Rappaccini’s Saboteur

Perseus with the Head of Medusa by Benvenuto Cellini

I will take a step back from our course’s chronology to propose an alternate interpretation of Hawthorne’s Rappaccini’s Daughter, a story I greatly enjoyed at face-value but believe hides a wildly divergent – and subversive – meaning.

My interpretation centers on Signor Pietro Baglioni, Giovanni Guasconti’s mentor, and the crucial role his rivalry with Rappaccini plays in the tale.

Rivalry is, without a doubt, a theme in Rappaccini’s Daughter: between a protective father and a potential lover, between scientist and nature, and between research via legitimate academic channels versus occult practices. The theme of rivalry is most poignant in the dynamics between Rappaccini and Baglioni, for instance when Baglioni responds testily to Giovanni’s question of whether Rappaccini’s obsessive love of science “is it not a noble spirit? Are there many men capable of so spiritual a love of science?” (Hawthorne, Rappaccini’s Daughter)

Two seemingly throw-away details come to light as crucial elements through which to explore this rivalry. The first is a warning from the narrator for Giovanni – and us – not to place blind trust in Baglioni’s words:

“The youth 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, Rappaccini’s Daughter)

The second is the vessel that carries the antidote created by Baglioni to neutralize Beatrice: a silver vase created by Benvenuto Cellini. Aside from being one of the greatest Florentine artists during the Mannerist period, Cellini is also remembered in history books as a liar, a rapist, a murderer and a ruthless competitor.

His autobiography marks him as supremely arrogant and assured of his greatness above that of his peers. He candidly narrates the lengths he sought to undercut rival artists, like Pompeo da Milano, whom he murdered. Lest anyone think of this rather entrepreneurial decision to off a competitor as an isolated event, Cellini had killed three people before him.

Hervey Cleckley, the godfather of studies on psychopathy (his 1941 work The Mask of Sanity: An Attempt to Clarify Some Issues About the So-Called Psychopathic Personality remains unparalleled in the field) labelled Cellini as the historical artist that most closely falls within the definition of a pyschopath:

“In the lives of many painters, sculptors, poets and other writers who have gained a place in history we find reports of inconsistency and irresponsibility that sometimes do suggest the typical psychopath. Benvenuto Cellini, whose story has been recorded in such detail by his own hand, seems in more respects, perhaps, than any other creative artist who gained lasting renown to have followed a pattern similar to that of my patients.” (Cleckley, The Mask of Sanity)

So it may not be a stretch to theorize that when Baglioni delivers a potion to ‘cure’ Beatrice in a vase sculpted by Cellini, what he is really doing is kicking off a plan to sabotage his greatest rival by murdering his daughter. How easy would it have been for this competent scientist to concoct a lethal mixture capable of killing Beatrice, Rappaccini’s greatest achievement and weapon?

Outside of this interpretation, Baglioni’s character seems superfluous at best. He is included in the story only to warn Giovanni of Rappaccini’s evil nature, even though we’ve been advised not to trust him. Why then, is this secondary character so deserving of delivering the final denouement? He appears so suddenly, so unaccountably, and speaks in such righteous fashion! “Rappaccini! Rappaccini! and is THIS the upshot of your experiment!” he says, ‘in a tone of triumph mixed with horror,’ framing it as an exclamation rather than a question. (Hawthorne, Rappaccini’s Daughter)

Should this interpretation bear any weight, it becomes fascinating that, in this tale of terribly faulty humans, it is Baglioni that comes across as the one and only truly evil one!