as the plant seemed to require.‖ p.183. She likes kissing the flower and inhaling the perfume. She treats them well because she needs them, she needs
their poison. Approaching the shrubs, she threw open her arms, as with passionate ardor,
and drew its branches into a intimate embrace – so intimate that her
features were hidden in its leafy bosom and her glistening ringlets all intermingled with the flowers.‖ p.188
Friendship is one kind of the relationship among human beings. Friendship is very useful activity to make our lives more interesting and meaningful. As a human, if
we have no friends or someone to talk we can feel lonely. That is the consequence being a human. We are not individual but social beings so we need to make
friends, we need to socialize with others and it also happens with Beatrice. Beatrice does not have friends to talk to and it makes her feel lonely. She even
made a flower as her friend. The narrator finds it proper to position Beatrice as a complete human with all of the human aspects that she has, she can feel lonely
and needs a friend. Because she does not have friends, Beatrice also grows to be a shy person.
She feels ashamed when she once has a chance to meet other people. For example, Beatrice is expressively ashamed after receiving a bouquet from Giovanni, ―…
she lifted the bouquet from the ground, and the, as if inwardly ashamed at having
stepped aside from her maidenly reserve to respond to a stranger‘s greeting,…‖ p.189. She does not have any experience to face other people.
Another basic human aspect that the narrator reveals in Beatrice is
Beatrice‘s craving for affection. One of human needs is love and feeling of
belonging that can be fulfilled by having relationship with other people. To show the reader about Beatrice‘s feeling as a human when she falls in love and have a
relationship with other, the narrator introduced another character named Giovanni. Giovanni Guasconti is a young man from the southern region of Italy; he came to
Padua to continue his study at the University of Padua ―A young man, named Giovanni Guasconti, came, very long ago, from the more southern region of Italy,
to purse his studies at the University of Padua.‖ p. 179 a young man named Giovanni is the first person that Beatrice knows beside her father. Other
Beatrice‘s characteristics appear when she meets him. The way Beatrice responds to Giovanni‘s attendance shows her friendly and warm character. She receives his
attendance well, although, she feels a little bit ashamed toward him p.195. However she can overcome the feeling and she knows how to greet politely to the
stranger. Beatrice is happy for having an opportunity to know him and to have relationship with him. In her relationship with Giovanni, Beatrice shows her
dependence on Giovanni. Thus, Beatrice does not want to be left by Giovanni for a long time.
In her relationship with Giovanni, she also shows her heroic character. Beatrice expresses her attention to Giovanni by preventing him to touch the
poisonous flowers. The flowers are dangerous for him.
―He made a step toward the shrubs with extended hand, but Beatrice darted forward, uttering a shriek that went through his heart like a dagger.
She caught his hand and drew it back with the whole force of her slender figure. p.197
After Giovanni comes, everything has changed. The attentions that Giovanni brings make her happy:
―The tinge of passion that had colored Beatrice‘s manner vanished; she became gay, and appeared to derive a pure delight from her communion
with the youth not unlike what maiden of a lonely island might have felt
conversing with a voyager from the civilized world.‖ p. 196 From the description above we can see that the Giovanni‘s attention makes
her very happy. The sadness and loneliness that always accompany her has disappeared. After Giovanni comes, Beatrice becomes the happiest person in the
world. The love that she feels to Giovanni throws away all of the sadness and loneliness in her life. For the first time in her life, Beatrice falls in love. From the
quotation above, the author also want to shows the reader that Beatrice is capable of feeling good, she is like other human, capable of feeling love. All of the
happiness that she dreams in her life is found in Giovanni. Beatrice does not only find a friend but also love in her life for the first time in her life. It can be seen in
the quotation: ―Her spirit gushed out before him like a fresh rill that was just catching its
first glimpse of the sunlight and wondering at the reflections of earth and sky which were flung into its bosom. There came thoughts too, from a
deep source, and fantasies of a gemlike brilliancy, as if diamonds and
rubies sparkled upward among the bubbles of the fountain.‖ p.197 The quotatio
n above tells us that spirit appears clearly in Beatrice‘s face.
From many quotations above, we can see Beatrice is just like other girls in her youth, except the fact that she is a poisonous girl. Beatrice acted like other
human, she can fell sad, lonely and fall in love: ―She was human; her nature was endowed with all gentle and feminine
qualities; she was worshipped; she was capable, surely, on her part of the height and heroism of love. Whatever had looked ugly was now beautiful;
or; if incapable of such a change, it stole away and hid itself among those shapeless half ideas which throng the dim region beyond the daylight of
our perfect consciousness.‖ p. 198 This quotation above also showed as if the author understands the
complexity of a girl fal ling in love, the narrator want to show Beatrice‘s feeling as
a human when she fall in love. As a human Beatrice also can express her feeling that she loves Giovanni
very much. She just wants to be with him although she is a ―poisonous person‖ and she does
n‘t want to hurt Giovanni with her poison: I dreamed only to love thee and be with thee a little time, and so let the
pass away, leaving but thine imagine in mine heart: for Giovanni, believe it, though my body be nourished with poison, my spirit is God‘s creature,
and craves love as its daily food. p. 208
This quote showed Beatrice as human, as a God‘s creature, she also need a love, she also want to be loved by other.
The implication of the various quotations above is that the narrator of the story always positions Beatrice as a complete woman. She is always described as
a woman who, like human in general, is capable of knowing that she has been treated merely like an object of experiment, she is capable of feeling lonely, and
of fall in love. By showi ng Beatrice‘s human characteristic, the author brings alert
its perspective of how every one should have treated Beatrice.
Drawing from the contrast of the narrator‘s perspectives and Giovanni‘s perspectives on Beatrice will lead to the idea about Giovann
i‘s type of love for Beatrice.
B . Beatrice from Giovanni’s Point of View
From the beginning of the story, Giovanni only sees Beatrice‘s physical appearance; he is attracted to Beatrice because of a Beatrice‘s youthful and
beautiful face. Giovanni sees Beatrice for the first time in the garden and he is always thinking about Beatrice‘s beautiful face:
Giovanni, closing the lattice, went on to his couch and dreamed a rich flower and beautiful girl. Flower and maiden were different, and yet the
same, and fraught with some strange peril in either shape. p. 184
From quote above, Giovanni already characterized Beatrice as beautiful girl and this is make Giovanni attracted to her because Beatrice‘s physical appearance.
On their second meeting, Giovanni still sees Beatrice‘s physical
appearance rather than observe Beatrice‘s character. Unlike the narrator who sees Beatrice as a complete human, Giovanni has only seen one side of her, as seen in
the following quotation: On again beholding Beatrice, the young man was even startled to perceive
how much her beauty exceeded his recollection of it; so brilliant, so vivid, was it character, that she glowed amid the sunlight, and as Giovanni
whispered to himself, positively illuminated the more shadowy intervals of the garden path. p. 187
When Giovanni waits for Beatrice in the garden, he also sees a lizard dies because of the poison on Beatrice body, because he failed see Beatrice as a human,
he doubted Beatrice as an ordinary beautiful young girl or something horrible p. 188:
But Giovanni, out of the shadow of his window, bent forward and shrank back, and murmured and trembled. ―Am I awake? Have I my sense?‖ said
he to himself. ―What is this being? Beautiful shall I call her, or inexpressibly terrible?‖ p.188
G iovanni‘s utterance on Beatrice ―what is this being?‖ shows that for him
Beatrice is not yet a human. Being here means a thing or a creature. From the quotation above the writer of this thesis thinks that Giovanni only sees Beatrice as
an object because he compares Beatrice with the two concepts that remain on physical condition of Beatrice; beautiful or terrible. He reduces Beatrice‘s
existence as a human by thinking that Beatrice is either a beautiful creature or a terrible creature, two opposite roles which both remains only on the physical
realm of Beatrice.
Giovanni also sees the bouquet of flowers that he gives to Beatrice suddenly wither in Beatrice‘s gasp, and again he is scared and fails to see Beatrice
as a human being p.189: For many days after the incident the young man avoided the window that
looked into Dr. Rappaccini‘s garden, as if something ugly and monstrous would have blasted his eyesight and he been betrayed into glance. He felt
conscious of having put himself, to a certain extent, within the influence of an unintelligible power by the communication which he had opened with
Beatrice. p. 190
The quotation above shows how Giovanni thinks and feels about Beatrice when
he sees Beatrice as poisonous person for the first time. He even avoids seeing the garden where Beatrice stays for several days because he was afraid something
ugly and monstrous like Beatrice might come out from the garden.
Although Giovanni is scared of Beatrice, he is also curious about her; he wants to meet Beatrice very much and talks with her for a long time. He is
possessed by the beauty of Beatrice. Also as a medical student he maybe curious with the poison in Beatrice body and want to know it to solve the riddle about
himself as a human ―Day after day his pulses had throbbed with feverish blood at the improbable idea of an interview with Beatrice, and of standing with her, face
to face, in this very garden, basking in the Oriental sunshine of her beauty, snatching from her full gaze the mystery which he deemed the riddle of his own
existence‖ p. 194 The first interview is continued with other interviews. They, then often
have meetings and the meetings become such routine activities for Giovanni and Beatrice:
After the first interview, a second was in the inevitable course of what we call fate. A third; a fourth; and a meeting with Beatrice in the garden was
no longer an incident in Giovanni‘s daily life. p. 199 The same condition happens to Beatrice, ―Nor was it otherwise with the daughter
of Rappacinni.‖ p. 199 Giovanni decides to see Beatrice every time they have a time to meet, he
makes friend with Beatrice then he also attracted to Beatrice. Giovanni is obsess with Beatrice but also feel something horror when he thinking of Beatrice, still he
feels a thrill because Beatrice‘s beauty, this quotation shows Giovanni feeling
about Beatrice: It was not love, although her rich beauty was a madness to him; nor horror,
even while he fancied spirit to be imbued with the same baneful essence that seemed to pervade her physical frame; but a wild offspring of both
love an horror that had each parent in it, and burned like one and shivered like the other. p. 190
This quotation shows how the rich beauty of Beatrice still attracted Giovanni and it was madness to him, he confused with his feeling toward Beatrice. He was
unable to define what his feeling is. Yet, as the narrator reveals, it was essentially not love for Giovanni.
Because he always meets Beatrice in the garden a place where the poison flowers also planted in the garden, there is something strange with Giovanni, the
poison in Beatrice‘s body also infect him, and this makes his breath contain a poison that can kill a spider. He is very angry and upset with Beatrice; he even
says Beatrice is a cursed one because he thinks Beatrice has infected him: ―Accursed one‖ cried he, with venomous scorn and anger. ―and, finding
thy solitude wearisome, thou hast severed me into thy region of unspeakable horror‖ p. 206
Giovanni even calls Beatrice as a poisonous thing, a thing or a creature that contains poisons not a human because he was mad at Beatrice and blame her
for the poison in his breath. He thinks Beatrice has infected him with the poison in her body, make him like her also ―Yes, poisonous thing‖ repeated Giovanni,
beside himself with passion. ―Thou hast done it Thou hast blasted me Thou hast filled me with poison Thou hast made me as hateful, as ugly, as loathsome and
deadly creature as thyself – a world‘s wonder of hideous monstrosity‖ p. 207
The poiso n in Giovanni‘s body actually is not because of the poison in
Beatrice‘s body but the poison in the flowers in the garden, Beatrice has explained it to him but he is still angry. If one falls in love, He or she must accept his or her
couple, for who they a re and what they choose to do, but Giovanni can‘t accept
what happened with him and Beatrice, he is only attracted to Beatrice because she is beautiful, because of her physical beauty. Giovanni responds to her only as a
physical being and fails to understand her as a real person.